Goodbyeeeeeeeee

Well that's Leavers' Day over with. Most of our year 6s are off to the local high school, so leave us early to acclimatise to the scariness of being the youngest at school once again. The two and half horrible boys were waved on their way, but I was surprised and pleased that one of their mothers came in to thank me for everything. I was especially surprised because this mother had come in cool and angry at me one day after her son had lied to her, saying I was picking on him, ignoring his pleas for help, and generally making his school life hell. She told me that her son (let's call him Little B) just wanted to get on with his school work, and was a good boy, and that I should be thoroughly ashamed of myself (all of this in front of her child). Although I was boiling mad inside, I calmly offered to set up a meeting with the head teacher, and said I was quite happy to show Little B's mum our class 'behaviour book' which recorded all of the incidents so far that year. Little B went white at this, as the class teacher had threatened to phone his mother about his appalling behaviour just the day before (which was probably the reason for the how-can-I-get-out-of-this accusation). After hastily back-tracking, Little B complained no more. So I was grateful for this mother's thanks this afternoon. After mouthing, 'I'm sorry,' at me, she left, and is hopefully not going to bother me again for a few years. 

Accusations from children are a worry at school. A colleague was once accused of trying to hit a child that she'd never even worked with, and it was a worrying time for her as the parents threatened to make complaints. We are very lucky that most of our parents are wonderful. Parents of infants are happy for poo incidents to be sorted out, and we've been congratulated many times on the love and care we show the children. We also have a very supportive and caring Boss Lady, who understands that all children need a hug now and then. We once had a training day on behaviour, and we were shown how to give a child a school-approved hug if we really couldn't avoid it. If a child came to us face-on, we had to spin them round so they were standing next to us and then pat them on the shoulder. Boss Lady told me later she thought that was a very cold way to treat children, and was almost pushing them away when they needed us most, and that we were to carry on as usual. 

In case you need a guide to the best hugs,

this is from walkinginsquares.com 

Unusually, this year, most of the children left in tears. One boy had been trying not to cry from the start of morning register. Out of the classroom for most of the day, I popped my head in to see how everyone was and one girl informed me, through hiccups, that they were out of tissues. I was absolutely fine until it was time to go home, and The Chatterbox grabbed me and wouldn't let go as he sobbed all down my t-shirt. After bawling something incomprehensible into my shoulder, he gave a mighty sniff and disappeared out of the door. He only lives across the road from me - I see him nearly every day. I will actually miss every one of them. The horrible ones may not always be the best company, but they help me to learn things about myself, and hopefully that makes me better at my job. 

I wish them all the best. I hope they leave with fond memories of primary school, their first proper friends and maybe even one or two facts they've learnt.  I also really hope they don't write too many nasty things about me on facebook.