A New School Year

It is the first day back at school for many young people today - and the teachers went back a couple of days ago. I used to look forward to the first day of school - as a pupil and as a teacher! The preparation before going back was very important. As a pupil I had to get a new folder, a new pad of paper, new pens and pencils, and occasionally a new pencil case. However, I didn't have a new pencil case every year - and I still have the cotton pencil case I bought when I was about 16; it is a Friends of the Earth pencil case. I remember that there used to be a craze for pencil tins as well, I don't have any from my childhood, but I do have one that I bought over 12 years ago, when I did AS French as an evening class. I do love a good pencil case. One of my favourites is a barrel type one, in a dusky rose pink colour - made of leather I think. I bought it in Berlin when there in 2011 with Mum. If I remember correctly, she discouraged me from getting it, asking what I needed a pencil case for. I don't remember my response, but I knew that I wanted to have it, to show how things are different in Germany - something that I could show my classes - if I ever taught again.

This special German pencil case - did I use it? Yes, I did, and I do. It is in my craft room, and contains pens and pencils that I use for quilting and for card-making. In trying to get organised, I think it is important to have different pencil cases for different things. Imagine the frustration of having a pencil case full of colouring pens and pencils, and not being able to find a Biro to write with, or a pencil to draw with.

As a teacher a full pencil case is important; how many times have pupils asked if they can borrow a pen or a pencil. Having a pencil case full of loan items was vital - the loan items were the ones that I didn't mind (so much) not getting back. A couple of years ago, when doing maternity cover, I suggested to my pupils that there was a bit of money to be made, if some of them wanted to become entrepreneurs. I suggested that they buy a pack of pens from the local supermarket - 10 pens for 28p (at the time) - and they could then sell those pens on to their peers for 5p or 10p a time - and make a bit of profit. Two or three of the pens in the pack were red, so wouldn't be so useful, but it could have been a good little sideline; great oaks from little acorns and all that...

I did have to buy a new pencil case 7 years ago. I lost the pencil case I had bought when interrailing. It was black, with metallic coloured spots on it. It may have been designed as a make-up bag, but I liked the size and design, and thought it perfect for holding gel pens. I liked the gel pen craze. I bought lots of them - the multicoloured ones, the pastel ones, the metallic ones; they used to brighten up my marking - using a different coloured pen, rather than boring and rather threatening red. One day, tragedy struck; I lost that pencil case - I don't know where. Thinking back now, I'm wondering - did I lose it? Was it taken? Did it somehow fall out of the car? All of these are possible, but I think it simply went - and with it, a data stick as well. Looking back now, I can read things into this event: maybe it was a sign of things to come, that losing my pencil case was the first step to stopping teaching. It is easy to create such links when looking back.

Oh, the first days of a new school year as a pupil - coming home, writing out the timetable in several different places, including having one at home. Writing the homework tasks neatly in the homework diary - and then as the year went on, the writing was not so neat, the pages were not as tidy. I had a thing for the shop bought academic student year diaries - and at the time, there was only WHSmith for buying such things. They always seemed to have interesting facts in them, useful information, helpful hints.

Then we come to the first days of a new school year as a teacher: meeting those eager year 7 pupils, seeing the tutor group again, laying down the ground rules, and coming up with seating plans. We would have already received our Teacher's Planner and Academic Diary in the previous school year, and if we were lucky, we would have also received our class lists and timetable. Almost inevitably, once the new school year started, there would be changes to class lists, additions - and that meant adding a name at the bottom of the mark book, and changing the seating plan - again. The planner was meticulously filled in, with lessons carefully planned, homework set with a date due - and for me this lasted a couple of weeks. In time, the lessons were planned, but not written out in the planner quite so carefully, not so in-depth. I had the confidence to know what I was doing, what I wanted to achieve in the lesson, and what was likely to be achieved. As the years went on, my lessons were planned on the computer - using PowerPoint presentations and the Interactive whiteboard software to replace all the notes in the planner.

I no longer teach in a school, and my husband has just retired. However, we still look after young people who are going back to school. I see this time of year - a new school year - as a time for a fresh start. Now is a good time to get jobs done, to make plans and timetables and to work on them. To work on new projects, and to complete old ones. A time to have a 'spring-clean' - except I suppose we should call it an autumn clean! It is a time for making new year resolutions, or revisiting the ones from the start of the year and starting them again. Now is a great time to plan - and having planned, get doing!