The Teaching Mother

So...it turns out that teaching is absolutely awesome when being a mother. Who knew?! I guess you've got to know when to go back. In between children clearly wasn't the right time for me. Now, is.

And it's wonderful. I've got the bug back. I'm constantly thinking about how to make the children's classroom experience more fun.

But I'll try and start at the beginning. I'm currently listening to the buzzing bee caught in the skylight of our kitchen. He's trapped. He sounds like I used to feel when I didn't have my teaching outlet to express myself in. It was hard. I craved my old classroom and laughing with colleagues in the SCR. I'm back in the classroom and I've so far included Byron, my family tree on A0 paper going back to William the Conqueror (his illegitimate son is my Great Grandfather 32 times back), and I've been welcomed into my new rural Berkshire school with open arms. It's just idyllic.

My current surroundings is the rice that my youngest has strewn all over the floor and there's oil and milk all over the sides in jugs and bowls from a pouring game (don't ask). It's chaos. Oscar has flung his bike gear all over the floor after his afternoon ride with his friend and all I can smell is petrol and leather. Yum. A soft late afternoon breeze allows the leaves to dance in the last sun rays of the day. We have just eaten prawns from the market man and I'm sat on the sofa with the back door sprawling out onto the patio while I gaze at the roses as they've just had they're first round in bloom. Summer is in full swing. A cold glass of Pinot Noir is next to me and is swigged while I type. A chilled red reminds me of two things: one; my childhood holidays in Sardinia when I was a teen and I'd have a glass with the best pizzas I've ever eaten, and two; from the advice of an Oxford Sommelier, who, when I was 16, advised me to chill a Beaujolais at 16 degrees. If only I had the same fridge he had to keep my bottles of summer red at a constant 16 degrees. Anyway, I digress. Wine is my weakness, clearly.

So, back to how life in teaching and how it turned a corner. One Saturday, as I started summer training with my Lacrosse Club, I receive a text from an old colleague. He mentioned about how their new linked prep school needs help. And urgently. It seems as if their Head of English was going on short term leave and I needed to swoop in and help them out. It was clearly a good match. It feels like a mini school of my old school and it is just the right school to help me get back into teaching after my crazy monsters have exhausted me so. 4 years on and I'm still just as tired as I was when I gave birth with my first. Apparently they get more independent in time...or do we learn to slow down and get used to the tiredness?!

So I took up the post of teaching the Head of English's lessons and tried to help as much as I could. The environment needed to be calm for the children and they needed a reliable, confident, chilled teacher to bring them to the end of term. The staff are incredible and I'm unbelievably lucky to have been asked to step in. I'm flattered and honoured to be part of the team that seems to be flourishing and at a very exciting time for the school.

This type of environment spurs me on and is what education is all about: Movement, change, growth but with a strong sense of grounding and confidence.

I'm currently reading a book about the state of independent schools as well as Stanley Tucci's Taste. I don't want the latter to end. It is glorious and he makes me hungry in every chapter. Once the educational book comes to an end I will venture into my CPD books from my old school that have been waiting on a dusty shelf in the library/playroom and are begging for a teacher to critique them.

I see my little mission over the next few months (8 weeks of summer holidays here we come) to read those CPD books* and to write the reviews on here, but also to catch up on my poetic purchases that I haven't had time to indulge in. I will also be arranging visits to Abingdon, Radley, Marlborough, Cheltenham Ladies College, and whatever other schools will take me in. I cannot wait to see where this next stage takes me but I feel like a new door has been opened and I've leapt in with both feet.

Throughout pregnancy, early motherhood and into now, I've always been keen to keep one foot in the door but I'm relieved to now be able to start my journey whilst our girls begin theirs. After all, if I'm not enjoying my journey, then how can they learn to enjoy theirs?

*Book reviews to be uploaded once a week but I must dash...I can hear the girls wandering back from the park and I have my 16 degrees pinot to finish in the early evening sun.