Winter Break is here!

It really is a winter break as it even snowed on our first day off from school!  We are having our 2 week well deserved break!  The past 3 weeks have been setting exams, marking exams and then writing reports for each and every student we teach including those in our form or tutor group (sort of a pastoral group each teacher is responsible for apart from the subject classes we teach).  

So we get the usual, "Thank you for the good report" as well as "You are mean" for those who did not get a glowing report.  I think in NZ reports do not always tell the truth about what is happening as we must be very PC (politically correct) about everything so we cannot be too frank but instead have to be a master at creative writing.  I learnt quite a few good sentences from more experienced colleagues.  My favourite is "So and so communicates very well but often not on the topic in hand" - which means your kid is a chatterbox which cannot be used of course!  

At least now I have a well deserved shot break before the next 10 weeks of Term 3!