Last Day of Term!

What is it that makes the last day of term so special? As a parent and teacher's wife I am well used to the way life is split up into terms and holidays, coming one after another in a rhythmic pattern throughout the year. It's a way of life and has been so for as many years as I can remember. We had a brief interlude when no-one was at school or college and no-one was teaching in our family and it was actually bliss! We took holidays when we needed them, not when the requisite number of weeks of term had been completed. We took off to the sun in May, just when the weather was perfect - not too hot and not too cold. We paid reasonable prices for flights and hotel accommodation because it was out of school holiday time.

Not so anymore. Now our world is again punctuated by those half term pauses, two week holidays for Christmas or Easter and, finally, that wonderful last day of the summer term, when teachers and pupils tumble out of school together to rapturously embrace six weeks of glorious well-deserved holiday! Not that I'm complaining about the holidays, just the exploitation by holiday companies!!

However, there's something good about that sense of rhythm that comes with the academic year that is satisfying and carries you through the year with a feeling of a well-ordered existence: a progression of periods of labour followed by well-earned rewards. Friday was the last day of term: cold and snowy, making it hard to get to work and harder still to get home, but still bringing with it that wonderful sense of anticipation that it has always had. Magic! In addition to the Christmas lights, festive decorations and mouthwatering food, visits to family, carols and candlelight and all the mysterious romance that this season holds, it's holiday again and we can put our feet up!

Last day of term - it still feels like something from an Enid Blyton story or the tales of Narnia. I'm still a child at heart! I may prefer to sit by the fire these days rather than to go toboganning or throw snowballs, but there's nothing like the anticipation of a couple of weeks free of work to lift the spirits and warm the heart. Merry Christmas one and all!