One of my “jobs” at school is filing. I hate it.
Another tiny part of my job is keeping files up to date. I hate this too!
We keep a file for every student at school (copies of correspondence, incidents, time-out sheets, report cards, behaviour logs, telephone records etc etc) and I deal with nearly 300 of them for our particular House. Everything has to be logged and every item duly noted on an index sheet for every file (really!). By the time pupils get to the end of Year 11, some “notorious” students have files that run to four volumes thick (honestly!). At this time of year, we pass on our Year 11 files to the central filing area (I’ve never actually seen this place but imagine it takes up half the school and is probably one of the factors in us having to keep building extensions!). Before passing on the files, we’ve now been asked to reduce their size by throwing out “superfluous” stuff - even though the powers-that-be insist that, up to this stage, everything is logged on file (perhaps it’s best never to question?) – but, crucially, we still have to retain the index sheets.
Well, because I find it more or less impossible to do filing during the course of a normal school day, I often end up bringing filing home (which is ridiculous considering the small amount we get paid!). This half-term I have spent nearly a day-and-a-half filing any outstanding Year 11 stuff (and there was quite a lot of it!) and then going through over sixty Year 11 files (some from last year too, but that’s a different story!) and duly removing superfluous stuff.
In the end, I’ve collected 11 large plastic sacks full of shredded paper!
PS: We collect green waste for Ruth+Stu’s compost bin on their allotment and I realise that shredded paper can be added to it (but perhaps not 11 large sacks of it!). Unfortunately, I’ve just checked on Bristol City Council’s website and it provides two rather contrasting pieces of advice (REALLY helpful!):
a) How can I recycle shredded paper?
You should not put shredded paper in your black box. When paper is shredded, the paper fibres are cut very short making it difficult to recycle. You can put shredded paper in your compost bin.
b) Can I add shredded paper to my compost bin?
Shredded paper does not compost so well because it does not have air pockets trapped in it. It is better to screw up paper rather than shred it.
Great!
Another tiny part of my job is keeping files up to date. I hate this too!
We keep a file for every student at school (copies of correspondence, incidents, time-out sheets, report cards, behaviour logs, telephone records etc etc) and I deal with nearly 300 of them for our particular House. Everything has to be logged and every item duly noted on an index sheet for every file (really!). By the time pupils get to the end of Year 11, some “notorious” students have files that run to four volumes thick (honestly!). At this time of year, we pass on our Year 11 files to the central filing area (I’ve never actually seen this place but imagine it takes up half the school and is probably one of the factors in us having to keep building extensions!). Before passing on the files, we’ve now been asked to reduce their size by throwing out “superfluous” stuff - even though the powers-that-be insist that, up to this stage, everything is logged on file (perhaps it’s best never to question?) – but, crucially, we still have to retain the index sheets.
Well, because I find it more or less impossible to do filing during the course of a normal school day, I often end up bringing filing home (which is ridiculous considering the small amount we get paid!). This half-term I have spent nearly a day-and-a-half filing any outstanding Year 11 stuff (and there was quite a lot of it!) and then going through over sixty Year 11 files (some from last year too, but that’s a different story!) and duly removing superfluous stuff.
In the end, I’ve collected 11 large plastic sacks full of shredded paper!
PS: We collect green waste for Ruth+Stu’s compost bin on their allotment and I realise that shredded paper can be added to it (but perhaps not 11 large sacks of it!). Unfortunately, I’ve just checked on Bristol City Council’s website and it provides two rather contrasting pieces of advice (REALLY helpful!):
a) How can I recycle shredded paper?
You should not put shredded paper in your black box. When paper is shredded, the paper fibres are cut very short making it difficult to recycle. You can put shredded paper in your compost bin.
b) Can I add shredded paper to my compost bin?
Shredded paper does not compost so well because it does not have air pockets trapped in it. It is better to screw up paper rather than shred it.
Great!
1 comment:
I think composting it is your best option (despite the BCC advice) but not too much at a time. I wonder whether one of the city farms would accept a bag or two. I imagine most of their compostable material is of the green variety so they might well appreciate some brown stuff.
Post a Comment