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Most of the London schools are breaking up for the summer holidays between today and Tuesday. I work via an agency as a teaching assistant in a primary school, today was my last contracted day.
Very emotional time. It's hard to say goodbye to kids you've worked closely with for so long, while knowing you're probably never going to see them again. It's hard to trust that whoever is going to replace you will be better at the job than you are, especially if they're coming in cold.
Part of me is thinking it's an educational experience for me as well - learning to let go. Another part of me is like, I don't wanna let go without ensuring these kids have a good replacement in the coming academic year!
I mean, I took a lot of work - establishing trust, patterns of learning that worked for both the pupil and teachers, now it's just sort of up in the air.
And personally, I think the things that worked for me were because of my non-formal-education background, which is kinda rare (most teaching assistant staff are there because it's part of the career route to being a teacher, so there's limited experience in other educational backgrounds)