97. Blast from the past

On Thursday I went to visit my old school. Obviously, normally, I don’t get the opportunity because I’m not usually able to go home during term time. I saw K and N, 2 of my best friends, but also some of the rest of my old department, support staff, other teachers and admin staff too. I’m really happy at my new school, but the staff at my old school were much more, should we say, INTERESTING (read nuts). I also met quite a few of my old pupils, including a real favourite, who looked horrified to see me with cancer hair (I went in bald). Poor little love. I wish I’d had K warn her.

Going to the old place awakened a few ghosts really. Like I said, I like my new school but the staff at the old one were a lot more fun than most of the staff at the new place. I’ve made some friends where I am now, but other than them, the teaching staff in particular, are a lot older than I’m used to. Which makes for a quieter and a lot less lively school.

Not everyone there knew about the cancer, so there were a lot of shocked faces. Also, other than those that I’d known well, people weren’t entirely sure at first who I was. I’ve put on loads of weight since I was there, some of it due to the steroids, some not. Combined with my lack of hair, I suppose I DO look very different and not in a good way.

I didn’t get to see my old head of department, which was a shame, because I was very fond of her and also have a lot of respect for her. She’s absolutely brilliant at her job, both as a HOD and as a teacher and I aspire to be able to teach as well as she does. The English department there ran like clockwork and I miss that too.

I did manage to miss one of the English teachers that I really couldn’t bear. Somehow, despite having little knowledge of her subject AND doing very little teaching ( the use of DVDs to keep the pupils quiet featured prominently in her lessons) resulting in little pupil progress, she has managed a couple of promotions based on the use of her feminine wiles (blond hair, feigning innocence and the use of tears). If only she’d get pregnant and leave. Unfortunately, it appears that she’s infertile.