But I Smile Anyway…

Oh yes…

Can I just let you youngsters know that us teachers have the same feeling of doom when we come back after a school holiday?

We don’t enjoy torturing you with hard work and assessment… but it’s our job…

You know what, that sounds really negative! It’s not all doom! It is lovely to have that feeling of freedom for a few weeks, not having to be at school before 8am, marking, assessing, effectively labelling children for reporting purposes. that bit is really gloomy.

But personally, when I start a new school year, there is an extra spring in my step.

With Nursery, you are catching those children right at the very beginning of their educational career, and though I don’t know what they’ll be like, I look forward to the challenges that these unknown entities bring!

Last year, my first academic year as a teacher, I started with a true baptism of fire. With language barriers, social skills below expectations, behaviour problems and anger management issues it was a tough year, and that isn’t including the Special Educational Needs children and Children in Care either!

This year, I started on a positive note. I had met all the children already, and there was no one who was flagged up immediately as someone who would possibly be a problem child… ish. (Well there has to be some, doesn’t there!)

So this year we have 3 spaces still, which I am sure will get filled pretty soon.

The remaining lovelies are 26% English , 41% Punjabi speaking and 33% other languages, from Slovak, to Russian, Polish to Greek, Albanian to Kosovan!

One child is partially deaf. One appears to have slight aggression issues, one is a ‘bleeder’ which means if he bleeds, and we can’t stem it, we need an Ambulance ASAP! One with kidney issues, a few who speak NO English, and the odd nappy thrown in too!

A wonderful mix!

Yesterday we had them in with parents for an hour as many have never left their mums or dads, and today was their first day trying to be without their parents, for just an hour again.

3 criers/screamers in the morning. Not bad for 19 kids to be honest! We are down one at the moment, as he is on holiday still!

2 criers in the afternoon, out of 15. Two were unwell (already?!) so hadn’t come in, but that’s to be expected.

And to be honest, most of them were amazing! They independently went about their playing, and exploring, and a few started to get a tiny bit wobbly near the end of the hour, looking for their carers, but on the whole, they did GREAT!

It’s too early to say yet, but all in all, it wasn’t bad.

The only blot on my horizon was that I woke with a pain in my knee (recurring injury from a few years back – thanks Sonu Singh!) which actually got really bad by 9.30am. So much so I was holding on to things to walk because I couldn’t put weight on it!

But I soldiered on, and got to the end of the day!

Honestly, right now, I am looking forward to this year. I have a great team by my side, and we even have a new addition too, who is to be with us every day, so here’s hoping we can give these kids a really great start to their education, and make them enjoy nursery and love learning, so when it’s time for Big School for them next year, they are WAAAAY prepared!