Mary Goes Back to School

Wednesday September 29th
Today I was able to go back and visit New Milton Infant School that I taught at in 2007. To be able to do this though, Liz had to check out first that I would be able to actually go into the school. They were having an open day so that helped. Of course none of the children that I taught are at school any longer as this is an Infant school and they are now in Year 5 in the Junior School next door.

So I was signed in and given an identification tag to make my visit official and the locked doors were opened to allow me to pass through. It was great chatting to all the staff at morning tea time; it was like I had never been away. Several have now retired so there were some new faces. I did manage to have a look around the school and was gobsmacked by the improvements and new equipment that had been acquired in only 3 years. The place has had money thrown at it and I had forgotten just how well equipped they are. There is just so much of everything except for reading books.NZ beats them hand down on this one. There is no equivalent to Learning Media and no free school publications.

I was really keen to go next door to the Junior School to see the kids I had taught, so Sandra in the office phoned them up to see if it was possible. Amazingly, they said yes, but I had to wait until they were back in after play. There was no way they were having a “stranger” lurking in the playground at playtime. So I went over and signed in and was taken to one of the year 5 classes. The children all recognised me instantly and I was able to stay long enough to say hello to each one by name. I then went next door to the next class where one of my most memorable kids leapt in the air off his chair and yelled out “Mrs Dean” rather spontaneously. I then went to the third class and picked up on the others who were also surprised but happy to see me. As we had taught in groups across the year group most of the other kids had been taught by me at some stage and were quick to remind me of this. They all looked the same but a bit taller. It occurred to me as I left after only 10 minutes in total that teachers who have never exchanged have no concept of how magic an exchange year is for a teacher and the kids you teach in that year. It is not like a usual year for either the teacher or the children. It is written into your life in indelible ink forever.

I secretly planned to go back at 3.30 when the children were coming out of school so that I could see them informally with their parents but it was raining so heavily at that time, I had to give the idea away as wet days outside a school are messy. So it was a stroke of luck when Andy and Liz found me walking home in the rain and offered me a lift which I accepted.

That evening Liz’s Parents came over for dinner we had a very pleasant time. They had had been so good to us during our year in Barton. Of course we knew them better than Liz and Andy! It ws great catching up and chatting about what we had all been doing over the last three years.