The bliss of my lovely year 7s

It is the end of my first week back at school and the days seem to have flown past in a whirl of briefings, whole-staff meetings, department meetings, tutor meetings and the odd lesson thrown in here and there. 

Motivational speeches have been given by senior staff and many a holiday story has been swapped over a rushed cup of tea in the staffroom.

Evenings have been spent creating colourful key word displays and papering classroom walls ready to be adorned with the, what will obviously be, stupendously inspiring work soon to be produced by my delightful new classes. 

Amid the hurry and the busy preparations for a new school year, the highlight of my week has been starting to get to know my year 7 tutor group. On their first day nerves were tangible and initially it was difficult to distinguish between the small, uncertain faces peering timidly from oversized blazers. Even when sent out to break they jittered awkwardly in large clusters, gazing about themselves with the dazed look of startled rabbits.