9 jun 19

Dear All
They say a week is a long time in politics. Well, the same is true in
education when Ofsted decides to visit… but you don’t want to know
about that. So let’s talk about other far more important things like
ducklings. It never ceases to amaze me just how magnetic the
attraction of birds hatching from eggs really is. Suddenly
children develop bladder problems that need a regular visit to the
toilet (past the eggs of course) and they also seem to need a long
time to…well you know. Other children become super-helpful and
insist on taking things to the office (past the eggs of course) and it
is not unusual to see a group of 6 children carrying an incredibly
heavy register (we’ve all done our manual handling course they say
when challenged).
The incubator was connected and the eggs were scrambled and soon
enough the ducklings were breaking their way out.
For me, hatching is a miraculous process and I end up thinking how
on earth did that fit in there? I remember thinking this about our
own children. There is something incredibly mesmerising about
watching young creatures (I suppose children fall into this
category!) adjust to the world. What surprised many of us was how
quickly the ducklings were on their feet and, talking of feet, I had
no idea they would hatch with fully developed enormous webbed
feet. You literally learn something every day. I think ducklings
are a perfect way of providing an awe and wonder experience and
they are the perfect antidote for an Ofsted inspection too. Like
the children, I developed a serious bladder weakness and found
myself being a responsible adult, helping the children to carry
those really heavy registers.
“…microscopes, pangolins and ducklings. I don’t think we have ever used those words
before in one sentence…” Ofsted HMI