I am Mare, and for the last 41 years I have worked in a very successful primary school in the East of England. I started there as a probationary teacher – that’s what ECTs used to be called in the dark ages – and initially I went for 2 weeks as a supply teacher. That 2 weeks turned into half a term, a term and eventually to a permanent contract.
I was lucky, I had found a school that I believed in and that showed me a way of working and an ethos and philosophy I could embrace. Every time I started to look elsewhere for a promotion, it was found in my school. I got scale posts for various roles of responsibility and then, when it was introduced, I went through threshold.
The school was well established with a very successful Head and Deputy who didn’t look like they were going anywhere, and I didn’t want them to. I loved being a class teacher with my responsibility in different areas around the school. I became Senior Teacher and then Assistant Head.
The Head was always encouraging me to develop my practice and he suggested I look at NPQH – ‘even if you never use it, it is great personal development’ and I have to agree it was great CPD. When my predecessor retired in 2007 I realised how much I had invested in the school and I didn’t want it to change drastically so I applied for the headship and got it!
So for the last 17 years I have been headteacher of an outstanding primary school and I have loved almost every day of it. There have been highs and lows and I have learned an amazing array of things as I have gone along. The school has grown and developed. It has changed, but only in the ways I wanted it to. However, after 41 years it is time to hang up my whistle and school bag and venture into pastures new….. and that’s where Mare’s Musings comes in!
I want to take this opportunity to go on a cathartic journey as I move into retirement and share many of the experiences I have had with you. There has been a lot of laughter, a lot of tears, frustration and anxiety and given the chance, I would do it all again. I will aim to write weekly, unless I am away on a Caribbean cruise, and I hope to give you an insight into the life of a headteacher.
Some of these blogs will touch on the laughter, some on the tears and where people or places are mentioned, the names will be changed to protect the anonymity of those involved.
My first musing is entitled – How do you Retire after 41 years in the same place of work?
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