August - surely any teacher’s favourite month of the year. Not that we don’t love the day job (mostly). But what better month can there be than one where work is entirely on your own terms - if you choose to do any at all - and yet you still get a full pay packet at the end of it? 

Presumably the only thing better than a regular August pay packet is the August pay packet that comes at the start of retirement, when you know that not only will you be paid, but that you’ll finally earn back the money for the effort you put in the summer before you started.

For teachers new to the profession this year, the pre-retirement pay packet may seem a lifetime away - in fact, it pretty much is - but the lure of a new classroom and finally being paid for the job you’ve trained so long for is an exciting time. 

And so it should be. For some, this will be the culmination of a peculiar year’s efforts. For others, however, this might be the coming to fruition of a process that was started back when you were at school yourself.

New teachers must do their own thing

So, for those of you venturing into your own classroom for the first time in September, don’t worry about what everyone else is doing or saying.

Instead, do whatever most appeals to you as you prepare for the new term. There’ll be naysayers and doom-mongers, as well as those who seem to be outstripping your enthusiasm - and neither is wrong, but nor does it mean that you need to follow their lead.

As a new teacher myself, I was desperate to get into school and rearrange my classroom. I remember scouring the school to find spare blue trays, so that my classroom looked a little more organised. I printed labels, timetables and display headings. I backed boards, moved tables and took great pleasure in organising the cupboard that was labelled with my name.

Whether any of it made a difference to the quality of my teaching the following year is not the point: it made me feel ready and excited about the year ahead.

More experienced teachers might tell you not to waste your summer preparing: instead, relax and make the most of your final break before the onslaught. But their experience is not yours, and they may not be remembering their own NQT days quite as accurately as they think. They’re also not in your shoes. 

Teaching is exciting and life-altering

I remember being told at antenatal classes how important it was for both mum and dad to relax and even try to get some sleep in the earliest stages of labour. But what hope of sleep is there, when something both exciting and life-altering is about to start? I knew it was good sense and that I would be tired in the weeks ahead. But I wasn’t world-weary and experienced in the field: I was excited and alert.

Equally, there will be other teachers - some experienced, some new - who seem to have it all under control and then some. If someone is particularly creative and wants to spend hours developing the perfect reading den and laminating every individual letter of their first displays, then let them.

You can take solace from the old curmudgeons who will have done nothing of the sort, and be assured that you don’t have to compete.

If colleagues, friends or social media are making you feel like you’re doing the wrong thing this summer, it’s worth remembering that you’re not being paid yet, so you can do it however you please.

And, sure, maybe things will be different next year - but by then you can focus on the pay packet.

Michael Tidd is headteacher at East Preston Junior School, in West Sussex