Now that academic year is over, a massive shout out for all you wonderful teachers, TA’s, support staff, cooks, admin staff, cleaners etc, who have kept schools going over this last year.
A year of putting the kids well-being above your own, creating lessons knowing they may have to be switched to on-line at the last moment, reassuring anxious kids and calming those who roared into school stir-crazy after lockdown.
A year of identifying needs and gaps in learning, of jugging a ‘catch-up curriculum’ with the need to offer the kids more than just maths and English.
A year of shivering with windows open (hard to remember today with glorious sunshine but pretty grim a few months ago) to allow ventilation, and supervising handwashing and hygiene (concepts not terribly familiar to many of the littler, wriggly ones).
A year when guidance from the DfE has been even less useful than usual, and a year of shuddering whenever the Ed Sec release a new message – can anyone remember a single useful comment?
A year when teachers became examiners, after years of not being trusted to assess their own pupils. Exam boards still took the cash while teachers worked long into the night for no extra pay.
A year when you followed the rules and missed seeing your families, whilst knowing some of your pupils were meeting up with people outside their household.
A year when you never knew from one day to the next how many children might turn up.
A year of putting on a brave face when you felt exhausted and anxious yourselves.- a year of reassuring parents that you were making things as safe as possible because, well you actually really care about their children.
A year when some of you worried about colleagues who were off, saw some struggle with Long Covid, and tragically some of you lost colleagues to this horrible illness.
Sorry for the long post, and if you’ve stuck with this, thank you.
But educators, one and all, you have been bloody amazing.
Thank you.