Busy Days!

At the moment I am supervising Year 12 Trial HSC exams at Narrabri High School.

For those unfamiliar with the arcane details of the NSW education system the HSC (Higher School Certificate) is the examination at the end of High School. It is conducted by a body called the Board of Studies which is outside the schools structure.

As a part of the assessment process, and to prepare for the Big One, students sit an internal series of exams called Trials. These are meant to indicate possible areas where further study is required as well as give students practice at formal exams. Usually the Trials are supervised by teachers, but this year the school asked me to put together a team of external supervisors.

Yesterday I asked one boy how he thought he went in English. He said "It didn't help that I was up until 2 o'clock this morning finishing my woodwork project." The HSC woodwork projects will be assessed by a visiting team of examiners next week- right in the middle of the Trials. Poor kids- they come under huge stress form now until November when the HSC finishes.

One of the exams this afternoon was Photography. At the beginning of each session I quickly go through the content of the papers page by page so that the students can check they have a complete paper. I opened up the Photography paper and found pictures of the front and back of a camera with spaces to write in the various switches, functions etc. I had a flash of recognition- "That's my camera!" I blurted out. It was my old trusty Fuji Finepix pocket digital camera which I used until I got my new Canon in April.

Anyway, it looks like I'll be a bit busy and blog posts could be rather sparse for the next two weeks.

In between all of this, Margaret and I will be going off to Sydney on the weekend to see the launch of Phil's film which he has produced as a part of his course.

The short holiday in a couple of weeks' time is looking really good right now!