My word: end-of-term staff dinners are an experience not easily forgotten. That is, of course, if one remembers them in the first place. In any case, on our last day (and the morning after such a night of revelry), I enjoyed the surreal experience of creeping to my desk in semi-darkness whilst carefully stepping over more senior colleagues foetally curled in deep slumber on the office floor.
Thus initiated, the experience of ending the first year was further heightened by the darkening of the skies (street lights came on!) and the breaking of a storm of truly biblical proportions the likes of which I have yet to witness in London. Of course, coaxing our pupils out into this maelstrom after our early finish was not easy and effectively extending the school year by an hour for staff (now awake) and pupils alike.
I went home and slept until the evening, waking completely disconcerted and confused but with a feeling of wonder which is just about still there a week into the holidays. Let the good times roll! (until September …)
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