Pretty Start

It was cloudy at first but then the sun peeped through and turned out really pretty. 

I got up hauled myself out of bed a bit earlier this morning. I had my class assembly and I figured a few extra minutes before work might be less stressful than being late ;-) 

I was really nervous. Not because of the children, or the topic, I've done loads of them. Thankfully we only have to do it once a year, but parents come and the rest of the school watch, so it's more pressure I guess. I mean from the parents! The rest I don't mind about. 

I had a brainwave in half term. I heard a song I liked, then planned my assembly around it. I decided to make a video of the children talking about the best things about themselves (non-academic of course), and also some fly-on-the-wall footage of them at work, set to nice music.

I worked on it all week, and finished it last weekend. It was difficult as the format wasn't compatible for Windows at school, but the IT lady thankfully converted it and saved the day! 

I did not tell anybody, only one friend what I was doing. I was afraid I might have misjudged it, that it might be a little bit outside the box, or that parents might not approve. (I checked first that everybody was allowed to be filmed). But deep down I also had a gut feeling that they would love it as much as I did. A little glimpse into the daily classroom life of their children. Children always photograph and film well, there's something about such bright eyes and smooth, flawless skin on little faces! But to me it was my time to not conform. My little way of speaking out I suppose. The song was called "Your Best", and its lyrics just spoke to me. I think I wanted them to see what I see. I wanted them to know that it's not all about academia, it's about life, and being the best you that you can be. 

My hands were shaking as we neared the end. I never once looked behind at the audience during the whole assembly, but I do remember lots of "ah!" as they watched. 

When we were finished, my boss suggested that they would probably want it published so that they could see it again, and that we'd have to get permission, and went off to ask them. They did! 

I'm not very good at accepting compliments, but one mum said it was the best assembly she'd been to (and she's been to loads!), and another mum said it was inspirational ;-) It was lovely to see that we cared about them as people, and not just getting results. 

A grandmother of a little boy in my class who comes into hear readers every week came and out her arm around me, and said it was amazing. We laughed with her, and my lovely TA, S, said if we had a note today from parents about not changing reading books frequently enough she'd happily throttle them ;-) (She hoped they could see that it had taken rather a lot of time out of our normal schedule to put it together). 

I haven't published the video yet, but if you're interested, here's the song I used :-) 

Your Best