Yes, the Christmas CDs are playing in the car as I drive into school and there are a few tunes coming out of classrooms too. The season is well and truly here and don’t we know it. It is a wonderful time of year to be in any school. I do think that being in school does help you get into the Christmas spirit. Watching our Nativity performances always makes me tearful and I do have a big smile on my face as I watch it all come together.
Everything we do in school is focused on the children. With all our plans, meetings, learning outcomes, targets and predictions it is all our young people that are uppermost in our minds. Whether it is progress in numeracy or how a young person is coping socially we try our best to work through solutions and have positive outcomes. However, at this very busy time of year I try very hard not to forget everyone else in our learning community too.
We adults are all beginning to feel the strain. No matter how long we have been doing all of this and no matter what job we do here in school; Christmas is hectic and it has been going on for weeks now! The nativity rehearsals started mid November, the Christmas Crafts for our sale started then too. Dancing practices have been thundering on for the last couple of weeks with twirling, dozy-does and contortions as the older pupils try not to actually touch while they do a Canadian Barn Dance!
No, it is we adults who are looking a bit bleary eyed and walking a bit slower as we try to be everywhere at once. The big thing is of course that we are predominantly female in our staff therefore as well as all the things going on here at school; we have homes and families demanding our attention too. That was partly the reason for the Chris Rea song title as last night two more family members confirmed their coming home for Christmas – great, really, our oldest son and our new daughter-in-law, but then it was a quick panic for a few minutes as I reassessed the plan for the big day. Let’s not mention the gift buying and wrapping, the card writing, the festive occasions and sorting who is going where with whom. My wee panic was last night- now I have another, revised list and I am back on track – at home anyway.
Here in school it is always the same. Yet every year we forget the build up, the frayed tempers, the whole new meaning to the term “be flexible” and the way that CDs disappear from one day to the next just when you are ready to practice the hymns and songs. Having an established staff helps. Most of us here have worked together for several years and we take the knocks and the exasperation as it comes. Our big strength, as in most schools, is that we do support each other – sometimes by understanding, sometimes by giving each other a wee reality check– something the awfully clever DHT is good at doing for me( but he has a wife doing most of the afore mentioned jobs so sometimes I just ignore his reasoning!)
By January we will have forgotten all the missed gym times and days when the photocopier stopped working and we will get started on all the new learning and teaching. I ask a lot from my staff, we all do. We have still had attainment meetings, thematic planning conversations about what we will all be doing next term as well as remembering tray bakes and hamper goodies for next week’s Christmas coffee morning concert.
I hope I never forget to say thank you and show them my appreciation. (We should just let folk know throughout the year – not just save it up until Christmas). I appreciate all the extra little things that everyone does, often without asking or any fuss, that make all the difference but I am especially appreciative when I know how busy we all are during this time. Us Heedies find all sorts of extra wee jobs landing on our desk too and most of them aren’t to do with the deep theoretical thinking about education but more likely fall into the category of catering and front of house!
We all have friends and family who will be travelling home for Christmas and it is just too special and magical not to get caught up in it. Season’s greetings and pass the chocolates please!