It is never easy to say goodbye to loved ones and I am certainly no different, to other people, when it comes to saying goodbye to our pre-school children.
I have never been the sort of teacher who can see them off at the end of term and forget them. This current cohort of four years olds have been with me for at least one year but in most cases have been with me since the very beginning of our journey here.
Until February this year I taught the group full time and handed over the reins to Miss Lewis, the teacher, quite reluctantly. I worried that I wouldn’t be happy, not teaching the group each day. But I knew too that the Prepatoria, staff and children, needed me to fulfil my other roles as leader and manager. I have found the transition easy but this is because much of my day is in close contact with ‘my children’
But today is the final day with them. I have been moved to tears at the lovely cards and thanks from my families. Overwhelmed at the generous gifts but enormously delighted in the huge successes of this group
They have achieved that which I desired most of all. I wanted each child to be able to sit on the carpet, in front of their new teacher, and feel capable, confident, excited, motivated, knowledgeable but with a thirst for even more knowledge. Of course I want them to feel loved too, and they have been. And I have been loved in return and there is no gift greater than that.
