Last Remnants of Summer

As suspected, after teaching all day, I didn't have a lot of time for taking pictures, so I went straight into the garden when I got home.

The shot is of one of my favourite summer plants, the Goatsbeard. In full flower, it is about six feet high and has thick, impenetrable foliage and long, graceful white flowers which grow at the top. There are still a few leaves clinging on, and the stalks are still green - which is what attracted me to it for the blip.

In another month, there will just be brown sticks remaining and then after Christmas in January or February, I will break them off and the new shoots will sprout out of the ground ready to grow up to their full height by July and August.

I had a nice day working with my wife's class, while she went off on for some Literacy INSET. Worked on an interesting maths investigation, which captured their attention - not to mention the teaching assistants'. There is very little time for this sort of work now and it is so valuable in developing thinking skills. The idea of bringing more advanced secondary school level maths down into primary schools to 'raise standards' does just the opposite. The children spend so much time trying to grasp techniques and ideas which are too advanced for them in order to reach Level 5 or Level 6, that they don't have time to develop the deeper understanding of mathematical concepts which they will need in the future.

Rant over - I'm retired now, so this shouldn't affect me too much; but it still pains me to see and hear what is being inflicted on young children - and their teachers and support staff - these days.