Last term was even busier than I had anticipated and the spring term has started at an equally fast pace.

Business and Enterprise College status: our bid was couriered to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and we followed its journey on the internet - we even knew the names of the people who handled it on the way!

The DfES received 300 applications and we were delighted to be one of the 225 schools to qualify for a visit.

Let's hope that we were able to convince the inspectors of our commitment to becoming a specialist school and are able to celebrate good news in the New Year.

All this from a school which might be categorised as a 'bog standard' comprehensive!

Previous column

It is impossible to add up the hours given to discussions and agreeing the content of the submission and to describe the level of anxiety, as we wait for the secretary of state's decision.

The curriculum is already skewing towards the specialist subjects, without any additional resources to sustain it next year.

Staffing issues: seven maternity and three paternity leaves to plan for - two babies safely delivered and eight to go!

Learning and Skills Council: their funding mechanism is complex, shifts with each new document, at times is barely comprehensible and has left us having to educate cohorts of students with limited resources!

We observed Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot and Ramadan. We celebrated Diwali, Chanukah, Eid-Ul-Fitr and Christmas

Multi-faith and citizenship initiative: good news here! We have been assured of �1.8m to replace our worn out Matthews block and develop a new resource as a Multi Faith Centre.

The bad news is that the first designs for this new development are coming in at �800,000 over budget!

We cannot use a range of teaching and learning styles with 30 students, two learning support assistants and one teacher in 50 square metres of classroom!

Decision time again - do we have the right number of spaces which are too small or too few classrooms which are of a reasonable size?

Don't architects realise that today's student is broader by a bag's width and many of the young men are more than six feet in length by Year 9?

Bog-standard

During the last term, as a multicultural school, we observed Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot and Ramadan. We celebrated Diwali, Chanukah, Eid-Ul-Fitr and Christmas.

We collected money for Children in Need, sent shoe boxes to children in Bosnia, Croatia, Afghanistan, Poland, Rumania, Hungary and Georgia.

Our annual gift collection supported local charities. It is the only time in the year when we gather as a school.

There was a wonderful atmosphere as students and staff brought gifts in to the assembly to be received by a visiting speaker from a local charity.

All this from a school which might be categorised as a "bog standard" comprehensive!

It was, for many of the senior staff, an 18-week term from the A-level results day in mid-August to late December.

Staff and students became weary: students were ready for a break from the school routine and staff were in need of a chance to recharge some worn-down batteries.

I have a dream of a five-term year, with each term of equal length, and at least a two-week break between each term!

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