There are days when pupils and students can surprise you, and in so doing, put a smile on your face.

One of my Year 7 students caught my eye, with what could have been said to be a cheeky smile.

When I asked him what he was smiling at (assuming some private joke being told at the wrong time) he told me that he was smiling because I had my ' concentration face' on.

At the time I was showing the students how to create an on-line survey and the package was not     co-operating.

He then elaborated, telling me that my 'concentration face' appears very quickly and can make me look like I am angry, but then quickly changes back when I am talking to them (phew!!).

It then became clear that this is well understood by all the students who all visibly relaxed when they realised that I did not mind them mentioning this.

This then took us into an unplanned discussion about autism and multiple intelligences.  In regards to autism we talked about how it was that some people found it very hard to read faces and that life could be very stressful because of this as they had to work extra hard to cope in social situations.

The discussion about multiple intelligences focussed on being 'people smart'.  This student had shown that he was probably adept socially as he has shown a strong ability in relation to understanding people and this is an important skill for life (collaborating, interviews etc).

The Year 7 and Year 8 students will launch their election campaigns tomorrow, presenting their key policies to the Brodetsky Key Stage  2 pupils.  This will be filmed by the Media team and the officials will explain the voter registration process, and voting schedule, to the pupils.

Once I have checked their blogs I will add links to them later today.  These blogs will include links to their surveys tomorrow as well as information about their policies. Each party hopes that you will complete their survey, and you may choose to complete them all.  They also hope the Brodetsky pupils will complete the surveys as well.

My second nice surprise today involved a small group of Brodetsky pupils who can have some social difficulties in the playground.  It has been agreed that they will meet twice a week with myself or Mrs Bhogal (my deputy).

In our discussions today they shared two key things they have learnt that are helping them solve any problems themselves.  These are:

1.  It is OK for someone to want to just be on their own sometimes, it is not because they have fallen out with you.

2. If you fall out pick up the phone, go to their house, meet at The Zone and talk it through and you can clear the air. We all fall out sometimes.

For young pupils these were very mature observations and I am sure they will all make great use of this bit of learning.