Late Autumn Sun

I'm getting a bit bored with these silhouette shots and I wish I had a picture to better represent my day. However, from the moment I get into school in the morning I am non-stop and there is no chance of a blip. Today I left for work at 7.45, had staff briefing at 8.30, a child's parents wanted to speak to me at 8.45 and the bell went at 8.50.
I didn't manage a break during the morning, got 20 minutes during lunch and didn't stop all afternoon. My meeting after school finished at 5.45 and I had resources to prepare after that. I left school at 6.30 and continued to work when I got home.
I am so fed up with pupil performance percentages, school improvement plans, termly operational plans, self evaluation forms, appraisal proformas, data reports, baseline assessments... the list goes on. This is not why I became a teacher!
I don't have time to think about how to make my lessons exciting and creative, I can't sit and talk with a child, listen to them. Instead I'm making notes, taking photographs, observing, assessing, collecting evidence to contribute to data, where each child becomes simply a number. I am trying my best to remember why I love my job but today, for the first time in 9 years of teaching, I wondered whether it was still the job for me. I certainly won't be doing it until I'm 68!
Tomorrow I will be striking, not because I believe it will actually make a difference, but because I've had enough of the pressures and constraints that prevent teachers from doing what we should be doing; teaching.

Rant over!