Weekend over!

Another weekend been and gone! Managed to complete the TWO files of paperwork required to take 105 children and 14 adults on a day trip tomorrow! We're taking them to Blists Hill Victorian town and it should be interesting especially given that it seems to be a bit of a building site at present. Ah, well nothing can possibly go wrong - I've produced a 6 page risk assessment so it must be OK, together with the lists of every child and what coach they are on, which adult is responsible for which group of children, the insurance papers, the CRB checks on all the adults attending, the pro-forma for the county and the one for our internal office, checked all the permission slips from parents, checked the medical records of all the children attending and notified staff/adults of any relevant medical or dietary needs, confirmed the coaches, ordered the pounds, shillings and pence for the children from the museum, booked the room for lunch, arranged the rota for lunches as they can't fit us all in together, organised the first aid and sick buckets, (!) printed off maps of the town for the adults coming along and listed the main attractions they must take their group to see. I've notified the kitchens at school of one year group being out and made myself a note to collect a cheque from the school office before leaving to take with me. A text message this afternoon reminded me that I hadn't cancelled the football coaches who come in on a Monday afternoon to take groups of children for their games lessons from Year 6! Ah well, it wouldn't be a school trip if someone somewhere didn't get upset with me!!

I did manage to black the stove on board Khayamanzi today and also managed to get all the 'Incralac' off the brass mushroom vents and headlight which had started to go brown and horrid. Unfortunately, this was at the expense of a large pile of marking which has had to go back in my car untouched - I'll find time in the evenings next week to catch up with the 4 or 5 pages each of stories that top set English in Year 6 managed to produce last week!

The newly polished brass revealed some very horrid looking brown stains. Try as I might - they simply won't come off. I'm not sure if the brass plating, (I doubt if they're solid brass,) has come off or if they need a drill mounted buffing device to get rid of them??

The scratch on the name panel gained during the summer has one coat of carefully applied paint and looks much better. From a distance it can't be noticed which is comforting. Another coat is required along with a major Polish of the sides of the boat, clean out the window gutters, touch up some rust patches on the roof, top up the batteries and a big clean internally before the half term holidays. next Sunday, I have offered the use of my school in the afternoon for the AGM of one of the share boats in the marina. I need to be there so this will give me some dedicated time to hide in school and catch up with things - I might even be able to start writing the next book in our series that needs to have the first draft to the editor by half term really!!