Children...literally the GREATEST distraction there is!

I love my job. I always have and I always will. I began my career as a nursery nurse before becoming a qualified teacher. I've worked at the LA as an EYs advisor, I've led EYFS moderation, I've written books, I train and give speeches to hundreds of people, and I've been offered a full time role as an Early Years trainer...which I turned down on the spot. People ask me "Are you looking to become a deputy?" NO. "Do you want to move into headship?" NO. I'm often asked: "How do you do it all.... teaching, training, keyu, writing, the petitions...family.... LIFE..." The honest answer is I don't know how, and sometimes I simply don't manage at all with my family not getting 100% of me as they should in the evenings, holidays and weekends. I guess many of you can relate to that.

So, you may wonder: Why don't I want promotion to headship or perhaps deputyship?  Why did I turn down that full time training role? Why do I madly try and juggle so much? Because of the children is the answer. Being in practice means so more to me than any other role. During a two year full time LA secondment,  by the end I began to feel a fraud, as I was talking the talk but no longer walking the walk. My heart is in the classroom, and the reason I can write books  and articles  (when 10,000 keyuers don't distract me) or deliver my training in the way I do is because at the end of it all I return to my classroom and to the colleagues, children and families who inspire and sometimes challenge me, each and every day.

I'm luckily enough to be at the point in my career now where I'm a leader who has a balance of teaching and management time during my week as well as my freelance time. Each Monday and Tuesday I head to the nursery office, power up my laptop with a head full of jobs that have been popping into my head from the night before. But then something happens... a child pops his head in and asks me what flavour porridge I'm having today, and I answer I'm not sure. I have two choices....which would he pick? Then he sees a photo of my son on my laptop and we chat about our families.  He eventually leaves and I fire up the data tracking programme where I need to look at the gaps between the children with grey socks and white... but then the power is dying...it's critical and will die in 3 minutes! The laptop lead is in my reception class. I have to run quick...this is an emergency! As I can't be seen to be running by the children, I choose to walk pretty fast down the corridor into my classroom and am greeted by a chorus of "Mrs Bennett!"  from reception children who make me feel like a national sports personality returning home with a trophy. We have a huge group hug (yes I do hug small children). They tell me they love me and missed me (and yes I say it back) and then I get asked to read a story. Now the data and the power lead are out of my head...sharing a book will have far more impact than anything a computer programme can ever tell me, so we sit and share stories and laugh and chat. Suddenly I'm being asked to go outside as someone has mastered a two wheeler bike for the first time EVER and I MUST see it an excited friend tells me...so we go outside hand in hand and watch this special achievement. Another child has  mastered sliding down the fireman's pole, another has learned roly polys on the bars....all things I just have to see. Funnily enough no one is desperate to show their ability to read digraphs or order numbered pebbles. Again the data enters my mind but is quickly pushed aside by the excitement of what I can see happening. Children succeeding, persevering, taking, risks.... I explain I must get back now to do my jobs...but in reality do these jobs really matter? WHAT JOB MATTERS MORE THAN ALL OF THIS? I walk past the outdoor water play area...it's not being used and looks a little dull. I quickly begin to sort the resources,  sort the storage,  move some things around, add a huge bit of guttering a dad has brought in from home. Suddenly the area starts buzzing, children  grabbing aprons, constructing,  testing, measuring, inventing, imagining, talking,  predicting,  wondering, chatting,  cooperating.... I turn to return to my data. Another group hug, some more "I love you's", "when are you coming back's?", faces pressed to the glass window on the door and I'm off... back to the data. Just then I bump into one of the office ladies. A parent has called who has been given a school place with us although we weren't first choice. She's anxious and wants to talk to me. So I call her and reassure her, invite her along for a tour and she thanks me, appreciates the time ive given her and feels happy.

Well the mornings almost gone. I FINALLY return to the office, sit down at the laptop and prepare to compare curly haired to straight haired children. Then I realise. With all the hugs, stories, celebrations and reorganising....I've forgotten the power lead. I can't go back in there again! So I decide to tackle another job for now...although those jobs that kept me awake last popping into my head like bubbles from a bottle of  fizz have popped. Never mind, I know they will pop back tonight at around 2am.

That is why I will never be a deputy or headteacher. I'm far too easily distracted by.....CHILDREN, the very reason I do what I do everyday. What a sad state of affairs when leading a school forwards means more and more time filling forms, juggling numbers and in meetings, more and more time away from the very important reasons that schools need leading....the people within them.