So time ticks on as usual as we head towards the end of the academic year. The Junior Production was very successful as was the Summer Fayre, SIAS inspection and today's end of year Prize Giving. All that remains of the end of term celebrations are the Governors meeting, Leavers Service, disco/party, reports and the completion and distribution of the school magazine. It is exhausting. Utterly exhausting. The kids begin to wind down for the year and it's quite an effort to keep them going just when we need them to!

Prize Giving is always emotional for me. I think it is because they are all leaving, not just moving on to another class. Being the oldest they seem to have a greater understanding of it all. Every year I get up to say my piece and announce my awards and I look at their faces as they return my gaze. I watch as they nod and appreciate eachother's efforts and recognition. It never ceases to amaze us how willing our children are, even the youngest, to give eachother a pat on the back when they feel someone else deserves something, often something they themselves would have liked. It is something our children do very well and is rare, certainly in the schools I have worked in anyway. So I stand up there and look at them and inevitably words fail me, every year I try to fight back the tears that come from being so proud of all of them. The kids know, the staff know and the parents know and it has become something of a joke as to whether I will manage it before the floodgates open. We spend so much time with the children in our classes, we know them so well. Know what they are thinking as they sit there and know what each little smile, sparkle or grimace might mean. The hardest but the proudest thing about this job is watching them go. Even though you know they are ready (as they ever are), you know you have done everything you can to help them and you know it is scary and tough for them, you know they dont want to go, you know they are desperate to go! Even though you know all this you watch with pride and sadness as they head off to start on their next journey. Hard as you know within weeks they will have forgotten most of what you have done but proud that it is because they are ready.

In other news, well nothing much has changed. Nik is lovely, the cats are furry and I am tired! Looking forward to taking some time off this summer.

Or at least I think I am, haven't had a chance to think about it yet!

Meanwhile the clock ticks over and over.