Being told your inadequate is sure to bring up feelings of, well, inadequacy. When I was observed by the deputy head in April I had a nightmare lesson. The kids didn’t understand the work, the behaviour was worse than normal and I felt like jumping through the window and never coming back. At least then I would have scored highly for acrobatics – an important aspect of any maths lesson I'm sure you'll agree.

I’d been complaining just before that I didn’t like getting ‘satisfactory’ on my lessons observations because it’s such a banal word. I guess it goes to show: you should be careful what you wish for.