Late Autumn in Auckland

I'm sat in our motel room again, trying to convince my code to connect to an Excel spreadsheet. (I'm doing an expense programme for Mrs. Willsy), and not having a lot of luck. I've got an awful feeling that one of the books I threw away to come here, had all the information in it that I needed.  Isn’t it always the way?  Well, I’ve learnt it all once, so I’m sure I can do it again.  It’s very fiddly using interops though, but you only have to do it once, and when you’ve got it right, it’s right forever.

I’ve had a look around the web at various things, and it would appear that the old school is hemorrhaging staff.  I wonder why that is?  Could it be something to do with management style?  As always, when the junta that run an establishment like the school begin to believe their own propaganda, then things are going to go from bad to worse, and it’s almost impossible to stop the slide.  When management notices that things are bad, it’s usually too late to stop them, and the ‘told you so’ from the trenches doesn’t help.

This new school that Mrs. Willsy is at seems a model of how to run a school properly.  The management follows all the things I learned in leadership school in the Navy, and they are so obvious that when they are pointed out to you, you shrug and say “I thought everyone knew that”.  These are things like giving praise where it’s due, when it’s due, and supporting peoples ideas, as well as a fairly open hand approach to budgets,  just to name but a few.  The trouble is that it’s very easy for a management team to think that they are important, and not just a steering mechanism.  The really bad thing about it is that at the old school, they seem to have forgotten that they are dealing with people, (if they ever knew that in the first place).

Far Away Friends

It was so good to hear from Cecile, (Alec’s mum).  She really is a lovely lady, and Alec is really at the start of a long successful road I’m sure. Cecile is one of those people that just seem to cheer you up when you meet them, so unassuming, and gracious in every sense of the word.  I really miss all of the people I left behind.  Goodbyes have been so much part of my life, since I joined the Navy, but they never get any easier.

We’re back in Okere Falls for the weekend, after a bit of a road trip through the Coromandel, (that was a place I used to read about when I was a kid), it was really impressive scenery, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

OK, back to my rant.  I see the HM has finally got round to writing another blog, after 6 months silence.  Still in PDF format though, you would think that the net wizards the school is paying for, would set up a real blog.  Maybe not, that would be far too technical.

As the time separation from the school gets longer, my memories get more and more fuzzy about it.  However, I will never ever forget the events that Mrs. Willsy and I were privileged to be part of at the school, such as the fantastic trip to Portsmouth with the Year 7s, and the day trip to Rome with the Legion.  It’s such a shame that these will never happen again, they could have grown into a real tradition at the school, but as always, the shortsightedness of the management foiled it all.  I believe that the classics department is in the doldrums with the new (old) teacher not being able to hold a candle to Mrs. Willsy.  Well she is a hard act to follow, as her present school keeps telling her, and the HM never seems to know what he’s got ‘till it’s gone, to quote an old song.

Right, back to work.  Keep watching this blog, and you never know, one of these days.....

Easter Holidays

Here we are, back in Auckland again.  It’s a short term though, only 10 weeks, and there’s a bank holiday in that.  We did a bit of travelling during the holidays, round the Hawkes Bay area, and then down to Feilding (yes that is the right spelling).  Back to the grindstone now though.  I had a look at the school website, and I noticed it’s still the same, no changes made at all, the HM’s blog is still from last November, and the school still offers the Legion and computer programming as activities.  I really do think it’s about time they woke up and fixed it, but from what I hear, they are in a lot worse trouble that an out-of-date website, with a staff turnover of about 15%.  One of the selling points offered to us was that the turnover of staff was zero, with retirements being the only loss.  There’s a common factor running through this, and it could be something to do with management.  Not that we care any more, we’re glad to be out of it, and judging from what I’ve heard, it was the best move we could have made. 

The school wrote us a very snippy letter about six weeks ago, asking for a bucket full of money to fix up the cottage we were staying in, and they wanted to charge us for cleaning carpets (they were so filthy when we moved in, we had to put rugs down to cover them), a broken bath (???), electricity and gas bills, which they have been paying for us as per their contract with us, and a lot of other things such as holes in the walls (I had got permission to hang pictures from the landlady), and for moving a lot of stuff that our so-called friends had promised to move for us – just as an aside on that, these people offered to buy all our furniture from us, but we haven’t seen a penny yet, and we really don’t expect to.  It just goes to show doesn’t it?  By the way, in case you’re thinking that this is sour grapes on my part, our contract with the school was that the school would provide accommodation for us ‘At no cost to yourselves’.  They have short memories don’t they?