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When you were at school, did being at school feel a bit strange after a familiar teacher had left or retired, and so they were no longer at the school?
It's almost as if they had completely disappeared from the face of the Earth if you like - just like at weekends, as Roald Dahl's Matilda had observed - teachers appear from nowhere from 8.30 am to 4.00 pm Monday to Friday, and then at weekends and holidays they disappear, unless, and they come back for the next school day, unless they have a day off in the week as well due to working part-time. But I am referring to those who leave for the last time, and it is just as strange seeing new teachers there who had probably taken their place. It feels as if the person in question has passed away or something.
Perhaps it was the first day of term and you find a different teacher inside a classroom with seemed to be strongly associated by one teacher?
At the end of Year 4 (Second Year Juniors as it was back in July 1987), our class teacher left to go to a teaching post on the other side of the world, and in September of that year when we had came back from the summer holidays, it felt strange passing by her old classroom, knowing she was no longer there. Some even referred to the room as "Mrs So-and-so's Room" a few years after she had left. On the other hand, one or two teachers who had retired had come back on the odd day to do some supply teaching, and there was one teacher who left my Infant school to reappear at my Junior school a couple of years later!
We had a form tutor who left at Christmas 1989 and so we had someone else for the spring and summer term which I felt was a bit hectic leaving in the middle of the school year, even if it was at the end of the calendar year. And the probability is that when a nice teacher leaves, her successor will always be someone who is strict - it always seemed to happen like that, doesn't it?
Me and a few others gave our Science teacher a good send off when she retired in July 1992 after 18 years' service - she threw a special lunch in her room over lunch on the final day, and as monitors we were allowed to be part of it. There was a Maths teacher who left just after two terms and she was alright - shall we say that her replacement was strict in comparison? The school staff list in the parents' handbook had listed a teacher's name who had left the previous July in error, while his replacement wasn't listed on that page. And someone had asked another teacher where Miss X was having been to her old room, only to realise that she had left the previous July as well.
And the same school had closed three years later, which meant all the teachers had left to go onto pastures new - I have always wondered which ones would have left or retired anyway, even if the school had remained open.
Did it really feel strange going to school and realising that some familiar faces have moved on?
It's almost as if they had completely disappeared from the face of the Earth if you like - just like at weekends, as Roald Dahl's Matilda had observed - teachers appear from nowhere from 8.30 am to 4.00 pm Monday to Friday, and then at weekends and holidays they disappear, unless, and they come back for the next school day, unless they have a day off in the week as well due to working part-time. But I am referring to those who leave for the last time, and it is just as strange seeing new teachers there who had probably taken their place. It feels as if the person in question has passed away or something.
Perhaps it was the first day of term and you find a different teacher inside a classroom with seemed to be strongly associated by one teacher?
At the end of Year 4 (Second Year Juniors as it was back in July 1987), our class teacher left to go to a teaching post on the other side of the world, and in September of that year when we had came back from the summer holidays, it felt strange passing by her old classroom, knowing she was no longer there. Some even referred to the room as "Mrs So-and-so's Room" a few years after she had left. On the other hand, one or two teachers who had retired had come back on the odd day to do some supply teaching, and there was one teacher who left my Infant school to reappear at my Junior school a couple of years later!
We had a form tutor who left at Christmas 1989 and so we had someone else for the spring and summer term which I felt was a bit hectic leaving in the middle of the school year, even if it was at the end of the calendar year. And the probability is that when a nice teacher leaves, her successor will always be someone who is strict - it always seemed to happen like that, doesn't it?
Me and a few others gave our Science teacher a good send off when she retired in July 1992 after 18 years' service - she threw a special lunch in her room over lunch on the final day, and as monitors we were allowed to be part of it. There was a Maths teacher who left just after two terms and she was alright - shall we say that her replacement was strict in comparison? The school staff list in the parents' handbook had listed a teacher's name who had left the previous July in error, while his replacement wasn't listed on that page. And someone had asked another teacher where Miss X was having been to her old room, only to realise that she had left the previous July as well.
And the same school had closed three years later, which meant all the teachers had left to go onto pastures new - I have always wondered which ones would have left or retired anyway, even if the school had remained open.
Did it really feel strange going to school and realising that some familiar faces have moved on?
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