The bags are packed; the walls are stripped of the artwork with only borders left and patches where the sun has bleached the paper around the artwork. The art corner paints are packed away and the Wellington boot stand lies empty, apart from one lone pair of boots that has been forgotten. I have experience the end of the school year both as a teacher and now as a mother. When I was a teacher the end of the school year was a time of exhale, the term was over and it was time to relax, to look forward to free days with necessary planning but time to dream, plan and read fiction. As a mother the holiday is something that I plan for now. It’s my time to provide the activities and do the planning, to make sure that we are stocked with glitter glue and stick on gems. Now I am a coach I look at the end of the school year with new eyes and look to it as a microcosm of change, of ending and beginnings and I find that it has much to tell me.
Celebration – In school these were the end of school concert, the class picnic – held inside due to rain and pumped up on sugar and the last day of term, with parents invited before pick up time to spend the last moments of the school year with their child. What can you celebrate that you achieved in the school year and how will you celebrate it?
Graduation – We all move from one part of our lives to another. I will soon be finishing my Martha Beck Coach training and this will be a transition time for me. What transitions have you made or are coming up for you? How will you acknowledge and celebrate them?
Clearing out – The class note said please check the spoons box to see if any are from home. At the end of the class year the teacher goes through the classroom to see what is needed and what is no longer needed. What are the spoons in your life that need to be sent home?
Demonstration – the work is sent home, the songs are practised until the day of the show when they are performed. How can you show your work? Say ‘Look here is what I have done.’ Can you hold your picture up for the world to see?
A new teacher to come – I love to learn and there is always a new teacher to come. Who is your next teacher?
Holidays planned – Schools have regular breaks throughout the day and the year. Do you?
Gratitude – My little one was delighted to give flowers to the teachers who had helped her all year, two class teachers, the music teacher and her gym teacher (we could not find him that day). She was as excited to give, as she is to receive. What giving would make you feel grateful to give?
Memento: A graduating class were each given a sunflower to take home. What reminders can you have to remember what you have achieved and where you have been and who you have loved?
The empty school with admin staff – sometimes in our own work, the admin still needs to get done to prepare for the next creation.
The learning never stops, children keep growing – your learning never stops, you have the opportunity to keep growing.
What lessons have you learnt from the end of the school year?