The best ever feeling

Apart from the usual days of celebration, there are three that Pam and I look forward to and cherish. Those are the three that coincide with the last days of school holidays.

Having spent weeks looking forward to a break from the classroom, the school holidays always seemed to pass by too quickly. Fair enough the five weeks in Summer was a decent enough period of time but the two weeks at Christmas and Easter seemed all too short.

I know many of you will say two weeks is a lot more than the few days you had off when you were working and that teachers should feel privileged to have such long breaks. Those who have set foot in the classroom though will understand the need for a such a long period of recuperation for both staff and pupils.

The Autumn term in most schools is the longest and the most intense. So when it comes to the end of term in December, the majority of teachers are on their knees. Having broke up for Christmas, they then face a holiday which is hardly restful; especially for those with families.

All too soon the holiday is over and it is time to return to the chalkface. The children are still excited after Christmas and spend the first few days exchanging tales about the excesses that have been poured on them by doting parents. The "haves" lord it over the "have nots" with their expensive new clothes which only added to the misery and creates an unnecessary air of tension.

It could easily take a week to get things settled back down into a routine and to re-establish a work ethic amongst the pupils. Added to which the weather in January is usually bad so you know there are going to be many days when the children have to spend all their time inside the building.

Traditionally today would have been the last day of our Christmas holiday. Pam and I would have been thoroughly miserable. We'd have spent the day planning what we could do to ease the children back into work. We'd have been making sure that the clothes we needed for work were all clean and ironed and later on at night we'd have been setting the alarm clock for some ungodly hour knowing that it always takes longer to get ready and out on the first day back. Most of all, we would have been hoping that the weather was going to be dry in the morning.

Thankfully those days are well behind us. It is five years since we had to face a return to the classroom after Christmas. Pam and I can hardly believe that it is so long ago. More to the point, we cannot imagine how we would cope with having to go through that ever again. Knowing that we don't have to face that misery is the best ever feeling.