Last Days

No, this isn’t a review of the splendid Adam Nevill book…

Today is my last day at a place I have worked since January 2005. I have taught for 31 years, so two thirds of my career has been in one place. To say today has be emotional would be an understatement of biblical proportions.

This is the side of teaching that no-one really sees: the thanks we get at the end of term (or in my case, the end of a career). Knowing that what we do doesn’t go unseen is a massively rewarding feeling. It doesn’t go far enough to cancel out the ‘you on holiday again?’ snide comments, or the endless digs from the press about teaching, but the students are what keeps us going.

The sheer amount of cards and gifts I have received has been truly humbling, and the thought that has gone into many of them have brought me to tears.

I’ll write a lot more about teaching in the next few months, but as I write this, I’ve just taught my last lesson with an absolutely fabulous class full of wonderful teenagers (I won’t name them, but 9X1 you were brilliant). When anyone says anything bad about teenagers, I’m always mystified and point them in the direction of my classes.

They are the future, and we really should invest everything we have in them. Fund education properly, FFS.

Anyway, I have a speech to write and give. There will be tears.

On to the next adventure. If you have/had a teacher that you remember fondly, give them a shout-out – in the comments below, or on social media. It really does make a difference.