How was it for you?

This will just be a short blog as I’m having my #SBMLunch and in reflective mood. Its day two following my return from my two week holiday and I’m determined to my manage work /life balance better. The irony that I’m eating my lunch and writing a blog about working! But this afternoon I am going to leave work on time to meet up with dear friends who work TTO. So maybe there is some work / life balance if you look hard enough?

So how was your Term 7? Did you get through your list? I decided to create a spreadsheet to track my work, it is currently telling me that out of 145 tasks, 102 are complete, 29 are in progress and 14 are awaiting my attention. I’m quite pleased with this as Term 7 has been unexpectedly tricky. I had been so looking forward to working with my two AYR admin team during Term 7, catching up and dealing with all the things we had gleefully put to one side to deal with in Term 7. As well as managing a whole load of maintenance contractors. But life always throws a curve ball and I ended up spending the second week of Term 7 working remotely from my brother’s house up north (Leeds) and looking after my Dad whilst my Mum was in hospital following a medical emergency. They had been housesitting for my brother whilst he was on holiday.

My parents normally live 15 minutes from me, so the timing of the medical emergency was quite unfortunate (when are they not?!). It was made worse by my Dad still recovering from his pacemaker op (OMG pacemakers are amazing), anyway we got through it. They’re both recovering well and I think that I quite suit grey hair and it would appear that the early morning dash up north didn’t result in any speeding tickets. The following weeks were a mix of one or other of the AYR team being on leave. My golden moment in Term 7 had been eclipsed. Or maybe my Term 7 golden moment was seeing the NHS in action? They really are awesome.

Back in March I wrote about Endoftermitus, maybe there is a phrase we should employ to describe the return to work. Currently I cannot think of anything, but I know my SBL colleagues will have some witty and appropriate suggestions I’m sure. Please share! In April, I wrote about returning to work and I raised a glass of gin to you all wishing you and your schools a successful and happy Term 5. Well now I raise a nearly cold cup of tea to you all wishing you and your schools a successful and happy Term 1. I best sign off now, I want to meet up with TTO working friends in a couple of hours, I just hope I don’t bite my tongue off or explode when they mention their regret about their impending return to work after 6 weeks off.

Helen Burge

SBL, St Anne’s Church Academy