Mental Battle

7 Feb
Crucial day for our school.. the day we been cleaning, wiping, checking hard for.. The atmosphere was tense that morning..

Two officers from MOE came and started their very detailed-check around the common areas and classrooms. They literally placed their fingers on the top of boards, doors etc to check for dust. After which they had a thorough-read of our school’s SOP.

Overall they gave feedbacks, opinions and made requests etc.
At the end of the day, we were informed that … … … we PASSED!
Thank God we passed on the spot if not the officers would be back 3days later and I cant and dont want to imagine how much more INTENSE it will be during the 3days.

The officers gave good feedbacks about our school’s SOP - short and simple where Mrs E Tan came to thank me as I had some of my fingerprints on it. Thank God for His grace and favor!

It been ~2years that our school been gearing for Sparks.
Never expect it to be so intense.
Recently my colleagues and I were talking where we agreed that the first round of Safety & Hygiene check already so intense, we cant imagine how it will be when the final test come end of this month.

The first round of Safety & Hygiene been tiring, more to physically for the teachers. Trust me, the cleaning was no joke!
From cupboardss to shelvess to trolleyss to objectss to windowss to doorss to common areas to EVERY holesss and cornersss.
The ultimate was when I have to use a cotton bud and clean through the inner part of the door lock.

But the final test this end of month is going to be tiring, mentally.
Though is still ~2wks away but we can already feel the pressure.
Unlike the first test which is more practical and “controllable”, the final test wont be.

The officers will be with us entire 3days to observe our teachers, our children, our curriculum, our transition, our teaching, our interaction, our lesson, our lesson plans etc etc.

Few teachers will also be selected to go through hours of “questioning” where officers will post questions on school’s vision, philosophy, mission and SOP etc.

On top of daily do-list and the agendas already on hand (eg. collection of $$), sudden-list (trust me, can be quite a lot) just pop in.

Like science experiments, projects, Dr Toh Chin Chye, learning corners, lesson plans, learning stories, invented stories and new ideas of Mrs E Tan etc.
Throughout this week, tasks after tasks were added. Just when I wanted to start clearing, we were called for a meeting where we spent 1hr to talk about ONE storybook.

Can I confess that Miss Lim's mental capacity is reaching its max - this quite rare as is not even Wk9 or Wk10 yet.
There wasn't much =) on Miss Lim, especially during her time in school.

Shhh...
No good sign - feelings of "fear" and "sian" surfacing when I think about another school week starting tomorrow