So here it is...the last day of the Summer holidays. Back in July this day seemed so very far in the future as we began packing away our treasured possessions from our well loved classrooms. Our wooden bowl and basket addictions became more apparent and less easy to hide as box after box was piled high with an assortment of sizes!!
The children were asking us why we were putting their resources away, why we were changing their loved environment. Our classrooms were always changing, never staying the same for too long, always adapting to the children and their fascinations...but this was different. This time the children felt the finality of it. We would find hidden letters placed carefully in areas the children knew we would look..tucked under the corner of our keyboards or lovingly folded and placed in the top of our bags. "I wish I could stay."
Now we find ourselves setting an alarm for the morning and messaging each other imagining we are meeting back at Lister tomorrow. With our normal, predictable routine of a cup of tea and a morning chat with Mrs Gill before being the first on the big playground to greet the otters and foxes to a new day at school.
Tomorrow is nearly here. This day has loomed over us this holiday; at times feeling safely ensconced in that faraway "next month". With stretches of beach holidays, new homes, theatre visits and Dartmoor walks keeping it an abstract thought, never letting it linger too much before being pushed away with the lazy luxury of Summer holiday days. "Next month" is here. It is here with no more lazy luxury is to keep it away. It is here and we are ready for it. Excited for it! New classrooms have been set up and wooden bowls and baskets are out in their new homes.
We find ourselves thinking about the Foxes and Otters. About all of them, one by one they pop into our minds as we remember our final fantastic year at Lister. One by one we see each smile, each boundary overcome and we think about how they might be feeling today. Are new school uniforms laid out for Wednesday morning? Fluffy new jumpers ready to leave bobbles on crisp white t shirts? Polished shoes and matching, complete PE kits not yet muddled with the child's who got changed on the next seat! Bookbags without the tatty corners, yet to be dragged along the playground in the mornings?Bookbags without the historic stains of that time the water bottle lid hadn't been put on properly?
We like to think that we are all prepared. We were a team last year, all of us learning and growing together. We will take some of the resilience and determination we saw in your children and keep it with us tomorrow as we walk into an unfamiliar school. We will remember the kindness and laughter and keep our team mantra in my mind, " we don't say I can't do it, we say I can't do it...yet!"
None of us wanted 'us' to end. We each carry a piece of 'us' with us. I know your children will thrive in their new environments they will continue to question, enquire, create, explore, befriend, care, move, stretch, excel and so much more.
Each Otter and Fox will be on our minds this week. We are full of excitement for the next year. We can all take a little bit of Lister's irresistible learning with us and learn and thrive in our new schools.
Have a wonderful first week at your new school Otters and Foxes, enjoy year one!
This will be our last blog post but it will still be here for you to look back at and remember the fun you had with your friends at Lister school. There are so many good memories in these photographs. They certainly make us smile when we look back over them.
Lots of love Miss Sullivan and Mrs Lewis.
