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Friday Thoughts 31 - Result!

We have made it through to Friday without reverting to NAVSE and, given where we were this time last week, I call that a result!

I’ll be honest, I have had a turbulent week, as I am sure many of you have too. It started when I was sitting at my desk putting the final touches to the NAVSE II documents last Saturday. Trying to offline simulate what it would look like, I was having flash-backs to NAVSE I and that was not a pleasant feeling. Now, fast forward to today, I am reasonably emotionally stable and looking forward to the sunshine this weekend.


Here are just some of my thoughts from this week:


I had my weekly FaceTime catch-up with my aged parents on Sunday and it started pretty normally with me seeing a screen of pink; not quite used to the idea of a video call, my dad puts the phone to his ear and I have to remind him to look at the screen instead… sometimes I think he does it on purpose! Given that they have been shielding since March, we normally have a chat about what ‘Kind Mr Sainsbury’ has delivered. This week’s excitement was the delivery of parsnips as a substitute for leeks and the ensuing discussion of how leeks and parsnips might be in any way similar. I had a view of the snow out of the window, which was nice, and then my mom was eager to tell me that she had a ‘ping’ on her (test and trace) app to tell her that she should quarantine for 6 days. She found this highly amusing given the only place her and my dad had been was the local private hospital to have a blood test (the NHS hospitals have farmed out such things) and that they were most amused to be quarantining since they don’t go out. I didn’t really think much of it until approximately 3am on Wednesday I suddenly had a panic that, despite shielding for 10 months, my mother had covid after going to a hospital! Fortunately, this was indeed a needless panic, yet one which unsettled me further during an already unsettled week (I had another ‘ear call’ and confirmed they were both safe and well. Indeed, my mother ‘turned green’ at midnight and so she was once again free to (not) go out again. She found this very amusing.


Despite this being a false alarm, and I am so thankful that it was, especially when it hasn’t been for those close to so many of us, it was at this point that I realised I really wasn’t so ‘ok’. I should have known that something was not quite right when I tried to put the kettle back in the fridge on Monday (not completely out of character I have to admit), however I was reacting in an unusually emotional way to things which were happening. I really did need to do something about my wellbeing. I decided to put into practise some of the advice from the ‘5 steps to wellbeing’ NAU course so I decided to reach out and connect more both in and outside of school, I returned to my qigong class, I did a couple of courses on LinkedIn learning (through NAU of course – cheesy corporate plug J) and I have decided what I would like to do for RAK week next week. I don’t know whether any or all of these have contributed to my feeling of increased emotional stability, but I hope that they have made a difference to those I have connected with at least. I have also either read with or booked in to read with all of Reception and Nursery this week or next. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching Y5 maths just as much as I did reading to the Pandas and the Aardvarks and the ‘thank yous for teaching us’ from Y5 were just as touching as the spontaneous hugs from one of the Pandas. The one thing which has never changed for me when I am having a stressful week is the healing power of children. I love my job!


To finish, I would like to refer back to something Andy said to us in briefing on Wednesday. This was in relation to NAVSE II, however I still think it is something we should remember regardless. Support each other, be patient, be kind. I would also like to add ‘assume positive intent’ when dealing with others. We don’t always get things right when talking to one another. We are often busy, stressed, worried about things outside of work and on tenter hooks about a possible closure and may not get it right all of the time. I came across this interesting article from HBR and it has some great advice for all of us.


It’s a quick but powerful read:


For those of you who were sent off kilter with my cricket commentary from last week, fear not. I am back on Spotify! I have been back in the past all week, listening to David Gray on YouTube, and am now back in the past on Spotify, but this time with Sing-Along Indie hits. It’s good old Supergrass now. Love the song, but I really don’t understand how having good dental hygiene means that we are alright.

Happy Friday all.

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