Are there some teachers born to moan?

Last night I had a very long year 11 parent's evening and I potentially was the last teacher in the school to finish (I teach 61 year 11 with 30 interview slots and lots of the other teachers overran, which had a knock-on effect on the rest of us.  I, too, talk too much, so played a part in the overrunning, probably)

Today was an INSET day, dedicated to performance management. As most teachers would only be involved in a 45 minute meeting during the day, the HOD devised a timetable of useful activities for everyone.

The first session was to design summative assessments for years 7 and 8 for the half term just gone. Having experienced this 'all sit down together and write tests' before it was the last thing I wanted to do - and I was to lead it!

So after my long, long day at school, I went home and started getting a few tests together. I wasn't actually creating the questions, but getting them from Testbase, ensuring a fair coverage of levels and topics we've done over the last seven weeks. It took me quite some time, and I finished very late, but I believed it to be worth it as the other teachers would be able to go away and work on their own thing instead of sitting around for a couple of hours writing tests!

Sadly, 'twas not to be. Most of the department were quite happy to use the tests, but there was a small contingent who decided to pick holes in the tests. The main problem - not easy enough.

This is despite the fact that I had ensured the tests started at level 3 - the average level of a 9 year old! They were also 'too wordy' and one included a currency unknown to the children (which was irrelevant in the context of the question!)

I'll leave out the detail but I had some very supportive comments from lots of the team about the negatives, and the negatives created their own easy test.

What to do next half term? My gut feeling is to create my tests again in the same way and if others want to do their own thing for the very bottom end then let them. The trouble with that is that tests for Key Stage 3 are my remit, so technically I should decide who takes what test.

I don't think the problem was anything to do with the tests. It was just something to pick holes in. I think I need to learn very quickly about departmental politics!