October 31st: it’s a nightmare, isn’t it? I don’t mean the Halloween thing, even though the whole ‘trick-or-treat’ business doesn’t exactly focus young minds (rather scrambling them with E numbers).
I mean it heralds the end of the half-term break. It’s back to school for the long and winding run-up to Christmas, and regardless of how long it actually is, we invariably need to finish about three weeks sooner. Returning to school in a blustery November seems neither here nor there. It’s not Christmas, and come the 6th November, we’re in educational limbo. No-one’s in work mode, that first flush of September has long since receded, and the John Lewis advert has only just landed.
But just ‘cos it isn’t Christmas, and a brand-new class isn’t quite so shiny and new anymore, doesn’t mean that it’s an ‘isn’t’.
In actual fact, it is all part of the amazing learning journey that I’m going to liken to the Yellow Brick Road. See, we all know that it’s about the journey not the destination. If it’s in school, that must make it a learning journey. An utterly brilliant journey is full of heart – passion is contagious. If you’re genuinely up for the adventure, the children aren’t far behind. They care if you care (even if they don’t always care to show it!).
It takes brains to teach and more brains to learn. The classroom truly is the place where great minds meet; it’s often hard to see the join. Perhaps more importantly of all, it takes a healthy dollop of courage to change the narrative. It’s not a long and winding road to Christmas. It’s now, and it’s simply the most wonderful time of the year. That is, if you’re prepared to share a little of the magic that the best teachers always seem to find.
And find it you will. It’s not languishing behind a curtain, see, pulling levers, assessing without levels and ticking boxes. It’s within. If you can wake up in the morning and click your heels three times, and put your best foot forward, whatever the time of year, there really is no place like school.
Go on. Try it. The wind’s getting up…