Back to the coal face and time to say hello!

So we are back to school - at least this prevents me from spending any more money! It was a lovely Christmas and nice to have so much time after the actual main events to just kick back at home and take stock - Ivan (Mr Bicknell) was climbing hard in Spain, so I got to drive his new car and do house stuff - just as well as my super duper car decided to lock me out - a key-less car is all fine and dandy and really useful WHEN IT WORKS, but when it goes all wrong you feel like a right berk scrambling around trying to find the part of your car that actually unlocks normally! 

It is that time of year when the two specialist groups (2nd & 3rd year) come together and make lots of larger groups so that we can keep our boys and girls all in the right places, I have to say that I am generally really lucky with who I get and this year is no exception, I have 8 BTEC and a whopping 16 Foundation students. Most of the latter I have had no previous dealings with aside from helping them with their folios just before Christmas, so the ice breaker we got them to do as soon as they arrived was a nice way for me to see how they ticked a bit. I also set them the usual A -Z's of themselves on their blog which you can see here http://textilesrus2010.blogspot.co.uk/- I keep forgetting to take a new group shot so I'm afraid that the current one is somewhat out of date, and as it snowed today I am going to have to continue to wait! 

So, 1 BTEC kid + 2 Foundation kid = 8 groups saying HELLO.......... Errr, I haven't got images for you to see yet, but here are some pics to show you how things developed!

I love this shot of Nicole and Emma-Jane - looks like they are throwing some sad new dance moves!

Katy, Sophie and Becky - easily pleased....

And AT LAST - Ellie and I managed to finish her folio - well almost, she just has to stick it all down now, except I forgot to send her the photos......

I marked loads of sketchbooks, a pile of essays, wrote a reference and did some more printing this week which is always nice - doing it while I can - Baby is imminent!