Back to School With an Oomph...

A big fat sorry to teachers everywhere but LORDY I'm glad it's September. 

On second thoughts, apologies to school-attendees of all ages who've dreaded the start of this, the ninth month; watching their freedom dwindle as the days have passed by. Basic skills such as waking before ten or holding a borrowed ballpoint, have been lost. A dead writing arm from the shock of re-use is a real condition. The giddy thrill of the last day of term is a distant memory. The party is over.

He doesn't feel that way inside.

I was in sixth form when it dawned on me that school-adults felt the same way as school-children. My Psychology tutor made a comment about being gutted the holidays were over. I found it shocking at the time. I may have been a decent A Level student, but I was pretty thick when it came to realising teachers were human just like pupils. It's been seven years since I left teaching, but the first week of September still makes me remember the 'return to school sick feeling'. The panic dreams take many forms... arriving on the first day to find the classroom has old wall displays because I forgot to do them over Summer... standing in front of a class as they disregard my attempts to take control... being told the OFSTED call has come. Literal nightmares.

Yet despite these visceral memories, the start of September is now one of my favourite times of the year. It's the new-startiness of it all. The feeling of renewed motivation and the cleaning the slate. Regardless of where I'm up to in my writing plans, they always feel rejuvenated come the end of Summer. I buy a new academic diary, I work out a complex colour-coded gel-pen system, and I micro-manage every minute until December. I calm it down by then.

No longer blank pages of
emptiness. Full of plans now.

Last week, when the my old colleagues were thigh-deep in their INSET day, I was on a course of my own. I'd been dragged/invited* by a mate to a networking skills training day as part of the London Screen Writers' Festival. Whilst teachers up and down the land were sitting in school halls, squeezed around canteen tables, and listening to their headteachers outline the year's school improvement priorities, I was learning how to make connections, keep eye contact, and hug appropriately. I'll admit, there were times when I yearned for the clear cut agenda item of Key Stage Two Maths Training. Learning how and when to touch potential contacts in a networking situation felt fairly alien. One clear rule of teaching is that a hands off approach is essential. But after a day at 'Networking Tuesday', I came away with a bunch of confidence that hadn't been there on 'Train-to-London-Monday'. So much so that once home I sent out some scary emails I'd been avoiding** and filled my September planner with tasks that require more oomph from me. I think that's what I got from my course - more oomph. And whatever form that takes, I don't think it can be a bad thing.

About to nail Year 11.
Full of oomph. Or something.

So for anyone who has just returned to school - student or teacher - I hope your INSET days and whole school assemblies have given you lots more oomph. And if they haven't, it's only seven weeks till you can down tools and forget how to write once again. 'Til October half-term, everyone! Hurrah!

Have a lovely week, folks.


*Delete as appropriate

**Emails along the lines of, 'Hey, you don't know me, but you should really read my stuff. I am marvellous. Blah blah blah.'