Approximate reading time: 10 min

So I’m overdue for a little update.

(It’s going to be truly thrilling!;-)

I am pleased to report that the new flatmate is working out well.

Richard has managed to actually set the timer on our central heating.

(No more gigantic heating bills. Whoohooo!)

One would think that that would be quite an easy thing to do…..right?

Well, I have successfully failed at it for two years….

I am pretty sure there are very capable women out there who would be horrified that I am grateful to have a man in the house who can fix things….

but I am!

Oh and he bakes too…..today he made crunchies, scones and chocolate cake.

I’m not quite sure who was more delighted…

myself or Bailey?

But If I had to hazard a guess I’d say Bailey…..

she thought she had died and gone to doggy heaven.

Anyway, Bailey and I have both decided that Richard can stay!

***********

Last week besides looking after Bailey for two days I had 3 other jobs.

One was a 3 day housesit looking after lovely Maya (again), the other was a nanny job looking after the absolute cutest four-year-old little boy called Kian and lastly, I taught a year 3 class at a new catholic school that I have never been to before.

Let’s start with Maya.

Maya is a bit of a ‘bruk’

(South African slang for a little bit of everything!)

Maya is the sweetest most loveable dog, who loves nothing more than playing with her football,

24/7

It needs to be said that I am not a fan of football

or tennis

or anything that involves balls!

(Umm..keep it clean please!)

I can’t for the life of me think of anything more mundane than kicking a ball around….

Ooooooh yes, I can!

Paying money to go and watch 22 other people kick a ball around?

(Whyyyyyyy?)

God did not give me the sporty gene!

Anyway, so lovely Maya is relentless and when she sits there whining at me, staring with those woeful eyes ….I can’t help but give it a go.

So I’m kicking a ball

(Yes me!)

in a tiny garden…..over and over again with a way too excited dog…

who continually gets in the way of the ball while I am trying to kick it….

and I noticed that I am smiling.

This huge, ear-to-ear grin…and I just feel so, so…

so damn happy…

so grounded and bloody fucking amazed that I was enjoying playing ball with her.

(It was an awesome moment!)

************

The next day I got to spend with Kian.

OH my God this child was

A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.

The sweetest, chattiest, happiest little thing ever.

We built clay models, we painted, we made icing and iced cupcakes, we blew bubbles,

(we kung-fu chopped bubbles),

we played tennis,

and we played football!

(I know!)

Kian loves music and one of his favourite songs is a WAKA WAKA

and a house song from the 90s – so we had a little house party!

I got to teach him some of my BEST dance moves….

(I’m not sure he was that impressed)

All we needed was a couple of glow sticks and it could have been a Saturday night at ‘Ministry of Sound.’

Kian also owns a miniature guitar which he loves playing.

So after our ‘clubbing’, we spend about 30 minutes chillaxing listening to Utube videos while ‘jamming’ together.

(Him on his guitar, me on the tambourine, both of us singing terribly:-)

It was the sweetest thing ever watching him singing with his eyes closed, head rolling back like he was completely transfixed by the music.

As I was sitting there watching this mini Eddie van Halen I suddenly realised that my cheeks were hurting from smiling so much.

It was around about the exact same time that I thought…

“Dam I love my life!!!”

that a text message arrived from my teaching recruitment agency.

They regretfully wanted to inform me that my services would no longer be required every Friday at the school I started working at a couple of months back.

Apparently, the school had reshuffled their staff members around and no longer needed a PPA cover teacher anymore.

Mmm interesting……

What a coincidence that this seemed to occur right after I made a formal complaint to my agency about the school just over a week ago.

How convenient!

(Don’t ya think?)

To give you a brief sum up of that situation.

The school itself has honestly been one of my favourites simply because the kids there are amazing. I have taught almost every class from nursery up to Year 6 and hand on my heart, as far as the kids go…I have NEVER had a bad day there.

The leadership team, on the other hand,

are appalling…..

Unfriendly and, at times, downright rude.

The head teacher mmm let’s call her Karen, shall we, walks around with a face like thunder never making any effort to greet you or say hello. If you ask her a question about anything she seems highly annoyed that you even have the audacity to bother her. Once I was teaching and a woman came into the class with a whole group of parents obviously giving them a tour of the school.

I didn’t have my glasses on that day

(I am blind as a bat without them)

and I wondered who this smiley, happy person was walking towards me.

It was Karren.

In the 6 months that I have been going there, that was the ONLY time I EVER saw her smile!

The happy, fake smile for parents was a little nauseating, to say the least.

(So you get the just!)

The deputy head is not much better.

(But I HAVE seen him smile twice.)

I wrote in December about the Nursery class that I was teaching there and how amazing it is. Honestly, it was one of the best nurseries that I had ever taught in. The teacher is truly lovely as are the Teaching Assistants…..they are just all around ‘happy and calm’ which filters down to the kiddies.

(It’s quite simple really, kids should be happy at school.)

I returned after Christmas to discover that the leadership team had admitted 10 extra students into the nursery bringing the grand total from 29 students to 39 …and 3 adults.

(That’s 13 children per adult!!!!)

Please note: The legal adult/child ratio in the UK is one adult for every eight children aged three and over.

The couple of times that I taught there this year have simply been heartbreaking…..

I can’t even begin to describe the change in that class.

It’s not a big class, and probably has one of the smallest playgrounds I have ever seen in a nursery, comfortable fitting about 15 children max.

With 39 pupils there are literally too many of them to sit on the carpet at one time…..so the teacher has to resort to dividing the class into two. She stays with 20 of the kids and the two TAs take the other 19 kids to the spare room next door and teach them for carpet time.

This in itself is illegal….as good as both the TAs they are not trained teachers.

(And they sure as hell are not paid as teachers!)

When people are supposed to take their breaks this then leaves 39 children with 2 adults.

The classroom these days is sheer and utter mayhem!

It’s no longer about teaching… it’s about crowd control.

The day is filled with constant crying,

(including some of the older kids who never used to cry)

..and just not enough adults available to support them all.

There is an autistic child in the class who was barely coping with 29 students, so you can imagine what he is like with 39 kids. The class has turned into his very own missile zone with him continually hurling toys around the class.

(All requests for one-to-one support for him have been denied)

All the adults are clearly exhausted, and frustrated.

They have tried to explain to the leadership team how hard it is….

does the leadership team care?

Nope!

(More kids = more money!)

Obviously, all the staff are worried about their jobs if they make too much of a fuss….. so, of course, me being absolutely fucking SICK of this type of thing happening in schools volunteered to make a complaint from my end.

(Hell what do I have to lose?)

So I did…

and low and behold….

what do you know!

Surprise, surprise!

This will officially be the 3rd school in 3 years that I have ‘made an informal complaint’ about something and very soon after I have been let go…..

Of course never, EVER has the complaint been the reason for ‘said termination’

(I mean….that would be illegal right?)

No, there is always some very logical reason as to why they no longer require my services and I am always sent off with glowing praise for all the wonderful work I did.

(Bla bla bla)

I have come to appreciate that it’s a lot easier to cancel the person making the complaint than actually deal with the issue that has been brought to the table.

I also now appreciate that as a supply teacher ‘job security‘ is a bit of an oxymoron.

But the good news is, if you are

1. Good with the kids
2. Work hard
3. Keep your head down and
4. keep your mouth shut!

You will be just fine:-)

Unfortunately, these days, I am finding it more and more challenging to master point 4!

(Thank GOD!)

After spending most of my 40-plus years saying nothing,

I’m done being quiet.

I have to admit the first time I was let go like this, I was devasted.

The second time it happened…I felt hurt but I bounced back fairly quickly.

This time,

as I sat on the couch singing with Kian,

grinning from ear to ear …..

I felt NOTHING!!!

Absolutely fucking nothing:-)

Not angry, not disappointed not even the slightest bit annoyed.

In fact all I did feel was slight amusement at the ridiculousness of it all.

I then put my phone away and continued singing.

Of course, I will miss the kids. It was wonderful to start to build up relationships again…..

but the world is full of kids,

the world is full of dogs,

the world is full of kind people that do want me around!;-)

(Hell, dare I say it?

Richard Carlson might actually be proud to know that I am beginning to not sweat the small stuff!)

And then finally, on Friday I had the absolute best day ever at a really lovely Catholic school,

with the friendliest,

gentlest headteacher

who clearly adored her students.

It was just such a beautiful reminder that

doors close,

new doors open

and the world keeps turning.