September had arrived in Educationland and Ms Acronym was very pleased to be back. She liked September. The classrooms were tidy, the planners were new and everyone had returned from the summer holidays full of fresh ideas, and, for at least three days, fresh optimism.
As the SBL, Ms Acronym knew a lot of letters. In fact, there were very few letters that Ms Acronym didn’t know. She knew her SIP from her SEF, her PP from her PPA and her FTE from her TLR. She knew about SEND and EHCPs, KCSIE, GDPR, ATH and CPD. She even knew about the SFVS, although she tried not to think about that in September.
“Happy New Year!” she called as she walked into school.
It was going to be a busy one. The HT wanted to talk about the SDP before the next FGB, the SENDCO was worried about the local AP, and the DSL had a meeting with the LADO. The DPO had sent something about a SAR, HR needed to check the NJC pay award, PAT testing needed booking in for half term, the HSE had issued an update on RIDDOR and IT had introduced compulsory MFA.
Ms Acronym understood all of this perfectly.
By ten o’clock, Ms Acronym had made it back to her office. The CFR codes needed checking, the LGPS return was due, and she needed to send HMRC the VAT126. There was also a query about an SSP calculation, someone had mentioned IR35, the new TA was still waiting for her DBS and the EVC was waiting for approval for an EV.
Ms Acronym briefly wondered whether education had finally run out of letters, and opened the spreadsheet marked
FINAL_FINAL_DATA_V12_USE_THIS_ONE.xlsx
It wasn’t the final one. It never was.
Ms Acronym made a cup of coffee.
The MIS notified her that the census was coming. NOR was down, FSM was up and UIFSM didn’t quite match what she was expecting. The HT wanted to know what this meant for PAN, and the CoG wanted to know what it meant for the KPIs and SMART targets.
Ms Acronym opened a tin of biscuits and turned her attention to the buildings.
The RA for the boiler room needed reviewing and the COSHH cupboard needed checking. There was something from the DfE about when their rep was coming to do the CDC, and an email marked URGENT about the UCS bid.
Nothing said September quite like an email marked URGENT.
Ms Acronym fetched a plate of cake from the staff room and joined the staff meeting. The SLT were there, along with HODs, ECTs, TAs and HLTAs. Someone on UPS wanted to talk about TOIL, an AHT who was about to go on MAT leave wanted to know about KIT days, and the NEU rep mentioned ACAS.
Ms Acronym took another piece of cake.
As she was going back to her office, the DHT caught her. “This term I’d really like to understand ICFP, can you help?” Ms Acronym had just attended the DfE’s RITS training with ISBL, so she felt confident.
“Of course, let’s look at PTR, TCR and ACS together.”
The DHT looked slightly less confident and Ms Acronym suddenly felt like she had been an SBL for a very, very long time.
Eventually, the school became quiet. Outside her window, the pupils were going home. One was proudly carrying a picture. Another was telling his dad about something so exciting that he needed both hands to explain it. A little group were laughing about something that had happened at lunchtime.
Ms Acronym smiled. Perhaps it was really quite simple. Children learning. Children being safe. Children getting the support they needed. Everyone doing their best to make schools better.
Just then, there was a knock at the door and the HT popped his head round.
“Have you got a minute?”
Ms Acronym looked at her list. Then she looked at her empty coffee cup, the biscuit tin and the plate that had once contained cake.
“Of course,” she said.
She was an SBL, after all.
