First day down!

Well, I did it - and it was OK.

I was made to feel very welcome by other colleagues, lots of compliments on my new clothes and makeup. That was nice. Neither the head nor deputy made any attempt to greet me - but that was no surprise.

I spent an hour before teaching sorting out my pigeonhole - well, some of it. It's all now filed - under "R" for rubbish.

Went up to my lesson 10 minutes early (during break) to make sure I was ready. While setting up my laptop I heard pupils (from the oldest year group) arriving and lots of comments (meant for me to hear, I suspect!) about "I can't remember where I'm supposed to sit. Luckily (!) for them that wasn't a problem - as they came in I told each of them where I wanted them to sit! I think that made them realise I was no soft touch, and they behaved quite well (apart from an apparent failure to follow simple instructions!)

The second lesson also went well - the opposite end of the age range these, and one pupil presented me with a card she had made to show she was pleased I was back. Very sweet!

There were (of course!) a couple of technical problems, which I wrote down (surprisingly the online fault reporting system has not materialised) to pass on to the technician. But I coped with these without problems. I tried all morning to take nothing too seriously, and largely succeeded.

This afternoon I did some sewing, had a massage and then went to collect my daughters from their after school activities. While collecting younger daughter I also managed to spend 10 minutes going through my maths group with the assistant head, who is writing their reports. I'm happy, because I don't have to do the reports (which have to be completed this week); she is happy because I gave her comments and effort grades.

So, all in all a success. Plus the next two days only contain one lesson each as two year groups have Science activity days while I would normally be teaching them. I have a psychotherapy session tomorrow and am feeling positive about it - lots of achievements to share and a few aspects I'd like to explore (around not taking thisn too seriously or personally).

Thanks for the prayers / good wishes / comments.