Was it a 'time' from a calendar perspective? Perhaps before the 2014 NC, perhaps before the literacy and numeracy hour came in, perhaps before Gove, perhaps now?
Was it a 'time' from your own personal career perspective? Because you were young and keen, because you had fewer home commitments, because you were experienced, because you enjoyed having more responsibility?
Just wondering.
I enjoyed the years before the NC 2014 curriculum. Those two years when things were up in the air and schools had a bit of freedom with curriculum. I was a teaching deputy head at the time, I had a solid class job share, I had enough time out of class for my leadership role, I was pre kid/pregnant/had a partner who travelled a lot with work so I could work as much as I wanted to without getting moaned at, I was in a lovely school with great grounds and fun staff. That was 2012 - 2014 really.
I saw a thread on BlueSky the other day with one of the 'edubros' saying that the early 2010s were the worst for learning. Schools were too inconsistent and no one was yet invested properly in the science of learning, so children had mixed experiences and probably lost out. I still feel pretty strongly that the kids at my school in those years had just the best time in school. They loved it and they learned loads. We had 100% RWM in SATs that year (2013 maybe?) and I think it was down to freedom of teaching... we truly adapted for our classes.
Anyway... nostalgic there for a minute. I'm currently working at that school a day a week doing SEN support, and one of the other teachers is a woman who was in my Year 6 class there in 2014. That's how much she loved school.