God Works In Mysterious Ways...

...His wonders to perform!

First day back at school after the much-needed half-term holiday. Needless to say, I was terrified I'd oversleep... which meant that I slept for about an hour and a half in total.

I got to school in plenty of time, but I had to photocopy two sets of SATs exam papers for my Year 9 classes' end-of-topic tests. The main photocopier took one "look" at the workload, and chewed up the papers in disgust. The reprographics technicians looked at the inside of the main photocopier, and promptly slapped a large "Out of Order" sign on it. I had to transfer to the second photocopier. This made me very popular with several of my colleagues who also needed to use the photocopier (not!) Then, my photocopy card ran out of credit...

I begged and pleaded... it wasn't pretty, but one of the technicians took pity on me and re-charged it.

Then I discovered that I was on the list to cover an absent colleague later on in the day...

I had no idea where the room was, so locating it took a little time. I finally found it, but there were no students in evidence... well, not inside the classroom. We have split lunch breaks, and a whole load of students were out in the sunshine enjoying themselves... I uncharitably surmised that some of them might have been taking advantage of the fact that a cover teacher wouldn't know who was supposed to be present at the lesson...

...a few minutes later I was berating myself for such uncharitable thoughts... a troupe of youngsters appeared carrying various folders, and assured me that they had been with another member of staff. I was a little sceptical, but the member of staff duly materialised. She explained that she'd decided to combine the two small music classes... and miracle of miracles, was happy to supervise both, so I was able to scoot off to do some marking!

Nice when that happens!