I had another topic entirely on my mind today…. But then the end of term School Celebration happened.

 

The school really did themselves proud.  Not only did the children perform their little hearts out… (even my boys who really hate being on stage, unless it is the sports ‘stage’ or sing in public unless it is in the car) but so did the teachers!  A truly magnificent rendition of ‘Les Miserables’… a brilliant example to our children that that adults and even teachers also have to step outside their comfort zones, sing and perform when it isn’t their forte and still get a resounding standing ovation.

 

This performance also reminded me of the saying ‘behind every great (or successful) man, there is a great woman’.

 

And so it highlighted that behind each great school and great student, is a great head teacher.  And today’s celebration recognised that behind every great head teacher is a great team of teachers, support staff, groundsmen and chefs…

 

While toasting to the end of a successful year with the many new friends and a few old friends, I also realised that the very well known saying was also missing a line…

 

‘Behind every great man, there is a great woman.  Behind every great woman, there is a group of even greater women.’

 

In any decade of my life – at school, uni, work, home… there has always been a strong group of women around me that had lifted me in low periods, and when I have contributed to supporting them in their periods of darkness…

 

I would not have made it through this first school year without many of the incredible new friends I have made who have shown warmth, smiles and friendship through a tricky and emotional year…  some of whom have also had their own trials, tribulations, heartaches, illness and ‘sandwich’ issues of their own.

 

I would have not have made it through without one particular strong group of friends who had my back and caught me when I faltered, showed tough love just as much as compassion and empathy.

 

Here’s to the next 10 years!