SATURDAY Heritage day in the town brings one member of staff dressed as the ghost of the school’s 18th-century owner (replete with wig and copious amounts of spooky talcum powder). In brilliant sunshine I strive to provide macabre photographs for a later display. He is a very obliging ghost.
SUNDAY It’s the local society wedding of the year; one guest arrives by helicopter on the school playing fields. We restrain the children in the heaving wind. Later, they are invited to explore the cockpit.
MONDAY More wind as the summer ends abruptly in Suffolk. I take one small boy out to the grounds in a stronger gust than the helicopter blades produced. The rain sweeps in fiercely: from the attic windows I watch the brown grass turn green. The headmaster and a governor join me but they’re watching for damp patches in the ceilings.
TUESDAY I take the pupils to their ballet lesson and meet the mother of one of the first girls I ever taught (30 years ago). She’s the ballet teacher.
WEDNESDAY I’m getting used to the room the school has provided, but I’m bothered by my electric kettle; it keeps switching itself on when I am 20ft away. I must keep water in it, or I’ll soon need a new one.
THURSDAY A small boy tells me he wants to follow his mother in joining the nearby senior school when he is older. I taught her as well! Tomorrow is the first exeat and a chance to produce my ghostly display. Perhaps I should add some ghosts of my own...
Doreen Young recently retired from teaching and is currently housemothermatron at a preparatory school in Suffolk
