So another year begins, full of whole-school policies and action plans and interminable paperwork and meetings with the odd spot of teaching and learning thrown in. No it doesn't, I'll get a couple of hours sleep in.

No use. I can't sleep once I start thinking about school. I try to clear my mind by thinking about parts of my body, starting with my feet. Tense, relax. Legs. Tense, Ouch! A sharp reminder of the strains of preventing James' member from leaving the party when I was in a superior position last night. I must have moaned because James was suddenly quite wide awake and ready to chance his arm or some other part of his anatomy.

Oh well, better than worrying about work.

Now Amanda is a great breast fondler. Not mine of course - not that I would think of such a thing ;->. She has the habit of absent-mindedly playing with her tits. The chairman was speaking about some democracy proposals - basically the idea that we should hold a ballot every time the General Secretary goes to the lavatory - when I noticed what Amanda was doing.

She was sitting so that only I could see her hand . She looked up at me and grinned as she cupped it around one breast and tweaked the nipple. She then gestured with her eyebrows in the chairman's direction and repeated the action.

After the meeting we sat down in the bar of Ruskin House and I hazarded a guess, "Yes, he was making a right tit of himself wasn't he."

It seems she got this particular gesture from her bottom set Maths group. A group who also have a way of indicating sexual desire for a boy by ostentatiously putting a finger in the general vicinity of the clitoris then blowing on the finger as if it is hot. Naturally Amanda had to show me this one while apparently all the Secretariat were looking at us.

The gestures seem to be particular to her school, Uruk High, because I have never seen either at Downsbury.

There is something about Amanda, even - or perhaps especially - when she is behaving in an embarrassing way. I don't mind setting down here that the thoughts I had when we first met about introducing her to the delights of a vibrator have not gone away, or at least not very far. However, James is more than enough to cope with just now.

When I got back I told him about Amanda, complete with the actions, and I might have known it would turn him on

Clair used the NUT school meeting to accuse George of sexism. George? Sexist? Is the Pontiff a member of the Church of Rome? Do ursine creatures defecate in an arboreal setting?

Apparently George had made *a remark* to a pupil in Clair's class. When pushed - by George - all Clair would say was that it was "about her short skirt."

George protested his innocence, Then he protested his right to say whatever it was he allegedly said and then threw in the fact that the girl *did* look like a tart anyway.

From there on it got worse. We had the usual mock election for school rep - in which George stands reluctantly and everyone says what a good rep he is and there are no other candidates. George took the opportunity to stress his male superiority by nominating Clair and reacting with surprise and contempt when she declined. He then went round the room nominating every female and professing his ritual reluctance to continue this year in the post.

Until he got to me.

"Teri," he said, leaning back in his chair and taking a long lingering look at the tops of my stockings, "could you consider taking on the role?"

Someone said "Yes." Rather to my surprise, I found it was me.

The next thing I knew, George's wife, Edie had seconded his suggestion. George gave her a look which would have stripped paint but he couldn't back down. He pretended to be pleased when everyone applauded.

He made up for it telling me with relish how impossible the job is and how he pitied me. George's workload is a mystery. He is always overworked and always has half an hour to tell you how overworked he is.

When I told James about all this he zeroed in on the key issue - how short was the skirt?

Criteria for redundancy. Our new head, Sharkey, invited me in for a chat and *smiled*. He had drawn up a five page document about criteria for redundancy and was "disappointed" that I couldn't give him my opinion on it right away.

He wants the whole matter sorted out asap so that he can get on with the business of pressurising Oz into taking early retirement by threatening to make Clair compulsorily redundant ... although he didn't say THAT of course.

He apparently found my attitude *unhelpful*, which makes me wonder exactly how *helpful* George had been to him.

There are times when I wish we had the former head, Olive Snooks back. Then I remember what she was really like and I don't wish it at all.

My views on Sharkey have not improved. I was summoned to the presence and reprimanded - in the nicest possible way, which in his case is not very. Sharkey does "oily" and he does "patronising" and he does "nasty". He cannot manage "nice."

There had "been complaints" that I had put "inflammatory material" into the pigeon holes of non NUT members. What I had done was to put a note in everyone's pigeon hole asking if they were in the NUT - George's records needed a bit of updating, or more exactly creating.

I stuck to my usual "name my accusers" line on this one but he argued that this would enable me to intimidate them and he found my attitude *unhelpful*.

He thought it was even more *unhelpful* that the union secretary was tearing holes in his criteria for redundancy at my request. He had legal precedents and European law on his side. According to the union sec this is b******t but Sharkey can swear black is white with that oily grin on his face.

I can't see us getting on.