‘Ah, Tabitha, can you do me a favour, please?’ Gemma waited until she had Tabitha’s attention before continuing. ‘Can you help Ms Groves at the back of the line, please?’
Crossing her arms and beginning to pout, Tabitha’s eyes lit up as Tania thanked her for her help.
‘And let’s see who’s ready to go to the hall for assembly today. Who shall I choose to be our special helpers and hold the doors open for us?’ Gemma walked down the line, tapping her chin with her forefinger as the children straightened their backs.They all loved to be the helpers, and truth be told, they were a lovely bunch of kids, so Gemma kept a list in her drawer to tick off whose turn it was each week. She’d never be able to choose otherwise. ‘Oh, it’s so tricky to choose, but this morning I think we’ll have Jerry and Kelsey on door duty.’
As the two children hurried to the front of the line, an audible sigh swept through the rest of the class.
‘Hey, don’t worry. I’ll be keeping an eye on who are being my fantastic listeners during assembly to see who I choose as our door helpers for on the way back.’ Gemma stifled a smile as the children immediately straightened their backs again and stopped chatting. She loved this about this age group, they were so eager to please and thrived when given responsibility. ‘And let’s go.’
‘I’ll get the next one, Miss Murray.’ After watching as Jerry held open the classroom door for the class to file through, Kelsey walked as fast as she could without full-out running until she reached the door at the end of the corridor and pulled it open.
‘Thank you, Kelsey.’ Gemma five-fived the young girl as she led the class through the school’s foyer towards the hall.
‘Hold up, Gemma.’ The school’s secretary, Joanne, cleared her throat before correcting herself and lowering her voice. ‘Miss Murray. Have you heard?’
‘Yep. That’s why I’m taking assembly today.’ Gemma tapped her guitar case with the palm of her hand. She could almost see the atmosphere buzzing around her, the gossip was so rife.
‘Of course, of course.’ Joanne covered her mouth with her hand and widened her eyes. ‘I can’t believe they sacked her. Just like that. With no warning. What are we supposed to do?’
‘I’m sure Bertie will take the headship. He’s the deputy. We’ll cope just as we always do.’ Yes, it was a shock that Diane had left, but that’s why schools had deputy heads. And whether she’d chosen to leave or circumstances had forced her out, Gemmawas sure they’d all hear in time. Not that it changed the current circumstances, anyway.
‘But that’s the thing, Bertie’s not in this morning either. He arrived, called for the emergency Senior Leadership meeting, took it and then disappeared.’
Gemma paused, and her class came to a stop behind her, waiting patiently. ‘He left?’
‘We’ve not heard a peep from him since the meeting. Not one word.’ Joanne shook her head firmly.
‘Oh, right.’ What was going on then? Something suddenly felt a little odd, and as much as she didn’t want to listen to any rumours or believe something untrue, the absence of both the head and deputy today was strange. And Bertie must have known before them about whatever had happened to Diane, so why had he left immediately after the meeting? It was quite literally his job to step in.
‘Miss Murray.’ Jerry whispered loudly from in front of them as he held the door into the hall open. ‘The other classes are coming in now.’
‘Thanks, Jerry.’ Gemma glanced back at Joanne. ‘Sorry, I should go.’
‘Yes, yes, off you go. I’ll find out what I can.’ Joanne tapped the side of her nose before turning away.
‘Okay, let’s go.’ Walking backwards, Gemma pointed to various children and gave them the thumbs-up, showing them she’d noticed how well they were behaving.
‘Mind the bucket, Miss Murray,’ Jerry parroted what she must have told them a million times over the past three months.
‘Oops!’ Half-tripping, half-jumping to avoid the bucket catching the rainwater from the hall roof, Gemma reached out and steadied the bright yellow‘Wet Floor – Cleaning in Progress’sign before it fell. Hearing a cough and a splutter from behind, she glanced back to see Tania giggling behind her hand.
Waving her hand in front of her mouth as she calmed down, Tania called, ‘Sorry, but you see what I was saying earlier?’
Grimacing, Gemma turned back to face the front of the hall and led the class through the rows of other year groups who were ready and waiting.
The layout of Woodland Primary was a simple one; a large hall was positioned in the middle with corridors leading off the edges, one for the Nursery and Reception classes, which also led past the school foyer, one for Years One and Two, one for Years Three and Four and then the final corridor leading to Years Five and Six. It made sense. It was logical, but the layout also led to the tendency for isolation.
Especially, Gemma had found for the Early Years department. Possibly because their visitors had to make their way past the school foyer before reaching their corridor, or perhaps just because Early Years was always deemed to be a little ‘different’ to the rest of the school. She wasn’t sure, but she knew she wasn’t making it up. People tended to give their department a wide berth. In fairness, when she herself had been teaching in other parts of the school, she’d done the same; she could probably count the number of times she’d ventured into that part of the building on one hand. Not because of any reason other than there hadn’t really been any need. Any resources she’d needed had been kept elsewhere in the building, and so the ‘great divide’ as some had termed it was really probably just a lack of necessity rather than a belief people would catch all the lurgies younger children tended to incubate.
As she led her class towards the front of the hall, Gemma smiled back at the children she’d previously taught as they waved at her. Pointing towards the far end of the row in front, Gemma guided her class to sit down before stepping back and letting Tania help them straighten up as she walked to the front of the hall and unpacked her guitar.
‘Are you sure you’re happy taking this?’ Walking up to her, Annie shielded her mouth with her hand and whispered.
‘Yes, of course.’ Gemma smiled as Annie and the rest of the staff members left the hall. Looking towards the three hundred or so children sitting expectantly in front of her, Gemma grinned. She knew it likely seemed daft to some, but she could quite happily chat or sing in front of hundreds of children but throw a couple of adults into the mix and she’d be a quivering mess. Which was one reason she’d never even thought about moving on or applying for another job. One, because she loved her found family here at Woodland Primary, two, because its location was just so perfect and being only a five-minute walk from home, it would be daft to even think about changing jobs, but three, because the very idea of having to speak in front of a panel of interviewers just about terrified her.
Yes, she might come across as feisty and confident, but even she had limits, and speaking in front of her peers was one of them. She could just about cope with having Penny and Sylvia, two of the loveliest people she’d ever met, who supported a couple of children who needed one-to-one support, in the hall whilst she sang but that was only because she’d trained herself to realise they really wouldn’t think any less of her if she dropped a cord or stumbled over her words.
‘Good morning, everyone.’ Gemma grinned.
