just another morning here

The first weekend of the school holidays is almost over, only five more to go! We’ve been busy as usual though with different things going on …

On Friday night we went to Exmouth, along with some other families, for an end of term BBQ. Well, we didn’t BBQ as that would have meant being organised; we had chips on the seafront instead. Everyone else was far more civilised than us, of course. Miss White even joined us for some of the time, which was lovely- possibly the last time we see her! The kids had a ball, and it was very chilled for us grownups as well

Yesterday Steve took all his employees on a jolly down to Haynes Race Track, so muggins here covered at the garage. It was very quiet although I did see one genuine customer – but a quiet day suited me as I had some time to think about planning for next year – not that I actually managed to get any work done, but still. The children spent a pleasant day with Grandma We were meant to go to Exmouth again with different friends but I made an executive decision that I was too tired so called an early night all round.

Today the girls went off to panto for the day, while Steve, Josiah and I went into town, then out to Wiscombe as spectators for a couple of hours – a novelty for Steve! Since he blew his gearbox up yesterday he had little choice

Anyway, back to the girls – over the past few weeks they’ve been involved with a mini-production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by the ‘Juniors’ of the Pinhoe Panto Society. Well, we thought it was a mini-production but actually it was pretty major! Considering how little time they’d had to rehearse it was an amazing show, with all the kids involved, some great singing and dancing too – and they all had such fun doing it, which was obvious in their enjoyment of the performance.

Afterwards all the panto families went and sat in the park and chatted while the kids played, lovely

I now have no children at Pinhoe Primary School. Gosh, it was such a big deal for them all to start there four years ago, from having been home educated – and now I am sad, in some ways, to leave it behind. In other ways we’re ready to leave and it’s good – but it is with an emotional pang and a bit of a sniff that I write this. Definitely the end of the bookbag years

This daft saying goodbye thing started getting emotional a couple of weeks ago at the Choral Evening – when the choir sang a song that was the ‘Leavers’ Song’ the year that Anna left! It brought a tear to the eye of a number of parents – who knew how much we would blub today!

After that came parents’ evening where yet again I thanked Miss White for giving Abbie the best two years of primary school – the two of them have got on really well, and that has meant loads to me, especially during this last year when Abbie’s been a bit of a latchkey kid. Easy to get emotional when thanking someone who has probably spent more time with your daughter than you have recently, inspired her in many ways, helped her loads with academics (and hence helped with scholarship!), given her great opportunities, been a brilliant role model, and most of all had a lot of fun.

Not only that, Miss White also involved Anna well after Anna had left the school, letting her come back to sing in the choir, and play piano for them – a big encouragement. I’m sure teachers at Abbie’s new school will be just as lovely but there really was something special about Miss White. She herself is leaving ‘class teacher’ status at Pinhoe, so it’s emotional for her too this year – I’m just (selfishly!) glad she’s didn’t do it any earlier!
So, all in all, Miss White is wonderful, and I can’t help but get a bit teary when saying thank you as it really has meant so much.

We’ve had the Y6 play, and the farming exhibition, but we mums have been building up to today – joking about how many tissues we would need! Abbie’s leaving present to me was a headful of nits, but the less said about that the better – I’ve been combing like crazy over the past few days! Anyway. Today’s leavers’ assembly was lovely, a bit of a tear-jerker, but not too bad – luckily I ended up sitting behind Abbie so couldn’t see her face, which helped!

And, thank goodness, term is over for me too. We had a balloon release this morning for the little boy who died recently, so that was emotional as well; it’s the end of a year as an HLTA, and the start of a year as a teacher, which is totally overwhelming – aargh! We’re off to the beach to celebrate the end of the school year later so that should be relaxing at least – I’m going to take a few welcome beers!

I know I shouldn’t moan but I’m just exhausted. Today I didn’t finish work until 6.30pm (trying to get my head around planning for next year), dashed to pick the children up, then ate a fairly rubbish dinner because I hadn’t thought about it properly so cooked the nearest thing (eggs and beans on toast). I am becoming one of those people who doesn’t see their children for more than half an hour in the day Really hope that this next year teaching isn’t just one Big Mistake as far as my family is concerned.

On the positive side, today Abbie’s year group displayed their Y6 projects on farming in an exhibition – they’d each had to study a local farm, picking an aspect of that farm’s produce etc. Abbie and her friend Georgina had really enjoyed their visits to Taverner’s Farm, looking around and then making ice cream. They’d worked hard on the project and were very excited about having their very own ‘Crunchy Cow Pat’ ice cream for people to taste! (thanks to Georgina’s mum for the photo )

Apparently the rest of the year group had also worked very hard and there were loads of brilliant displays as well as different tasters for visitors to the exhibition – sadly I didn’t get to go but I have it on good authority that it was an excellent afternoon

And the best bit? There was plenty of ice cream left over!

I started writing this post on Friday morning, and it began like this:

As I write, I am wetting myself about these! Usually I teach in a class where the group of students are settled, the staff know them, and the staff know where everything is in the classroom, the routine, etc.

Today it’s the first of two swap days, where I’m in with my new students for next year. Unfortunately two of my staff are off sick with bad backs so I’ll have some cover staff – none of them really know the students, the classroom’s someone else’s at the moment, and even the group of students haven’t been together as a class before. So, having a bit of a stress!

By the time I’ve come to finish it we’re at Friday night and the first dreaded swap day is over. I’m pleased to report that it went much better than expected, actually I ended up with extra staff that I didn’t think I was having, the kids were so shell-shocked by the change that they all behaved impeccably, and the PE HLTA helped me out greatly by having them for PE in the afternoon anyway! Monday is looking up as a result

Edited to add: Monday was cool too – I have a lovely staff team to work with We only had 6/10 of the students that we’ll have in September so it was a slightly unrealistic swap day today but we had a lovely time anyway!