Before that final summer term, there are two uninterrupted weeks of school-free bliss.

But sometimes, no matter how hard you try to leave your teacher-self to one side, certain circumstances mean it creeps back in.

1. Your class 

You love your class, you really do. But it’s Easter Sunday and you’re enjoying the Easter Egg hunt with your family (free chocolate, and preoccupied children for an hour, what’s not to love?) when you see Becky Baker from your class. Then you see her group of friends. And you soon realise most of your class is here. Then you see Becky is crying in the corner because she and your daughter (who attends a different school to prvent these moments) fought it out for the last egg. And your child won. You sigh and go into “teacher mode”. 

2. Your emails

One week in, and your resilience to work is going strong. You’re determined to unwind, and actually enjoy your well-deserved time off. Then, one fatal error throws everything into disarray. You’ve turned on your school laptop to check just one little thing. Then you see it. That little email icon in the corner flashing. Once you’ve seen it, there’s no unseeing it. Four hours and over 50 emails later…

3, Your marking

A couple of days in to the holidays and your wife calls you downstairs. “Why is my mother’s best tablecloth draped over your desk?”. “Don’t move the tablecloth!” you shout, but it’s too late. That pile of marking you’ve been trying desperately to forget is now staring you full in the face. If you listen really carefully, you can almost hear the books crying out for attention: “Mark us, Sir. Use the pink and green highlighters, Sir.”

4. The crafts 

After spending the last week of school overseeing the creation of (obviously, stunning) Easter cards and bonnets, and the consequently painful clear up of the debris, if you never saw yellow arts and crafts again it would be a day too soon. But your parents have got other ideas. One afternoon at their grandparents’ house and your children come back, sticky handed, covered head to toe in glitter, and with cotton wool hanging from their clothes. And they have ideas for more. You give in and reach for the Pritt Stick. 

5. The science project 

A couple of days before you’re due back in the classroom, there’s been something bugging you that you just can’t place. It’s when you’re making a sandwich that it comes flooding back. The bread project. The loaves of bread left on the window sill to cool. The ones you were supposed to give back at home time. The now-mouldy ones that you’ll have to remove first thing on Monday.

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