Most GCSEs are modular these day so quite often year tens will have to miss one lesson or another to complete an exam. This morning when I should have had my class the majority of them were sitting a Biology exam. The majority being twentynine out of thirtyone. I merged my group with the set below and took them to a computer room for maths game related fun. There were some pupils I'd taught before in the other class and I was disappointed to see that one of my year nines from last year had become a bit of a madam. As teachers we always seem to be trying to make the boys grow up a bit, while at the same time doing everything we can to prevent the girls from doing the same.
The other teacher was there for the first half of the lesson with me taking over later on. This was a mistake on my part as we hadn't realised the exam only lasted fortyfive minutes so fiften minutes before the end I suddenly had sixty fourteen and fifteen year olds under my command. I can barely manage to control one class let alone two. It wasn't too much of a problem though as year tens are capable of just standing round and talking quietly, unlike year sevens who seem to be on a constant mission to expend the same energy as a star going supernova.
Apparently the exam itself had been fairly tough going, though my pupils didn't use quite so many words to describe it. The Maths exam they'd had last week was much better. I think it must be down the standard of teaching they'd received. And making the exams too short to fill a lesson doesn't help either.
