Tuesday One of our defenders - let’s call him Rio - plays up. He’s left his bag in his previous classroom. I sort him out: exercise book, Macbeth, pen. On he moans. When the bell goes, I have a word. After afternoon registration, I talk to Mum on the phone. Funny, but I’ve never seen him argue with a referee.

Wednesday Pete and I meet to discuss fundraising. The school has organised a lot of successful trips over the years, but nothing as ambitious as this: three weeks halfway round the world, playing teams we only know through email and the internet, seeing some of the finest scenery. The parents - all 19 sets of them - are going to debit pound;50 a month until we go next July. If we don’t make it, then they will be refunded. It’s down to us to find the rest. There’ll be a disco Friday night, a tuck shop after school, and - Pete invokes the blessing of St John Rigby - Selhurst Park for the Bromley cup final, our local knockout competition. I promise to do a bit of digging; I have some contacts in fundraising, plus a few ideas of my own.

Thursday I get a call from the father of a boy in my form. His son has been seriously ill in hospital and is so fed up - with school, his parents, being unwell - that he’s refusing to return. I promise to visit him. It puts Australia in perspective.

Friday The day of the disco, our first fundraiser. At briefing, Pete tells me Selhurst Park is in the bag. And to make it a hat-trick, the lad who was threatening never to come back is in registration. I go off to bus duty with the tune of “Summer Holiday” in my head, the distant surf murmuring on the wind.

John O’Donoghue teaches at John Rigby Catholic College in West Wickham, Kent