Taking a social media break, length unknown.

I get that. I find myself in content races and exam technique coaching so much of the time these days. But like you not a fan of one-size-fits-all structures and strictures.

Last time I had a KS3 class of my own was (I think) 1993-4 !! Just the odd bit of cover since then. I've lived exclusively in 14-18 niche since coming back in 2013. Pros and cons.

Hello once again from the hanging-on-to-speak-to-HMRC telephone dark zone where the dreadful hold music has started to decrease my resolve to pay my dues into the nation's coffers.

Offers from @selwyn1882.bsky.social have gone out today for undergraduate admissions this autumn. 85.5% of our home offers are to state school students, with the biggest group at comprehensives. In 2024 this kind of mix helped us be the highest-rated Cambridge college for good honours.

Splendid evening at the Uni of Herts at an IoP regional event with some Y12 students. Nick Evans of the Uni of Southampton making us think about quantum gravity with a romp through modern physics. Physics is bonkers at its margins.

Now I have THAT tune on replay in my head ...

This backstory is all new to me. I did see something war-related in one of Richard Brock's IoP Stories pamphlets about Geiger and Marsden being on opposite sides in the 14-18 war. I wonder whether some of the interesting historical stuff will survive the next review of the specifications.

Hello from Stamford Bridge where a dad next to me is teaching his daughter how to time correctly the We Hate Tottenham refrain during The Liquidator.

I didn't know the war backstory till very recently. Might add "get good science grades and maybe avoid conscription" to the Y11 options recruitment booklet ;)

Treating myself to a day off tomorrow and heading for a WSL battle at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea host Arsenal. Last season's League Cup Final at Molineux (same teams) was not the greatest game, hoping for better (though weather forecast is not good).

"This used to be on the specs but no longer is" has become a kind of post-16 catchphrase for me. I've always included him and his graph. Can provoke phys v chem banter about whether Z is merely nuclear charge in arbitrary units (and also whether charge should be treated as a discrete variable ...)

I'm putting a price list up tomorrow ...

My period 3 lesson with Y13 on Monday will be Period 3 in more ways than one. It's these little things that make the life of a chemistry teacher so worthwhile.

I'm at a particle physics lecture day... feeling more educated and more inadequate simultaneously! Will solve the internal conflict with chocolate shortly.

As you'd expect, I'm a big fan of decent people with the work ethic in leadership positions. Pleased to see Tony Mowbray back at West Brom.

Time to stop mentioning alkyl group inductive effects New computational evidence reiterates that alkyl groups are inductively electron-withdrawing and that hyperconjugation dominates

A computational investigation into the inductive effect in aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons has generated fresh evidence that alkyl groups are inductively electron-withdrawing relative to hydrogen and that this effect is small compared to other factors such as hyperconjugation.

(calls up inner Fast Show Mark Williams)
Tomorrow, I will be mostly wingin' it.

Relentlessly promote science teaching as a worthy career with immense job satisfaction and no negatives whatsoever whilst keeping a straight face.

During my second headship (a school in special measures, late noughties) we stopped having n-u-ds because attendance counter-productively went down, we assumed for the kind of reasons you are suggesting in your thread. Several charities were in the habit of asking for them at that time.

Try zodiac sign just for the LOLs

Big Jet TV on YouTube for entertainment this morning rather than the Vienna NYD concert. All about the physics.

Thank you so much for this. It helps put my life into perspective. I wonder how many Handys and villas he has got through in the last 28 years!

What was Lothar up to, please, on the day that I officially became a groundhopper? It was 5 October 1996 and I had no justifiable reason for being at Brentford 4 Rotherham Utd 2 at Griffin Park, other than I'd never been before.

Reunited today after over six decades. It seems that I am falling apart more than my childhood teddy bear!

Carbohydrates of the season to all our readers.

Heavy day of traffic on the new Pin Badge FC website yesterday.

All 92 League clubs plus a quiz now up on the site. European leagues to follow.

Thanks for popping in. 👊🏼

pinbadgefc.com

Into the dark #FridayFive
1. When Evening Falls (Spyro Gyra)
2. Night Time (Superorganism)
3. Another Night (Camel)
4. Midnight Black Earth (Bohren & Der Club of Gore)
5. Power in the Darkness (Tom Robinson Band)

me in my headteacher years chairing a subject leaders' meeting before I learned about the dangers of Any Other Business on an agenda

My Autumn term is done. Tough (as ever these days) but also rewarding in many ways (also as ever) with plenty of variety and high points. A domestic to-do list now rises temporarily to the top of the pile. Good luck to everyone on their final day of term tomorrow.