Iacta alea est, occupet extremum scabies

That is – al being well and unless a major problem turns up – we’re going independent and becoming an academy.  Goodbye, local authority that used to be good and now isn’t.  Hello, £290,000 that we have paid them each year to provide various services.  We reckon we can get those we need, in some cases from the LA, for half that.

But that’s not the reason.  It’s independence.  The next government initiative, we won’t have to follow it unless we want to.  We’ll still answer to Ofsted but, as long as we teach key subjects (no plans to drop English and Maths I promise), we’ll be free.  I see it as protecting our marvellous staff.  Some of them are anxious, they see the LA as protective.  Hardly any more, less in the future.  We’ve made the right decision for the right reasons and it was a draining, but inspiring, meeting yesterday. I didn’t really sleep last night, but not because of anxiety.

I take it to heart.  So do many of the staff and governors.  We don’t leave it behind at the end of the day, but how could we?  We’re, you know, passionate and stuff.  Idealistic, once in a while.  Not me of course, I’m practical, pragmatic and hard-headed.  I want those kids to earn whole lots so that there’s enough money about to keep me in my dribbling dotage.

Please excuse the Latin, both are googeable quotations, or Chris, Dave, Dandelion or Mago will provide translations.  Or maybe Gledwood.  He’s a dark horse.

18 comments on “Iacta alea est, occupet extremum scabies

  1. Z

    You’re a desert orchid, Simon, whose bloom blushes unseen xx

    Simony was one of those naughty things that priests got up to, before the Reformation, wasn’t it? Gled’s my fright-wig wearing friend.

    Reply
  2. martina

    I hope someone posts the real translation of the title. To me it sounds like something about milk being everything and extreme bedbugs.

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  3. allotmentqueen

    You’ve done something to your headline so I can’t copy and Google it, it just goes back to your blog. But I am rather worried about the extreme scabies – is that a notifiable disease?

    But I do sense the need for champagne, okay Cava, last night. It does seem a victory worth celebrating.

    Just got to live up to it now…..

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  4. Eddie 2-Sox

    I done Latin when I was at skool, and I think the first part means “The die is cast”. “Est” is deffo “is”, which makes the subject singular. Second part, no idea.

    Incidentally, “Iacite!” was the Roman command for “Fire!” on the huge bolt firing war machines. Literally “Throw!” I suppose.

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  5. Roses

    I googled it and it muttered something about the scabs being near.

    I won’t delve any further being of delicate stomach first thing in the morning. No scab or bodily fluids first thing for me thanks.

    Good for you and your school for striking out on your own. Education and life-long learning are also a passion of mine. It’s so disheartening seeing the politicians meddle with both endlessly and making the system so much worse.

    Don’t even get me started about HE…my poor Boy. What he’ll have to contend with in 18 months time.

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  6. Dave

    The second one is from Horace. In English it would be ‘let the Devil take the hindmost’. Literally ‘let the plague seize the last’.

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  7. Christopher

    Ah. I hadn’t realised that you were at the centre of such a significant development. I’m sorry to have been so flippant earlier. I can only respond with Virgil’s line Res dura et regni novitas me talia cogunt moliri.

    Well done. You deserve every encouragement. Bon courage!

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  8. Gledwood

    magna cum laude!

    what’s this scabies talk? who you been hanging around with? benzo benzoate is a good treatment but steer clear of the old private parts it burns like fuck

    i caught scabies off the crusties and had to paint everywhere from the soles of my feet to my neck and chin in that shit and it smells of mushrooms

    i know you need to know this, hence the full entertainment details!!

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  9. Mike and Ann

    But- ‘Quandoque bonum Homerus dormitat’. I think. Maybe.(even good Homer occasionally nods off/or- We all make mistakes).

    Congratulations on school independence.
    And – just to prove that a long while ago I, like most of us, wasted a lot of time chanting latin verbs- sum – es – est – sumis – estis- sunt.

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  10. Z

    It does that, AQ – it goes to that particular post then, plus comments, and is useful for links. However, others gave the translation, plus more to translate –

    Iacta alea est – as you’ve said, the die (as in, singular of dice) is cast – you’ve played your turn and there’s no going back. Audentes fortuna iuvat – “fortune favours the brave”

    Occupet extremum scabies – I remember my Latin text book rather prissily translating that as “may the last one catch The Itch’ (a skin disease)” – if you get left behind, you’ll lose out, or Last one in is a rotten egg, or, as Dave says, Devil take the hindmost. I was extremely fond of Horace.

    Indeed, Chris, that’s a very appropriate one. Something like “A tough situation and the newness of my kingdom force me to do such things.”

    No one has scabies. It just happens to be a Latin word.

    Thank you all for your kind words, whatever language you used

    Reply

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