Having read a thread this week suggesting teachers aren’t all that, I would love to share this with you.
Don’t know original author but it is fab.
Sent from a colleague 🧡🧡🧡
“As Mrs May staggers towards the end of term, aided and abetted by lashings of neat gin and the occasional creme de menthe chaser, she reflects back on the journey the children she has taught that year have been on.
Of course, the cockwombles running the Department for Education are not really interested in any journeys that any children have been on, not that is unless said journeys involve six year olds mastering a degree level understanding of linguistics and memorising archaic grammatical terminology by rote.
Mrs May looks around her Year 2 class, who are variously sitting happily on the carpet making farting noises with their mouths, using the art materials she has put out to paint everything other than the piece of paper in front of them, or excavating the contents of their nostrils with their fingers.
There is Toby. Toby, who has been moved from foster family to foster family, who joined Mrs May's class midway through the school year with multiple behavioural issues. Toby has progressed from needing constant one to one attention and spending more time in isolation than out of it, to now being able to sit quietly on the carpet with the rest of the class and has even made his first ever friend, a little girl called Fern.
There is Nadia. Nadia was still not toilet trained when she started with Mrs May and wore disposable pants. Nadia is now able to recognise when she needs the toilet and is able to put up her hand and ask Mrs May when she needs to go.
There is Zehra. English is not Zehra's first language; in fact she had never spoken a word of English before she came to Mrs May's school. Zehra has gone from not understanding anything that is going on around her, to being able to follow basic instructions and to say her name and other short sentences in English.
There is Albie. Albie was born three months prematurely, and has a learning age well behind where his chronological age would place him. Albie was unable to write his own name at the start of Year 2; he can now independently read red level books and is working hard on his letter formation.
There is Jacob. Jacob has been diagnosed with autism; autism severe enough that he should really have a place in a dedicated SEN facility. The LEA has thus far not been able to provide one, and so it is Mrs May and her wonderful TA who have worked alongside the school SEN coordinator with Jacob, helping him to find a routine he feels secure in. Jacob has developed from a frightened, frequently screaming and crying little boy, to one who is able to participate in some of the class activities and is even occasionally now seen to smile, something that would have been unheard of, just six short months ago.
There is Lia. Lia lives in abject poverty, comes from one of the many, many families in the UK who are forced to rely on food banks, and spent the first few weeks of Year 2 solely focused on scouring the classroom to find something to eat, so desperately hungry was she. Mrs May and her colleagues now fund a breakfast club for Lia and other children in her position at school, and Lia has settled down to be a happy, friendly and popular member of the class.
And there are more. So many more. So many, many more.
If you use the Department for Education's methodology of assessment, none of these children have achieved anything in Year 2. None of them will achieve the required levels in their SATS. None of them have done what the Government have expected of them.
Yet, to Mrs May's mind, these children have achieved more; so much more. Every single one of these children has done something incredible during their time in Year 2. Every single one of these children deserves nothing but praise and admiration for the journey they have been on.
Mrs May may achieve nothing else as a teacher. (Many days, it's true, thanks to the combined efforts of the DfE, Mrs May feels that she is achieving nothing at all.) But, when all is said and done, Mrs May went into teaching to change lives for the better. Seeing these children grow in confidence and self belief...this, this is why Mrs May teaches.
And, so long as there is breath in her body, Mrs May is going to do everything in her power to ensure that her children - regardless of ability, regardless of background, regardless of how effectively they jump through the Government-sponsored hoops set for them - know just how brilliant they really are.
Know how incredible their achievements are.
Know how far they've come.
Know how proud she is of them.
Because she is.
Oh my goodness, she is.”
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