Holidays! Holidays?

Phew - finished school last Friday. That last week of term was packed. First of all we had speech day. I have a love/hate relationship with this concept, particularly beloved of private schools. I hate that we can't recognise the amazing achievements of all the children - not least, that the children in my class have survived my sense of humour all year.  But I love seeing the joy and surprise on children's faces when they hear they have received a prize. Most notable this year was a little boy who arrived in my class with poor handwriting and literacy. By the end of the year he was producing exemplary work. (Note to self: what a good word exemplary is: wish I'd thought of using it in my reports...) And I love seeing how other children are delighted for their friends and classmates: the smiles, the whispered 'well done', the pat on the back...

Then we had farewell parties - 4 members of staff leaving; farewell assemblies; sorting out, clearing out and packing up as I moved classroom, with the willing help of the children; organising our discarded books to go to Tanzania; and then there was Gardening.

I started the two gardens we have at school, with the help of parents and children, a few years ago. There is a quiet garden with a willow tunnel, a reading corner and a fountain. There is a huge vegetable garden - almost allotment sized. There is an area planted with trees and bushes, set aside for wildlife. And now there is a refurbished flower bed, sporting a Tudor rose, the school emblem.

It all  needs looking after. Every year I am  determined to give up this enormous responsibility, and every year something happens to make me change my mind. This coming year, I will have allocated timetable time to manage it all.
Good. I'm looking forward to clawing back the time I spent recently on organising a watering rota for the holidays. Helping 140 children to harvest the potatoes they planted in March. Encouraging more children to help me plant a new silver birch, to replace a conifer which blew over in the March snow storms, rewarding them with an abundance of strawberries. Going into school in the holidays to water the new willow tunnel which, in the hot weather we are having, is beginning to turn yellow.

The week finished with farewells and a shared staff meal. Lovely. I have amazing colleagues and our staffroom is a supportive little community.

So that was school. But I haven't paused for breath. I'm not hugely houseproud, but the house has shouted its need for cleaning. So far, I have a sparkling oven; cleaned out kitchen cupboards; washed and changed all the bedlinen, including the mattress protectors and so on; washed bedroom curtains; refurbished the bathroom...

I've been into school several times, too - not just to water the gardens, but also to reorganize my new classroom, stowing files and books away neatly into the tiny cupboard. (Quart into pint pot sums it up.) I know I won't have time at the end of the holidays and, in any case, would rather get it over and done with. I'll be in again next week, too, if not before...

That's all good.. But what was better was the coffees with friends and colleagues and a particularly celebratory tea for my dear friend Renee, the day before her birthday. Special, special times...