My year eight class normally has fourteen pupils, however by the end of today's lesson we had considerably less than that.

1128: One of the girls informs me that her friend is off sick and won't be in today. Thirteen left.

1129: A girl comes in and asks for some work because she's on reception monitor duty this morning. Twelve left.

1133: A latecomer arrives, I ask him if his fellow footballer is with him, apparently he was here earlier but mysteriously disappeared before the previous lesson never to be seen again. Eleven left.

1155: The latecomer is doing very little work and I warn him that if he doesn't do it now he'll have to stay at lunch to catch up. 'No I won't' he says and walks off down the corridor. Ten left.

1205: One of the girls is taken for her reading practice. Nine left.

1225: He-who-has-ADHD has to leave to take his tablet before lunch. Eight left.

1226: One of the girls with a disability leaves early as normal so she doesn't have to negotiate busy corridors. Seven left.

All-in-all a successful lesson.