Morning everyone,

By the time you read this, I’ll be in school. There’s no children today (they’re back tomorrow) because we’re having an INSET day. I thought I’d put together my thoughts to just share with everyone. If you’re interested in my musings, please keep reading. If you’re not, that’s cool. I appreciate that there will be others with blog posts that are put in a much more cohesive and readable manner than mine and that I am just one voice among thousands online sharing thoughts about going back to school.

As I sit here, I’m curled up in my blanket, sitting on my bed with Frozen 2 playing on my iPad (I’m not good at working in silence!). I have a lot to say and not much to say at the same time. It’s one of those Pandora Box kind of situations – if I start, I won’t stop! I’ll try to keep this to a minimum, but if you know me, you know I’m GREAT at rambling!

I’m both excited and nervous to go back

When we went back in June for those final 5 weeks of school with my gorgeous bubbles of Year 6, I was apprehensive as anything. I didn’t know what to expect and it made me very anxious. Once I was in and realised that actually we were going to be grand, I was much more mellow about it all. I think going back for those few weeks has helped me in the build up to going back full time. I’m looking forward to having routine back in my life again. It won’t be the same as it was before March, but it’ll be a routine that I can build my life around.

I can’t wait to get teaching again

I got into teaching because I love teaching. There’s something so brilliant about it for me. I love building those relationships; I love learning things myself; I love being part of those lightbulb moments. I’m excited to do a year of Year 6 for me, doing the things I want to do and in the ways I want to. When I moved up in January, there were things I’d do differently, but because they worked, I just let them go (they weren’t done badly, the class teacher before me was a total and utter wonder, they just weren’t done how I’d do them). So I’m looking forward to having a full year doing things on my terms. I’m excited for lessons where we struggle, lessons where we fly, lessons for thinking and lessons for reading. I’m excited to be excited about teaching again – lockdown bubble teaching wasn’t really teaching in its entirety for me and I’m looking forward to being the master of my castle again.

There’s a lot of unknowns

As with everything, there’s a lot of things I don’t know. We’ve had the risk assessments emailed over and I have full confidence that the leaders in school have our best interests at hearts, but there’s still a lot of questions I have about things. (I actually have a list of questions to take into school). If you haven’t already guessed from this blog post so far, I’m a bit of a control enthusiast (I don’t say control freak because I think that’s negative, ha!). I like being the master of my own destiny and I’m rubbish at asking for help and delegating. I worry about everything, so this year I really need to try not to worry about the things I have no control over (lol she says knowing fully well it won’t happen).

I’m excited to see my kids again

This will actually be the second time I’ve taught this group of children – I was their teacher for Autumn term last year and then I moved up to Year 6 in January – and I can’t wait to be reunited with them again. They’re a brilliant bunch of kids and, as with every class, yes there’s some challenges, but they’re great. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them and even longer since I taught them, so getting back into the routine of teaching with a group of kids who I know (and they know me) is a blessing. I don’t need to learn about them. Will they have changed in the time they’ve been off? Absolutely, but I’m not starting from scratch. I’m looking forward to listening to them, learning from them and learning with them.

Do I think this year is going to be easy? No, but I don’t think ANY teaching year is easy. I think this year will bring its own challenges that we’ve never faced before, but I know that this is the only profession for me and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

This is my 11th year in my school (I was a TA, then a HLTA, did my degree part time while working full time, then did my SCITT there) and who knows where the future leads, but I’m looking forward to getting back into my school, into my classroom, with my brilliant colleagues and the excellent kids we teach.

I love teaching with all my heart. There have been times where the paperwork and admin side of life has been a bit much, but I get so much joy from being in the classroom with my kids, leading, learning and loving them.

If you got this far, congratulations, ha! If you’ve got any questions about teaching, or me, or whatever, leave them in the comments, I’m always more than happy to answer them!

S x