The broom cupboard 3 - for briefly stranded republicans

[TheHoneyBadger]

First in tops up the gin supplies and turns on the tea urn.

Actually 5 years at her age and stage is quite a lot!

I had a 23 year old boyfriend when I was 18, I think if you’re not in school it’s fine.

Winning a grand slam puts her at a different stage to your average school leaver I’d have thought!

I’ve also googled and Rashford is single so it’s all good overinvested

Bukayo Saka is more her age group and also very nice.

But we should let her be single really.

Saka didn’t write her a nice tweet and therefore there is no basis for their relationship.

You have to be realistic, piggy

I’m sure her being single and continuing on a path to world domination without distractions would also be great.

I had a 29 year old boyfriend at 18. It was fun while it lasted but he was ready to settle down, get married and have babies. I really wasn't ready for that, so I went traveling on a couple of gap years instead and had dd1 way before he had his first child

But yes, young Emma should be the person to make the decision about her own relationship status. I'm sure if she and Marcus (who does indeed seem like a really lovely young man) like each other, they can organise themselves to go out and don't need your help noble

Never considered noble as a Yenta before (see Beverley Goldberg / Jewish culture)

they can organise themselves to go out and don't need your help noble

I said it would be nice, not that I would mastermind it!

Pretty sure neither Rashford nor Raducanu need my help with anything…

How about page turning and only writing on the right hand page of a double page spread? Drives me mad.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

How about page turning and only writing on the right hand page of a double page spread? Drives me mad.

You'd hate being in my class, Rule - that's (sort of) how I use my books 😂

I pre-empt the repeated question with new year 7 classes now and tell them early on that I know it's an important thing in primary school but I really don't care what format they use to write the date so long as it's there and underlined with a ruler. I still get the odd one put their hand up and ask.

Some of them seem to see it as a win that they're allowed to write the short version.

I genuinely couldn't care less if they don't write the date!

We have them write the long date in English/topic books and the short date for maths. Not sure why.

I did have to stop several of them writing maths in pencil. One Y7 claimed that their primary teacher told them that in secondary they would always write in pen except for maths!

I know they're not supposed to, but I'm quite easygoing with Y7s who prefer to write in pencil. I think they're anxious about being able to erase mistakes (although most of them use Frixion pens). The odd Y8 prefers to write in pencil too. Y9, no.

Noticed a couple of Y12s writing in fountain pen. That made me smile (I have two in my pencil case, one for red and one or purple).

Oh lordie, we insist they write in pencil for maths, with pen for English and the humanities. I hate seeing pen in maths books.

I used pencil for Maths up to and including Further Maths A-level. I have never understood why secondary schools go straight to pen for Maths. For exams if they absolutely have to, I get that. But why for daily calculations?

Because if they're in the habit of using pencil to write in lessons for maths, they slip up and use it to write exams and that is NOT ALLOWED.

I mean, is pens-in-Maths in secondary because they are needed in exams in 5 years so pupils need to get used to them? Because you don't want any incorrect working rubbed out, so that you can see and correct misconceptions as they arise? Because they are genuinely better in some way? Because the proportion of 'arithmetical calculations' in terms of amount written per Maths lesson drops, so the inconvenience of having to re-write the calculation for a slip is reduced? Because of the practical issues around pencil sharpening / time wasting?

Ah, OK, so it is pre-GCSE training, and the best time to introduce it is at primary / secondary transition, rather than it coming in later?

I can't remember whether we could use pencil in exams. I know we had to use them for the old multiple-choice grids, because they were marked by some machine that picked up the graphite or something mad like that!

They have to write in black ink, 1) so it can't easily be changed by unscrupulous teachers after the exam if they got something wrong (tippex also not allowed) and 2) so that it scans clearly as the papers are marked online.

So do you insist on black ink pens from day 1, so that they never forget and use blue?

(Also obviously no tippex from day 1, if exam training is the reason)

I am a sufficiently old gimmer that my exams were marked - with the exception of the aforementioned multiple choice - by a human being and scanning hadn't been invented! We may have had to use pens for exams, but again, I suspect we were just handed biros on entrance to the exam hall and told to get on with it....

I only have black pens in my Bob box but they're allowed blue or black.