I have spent the whole of today and a goodly chunk of yesterday and Sunday marking exam papers and juggling the results of three different tests, an interview and the record of attendance to select the students who will be invited to attend the intermediate course which will run for about five months. It is likely that most of the people we train to this level will get jobs in the Children's Centre, although there are no guarantees. The results from courses 3 and 4 are definitely better than those from courses 1 and 2. Time is very short as the results are due out on Thursday 23rd December so I do not have a lot of time for statistical tests and taking advice so I have had to work out my own system and hope that it will stand up to scrutiny later on! There are a number of differences that probably should be taken in to consideration. Firstly courses 3 and 4 are repeats and as tutors we cannot help but learn from our mistakes and do things a little better the second time around. We are teaching the students to be reflective practitioners, we have to be the same ourselves. Secondly David had to go home after the end of the first week so his lecture input has been done mostly by me, but Lindy did the session on basic care needs. Thirdly because our materials arrived mid way through the second set of courses and because Lindy has more of a creative bent than David, courses 3 and 4 have done more art and music activities and fewer physical games. Who knows how statistically significant all this is.
There was one score above 45/58 in each of the first two groups, four in the third and two in the fourth. Between 35 and 44, there were 8 in course 1, 8 in course 2, 7 in course 3 and 12 in course 4. Between 28 and 34 there were 10 in course 1, 12 in course 2, 15 in course 3 and 9 in course 4. Low scores of 27 and under were 5 in course 1, 8 in course 2, 5 in course 3 and 4 in course 4. Course 4 includes two people who didn't take the final exam (max points 36) and therefore scored less than 27 and one who missed the mid-term presentation which had a potential 12 points, but still managed to score 28. Goodness knows what all this means but I shall have to find out before I submit my MA dissertation in August! All you statisticians out there, what do you think?
Anyway, what I have done is to give a place on the next course to all those who scored 35 and over. For those who scored 27-34 I have taken the ones whose interview recommended them as suitable for the next course. We scored these as 0 for not suitable, 1 for maybe and 2 for Yes. All the twos have places. The waiting list is made up of the ones and zeros, but the ones are above the zeros whatever their mark within the range. This is at least logical. Anyone who scored below 27 I did not consider at all. I hope I will not live to regret the decisions but I was up aginst a tight time scale and had to decide something.
I have been staring at my laptop all day and have slightly wobbly vision, not helped by the fact that I have decided to take advantage of the fact that my fridge resembles a minibar, because all the volunteers who have left have handed over their left-over booze, and have poured myself a large vodka and tonic! Today I am the only volunteer left at Mitsidi. Dear Charles came to check whether I was still alive when he had not seen me by about 2.00pm. I have been working in my house all day. Jan and Lindy are expecting Christmas visitors from England and have gone to Lilongwe to meet a plane delayed about 24 hours by the snowy weather at Heathrow. They are staying at Dedza tonight and coming back to Mitsidi tomorrow if all goes well. Vince and Emma have gone to South Africa for a Christmas holiday and Emma has kindly left us her comfortable car while they are away. Jan and Lindy have taken it to Lilongwe. The volunteers' blue Hilux is out of action because of an accident (not me!), so that left me with the Land Rover with the broken rear window, malfunctioning windscreen wipers and a very stiff ignition key! In the middle of the afternoon I wanted to go to the admin building to print off the letters I have written to send out with the course attendance certificates, so I had to brave the Land Rover! It has poured with rain in the last 24 hours so the roads are pretty greasy. At first I could not turn the ignition fey, which is situated to the left hand side of the steering column and Charles took pity on me and came out and started it for me. Then I stalled it and he had to start it again! After that I managed to get the couple of miles to the admin building OK and do my jobs. I saw Mary and discovered that there is a Beehive Christmas party tomorrow lunchtime to which I am invited and about which I knew nothing!
Mary has great plans for Christmas day. Apparently the entire family plus maid are off to Mulange for Christmas day on a tea plantation. There will be two cars, one driven by me! Mary told me to be sure to get the blue Hilux so I hope it will be repaired in time! We are to have breakfast at Mary's at eight o'clock and then set off. I think it is about an hour and a half's drive to Mulange. Apparently there will be me and Mary in the front, her daughter and two children in the back seat and the maid and her family at the back. Fortunately the cover is over the pick-up bit and I must remember to put a mattress in the back to cushion the journey for those unfortunate people who will not get a seat! I will have to fit in my visit to Charles and his family and neighbours to give presents to the children before eight o'clock.
But I digress! It was with trepidation that I hauled myself into the Land Rover for the return trip, but fortunately I discovered that if I undid the seatbelt and leaned right over and turned the key with my right hand I can turn it with enough force to start the engine. With my left I just don't seem to have enough strength to do the trick! Anyway I survived the trip home and sat down to start this blog entry before my solitary tea at the big table that seats 14 in the main house. As I was on my own I had asked Charles to do me something vegetarian and he made me a delicious Spanish omelette with potato, aubergine and onion. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now here I am back in Flame Tree house and blogging again. Unfortunately I seem to have reached the present and therefore have run out of happenings to report. Emma has leant me a big case full of DVDs to keep me amused over the Christmas break. It seems that we share some preferences so far as DVDs are concerned and so far I have enjoyed 'PS I love you!' and 'The Bucket List'. Tonight I think I shall watch 'Emma' a version I haven't seen before! So goodnight!
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