Traditionally Modern
For many, this is the middle, more or less, of the year, but for those who work in the teaching profession, or for families with children starting a new school in September, next month is something of a new start.
Soon we will see the signs in the shops encouraging us to restock pencil cases and buy endless stationery - which pens will be the collector’s items this academic year?
I am just coming to the end of my first year here at Hanford and so I have seen each school event over the course of that year and can appreciate the richness of the school’s traditions. All schools have their quirky practices, but I have particularly enjoyed some of the more novel ideas at Hanford. The Teachers’ Tea Party, organised by Year 8 girls who are leaving Hanford to go on to senior schools, has got to be one of the highlights (see pictures above).
For days before the event, the girls are busy planning the menu, then baking and making. They lay out a long table in the gardens and decorate it with sweet peas - a Hanford favourite.
On the day, the Leavers wear dresses they have made in Handwork (aka textiles in other schools), serve the teachers and it’s rather nice to be the ones sitting down for a change. Once the teachers are all served, the girls join in the tea and the afternoon extends into the evening.
I wasn’t looking forward to the Hanford ‘Scares and Dares’ evening on the last day of the Summer Term.
It sounded like a recipe for disaster. For the first element, the teachers secrete themselves around the school site after dark.
The girls, again the seniors whose last night it is at Hanford, have a set circuit to follow, and we teachers all set up scary scenarios in our allocated areas. I should imagine the screams were heard in the neighbouring village! In return, the girls then sneak out later under cover of darkness and rearrange the school. This year we had the pyramids of Egypt set up in a classroom with desks and books piled high. Thoughtfully, the girls had written warning signs and provided a risk assessment for those about to enter! Another classroom was transformed into a Jurassic scene (the geography room, of course).
A full set of laid up dining tables a deux were discovered in the playground, Teachers' date night, apparently, and a folders maze provided a challenge to navigate.
What was lovely about all these dares was that they were funny and creative, and no damage was done. The girls looked after their school. When Old Girls come back to visit, they all vividly recall these memories and are delighted to find that the Scares remain pretty much the same.
These memories are vivid and live on well after their sell by date. It's so important to create lasting memories for our children.
Childhood is the briefest blink, and our children get one shot at it, so it is our responsibility to ensure that it’s absolutely the best shot they can have.
It's not hard to create amazing memories and the simplest ones are often the best. The summer is an ideal time to build up your stock of memories and we are lucky that here in Dorset there is so much going on and so many lovely places to visit. But you don’t really need to leave home. I remember making miniature gardens on a plate when I was little. It often used to be a competition class at a local fête, but there doesn’t seem to be much of that sort of thing around nowadays.
Is it because competition is seen as a negative thing?
Competition isn’t negative; it’s how we win and lose that is key. I also remember the “turn a potato into a character” competition, the theme park for insects, how many items can you fit into a matchbox (it must still open and close properly) and guess the weight or how many somethings (sweets/stones/marbles) in a jar.
Because I am a teacher, I must add that playing around with these ideas at home can really help with maths skills, spatial awareness and much more, but mainly, they are just great fun!
None of these activities cost much, if anything, in terms of money, but they do cost in terms of time. But that is what our children need, and it seems to be in short supply nowadays. So it is worth the investment in time to collect up the materials and tidy them up afterwards. To you it may just be a mess, but to your child, it’s one more piece building the memory jigsaw of their lives.
Have a great rest of the summer!
Where Next?
