‘Good morning, Miss Murray. Good morning, everyone.’ The school replied.
‘Who wants to begin the week with one of our fun sing-alongs?’ Gemma grinned as a cheer swept around the hall. ‘Fantastic, let’s begin with‘Our School’.’
Another cheer rose from the children. Gemma had known it would. They loved that song. Grabbing a stool from beneath the large projector screen at the front of the hall, Gemma perched on it and brought her guitar around to rest on her lap. As she beganto sing, it didn’t take long for the children to join her, and as they transitioned into the next song, with a little encouragement from Sylvia and Penny, almost every child in the hall began to join in with the actions.
As they came to the chorus, Gemma laughed as the children stood up, ready to join in the chorus’s actions. She continued to sing and strum the guitar as everyone in the room stomped their feet and waved their hands in the air. This was why this song was a firm favourite of both the children and the adults alike. The children loved it because they could get on their feet and dance, which wasn’t usually allowed during a normal assembly, and the adults loved it because not only did it wake the children up before their first lesson of the day, but it also released some excess energy.
As the chorus came to an end and the children settled back down for the next verse, Gemma noticed a group of people standing at the back of the hall. Three men and two women, each wearing dark suits, were watching her. She gulped, her mind going blank about what the next line should be as her fingers stopped moving. Blinking, she glanced towards the children in the front row as they continued to sing and she quickly found her spot again, forcing a smile.
Suits only meant one thing in this school - that the people standing, fixated on her every move, were from the academy trust. She wasn’t usually bothered by them as she’d had times when they’d observe her teaching before spending what felt like hours poring over children’s work and flicking through her planning folders, and not so much as one word of feedback was given to her. So she’d long ago given up planning any special lessons to be observed on or anything, she’d decided if she wasn’t going to get any feedback anyway, what was the point of worrying endlessly over whether her lessons were resourced up to the eyeballs or not. After all, in her eyes, she gave her all toevery lesson so if what she was doing on a normal day-to-day basis wasn’t good enough then… Not that she’d hear from them, anyway.
As she caught the eye of one of the men, she felt her cheeks warm with self-consciousness. If he hadn’t been standing there looking so righteous in his suit, then she might – against her better judgement of course – have found him cute. If she’d noticed him in a bar with a smile taking place of his scowl, she might have been tempted to flirt with him. Not because she had any inclination of chasing a relationship, but just because.
Forcing herself to break the gaze, she focused on the children in front of her as they once again stood up to join in the actions of the chorus.
When the chorus ended and the children sat down again, Gemma looked once more towards the back of the hall. The suits had gone. She shook her head slightly. She wasn’t going to let them worry her. She’d learned soon after the trust took the primary school over that the majority of people working at the head office, or HQ as they’d termed it, had never set foot inside a classroom as an adult. They could judge, but they didn’t really know what the day-to-day runnings of a classroom were.
She glanced towards Sylvia and raised her eyebrows questioningly. In response, Sylvia shrugged, which confirmed Gemma hadn’t missed a memo. They hadn’t been expecting visitors today, which could only mean one thing, the visit had something to do with Diane’s sudden disappearance and perhaps Bertie’s too.
‘Miss Murray, what song are we going to sing next?’ Oliver, one of the children she’d taught last year, raised his hand as he called towards her.
‘Sorry, everyone. Let me think…’ She tapped the palm of her hand against her guitar before breaking into the next song.
Chapter Four
‘Do you think we’ll find out what’s going on now?’ Gemma leaned against the doorframe to Annie’s classroom, her notebook clutched to her chest. She’d spent the day trying her best not to worry about the suits who had watched her assembly and between that, dealing with three incidents of children wetting themselves, four scraped knees and a bout of sickness, of which she was still wearing said sick spray across the lower legs of her trousers, Gemma was ready for home and could do without this staff meeting.
‘I certainly hope so. I’ve got a stack of assessments to update tonight, which I would have forced myself to get done over the weekend if I’d known this meeting would be called.’ Grabbing a notebook and pen, Annie switched the lights off before joining her at the door. ‘I’m quite honestly kicking myself for spending so long at my sister’s house yesterday rather than making a start.’
‘They’ll get done. You need to have a life too, remember.’ As soon as the words escaped Gemma’s mouth, Annie raised her eyebrows so high they met her hairline, and she laughed. ‘I know, I know, I’m a fine one to talk.’
‘Exactly.’ Annie nodded curtly as they began walking down the corridor. ‘Become a teacher, they said, it’ll fit perfectly around having your own family. Yeah right, great if your kids actually go to sleep at a decent hour, allowing you to do the marking, planning, resourcing and assessments then, but if they don’t…’
‘We’ve got what? Thirteen weeks’ holiday, though.’ Gemma grinned as she teased her. Everyone knew that wasn’t true. Well, everyone who taught, anyway. Annie’s four children usually accompanied her into the school during the holidays. The older two helped with display boards and labelling books, drawers and pegs, whilst the younger two ran around seemingly making more mess than thirty children.
‘Ha, oh yes, the holidays.’ Annie laughed as she pushed open the door to the corridor leading out of the Early Years department. ‘So, what do you reckon? Bertie will have turned up and be taking the staff meeting to tell us he’s stepping up as head?’
‘I guess so.’ Gemma shrugged. That was the most plausible explanation, but something just didn’t sit right, hadn’t all day. After seeing the group of people from the academy trust in the hall during her assembly, she’d spotted them on the playground whilst collecting her class after lunch, and a couple of them had also popped into her classroom and milled around for what felt like an hour, but which had likely been only ten minutes or so. Of course, Tania had been delighted and had rushed up to her as soon as they’d stepped foot outside to declare that the ‘cute one’ would be perfect for Gemma, and she should quit her job right then and there and pursue a career working with him at the trust. Gemma shook her head, she really shouldn’t have told Tania what her type was.
‘You don’t sound convinced?’
‘I don’t know. It’s just been a weird old day, what with that impromptu visit from the trust. Don’t you think?’ Gemma glanced at her watch. They had precisely five minutes until the meeting was to begin. Plenty of time to grab some caffeine. ‘Coffee?’
Annie held up her travel mug and shook it. ‘I’m already prepared.’
Gemma laughed. ‘How on earth have you had time to get yourself a coffee? The kids only left ten minutes ago.’
‘Umm, this one is from lunchtime. It’s stone-cold but still full of the good stuff, aka caffeine.’ Annie shrugged.
‘Fair enough. You enjoy your iced coffee, I’m going to grab myself a hot one. I need something if I’m going to endure a two-hour meeting.’ Gemma yawned. Little Alfie had been so unsettled last night that she’d only managed two hours of uninterrupted sleep at a time. Still, it was to be expected, this was the first time he’d ever been away from Hannah and, being a rescue dog with an unknown history, it was no surprise he must be worried Hannah wouldn’t return for him.
‘I’ll see you in there then. I need the loo before, anyway.’
As Annie rushed off to the ladies’, Gemma pushed open the door to the small staffroom. She wasn’t particularly surprised to see a queue had formed for the kettle, and taking a mug from the dishwasher, she joined it.
‘Hi, Gemma. How’s your day been?’ Lydia, whom she’d taught alongside in Year Three a couple of years ago, turned to her.
‘Oh, you know,’ Gemma shrugged. Lydia hadn’t yet had a stint in Early Years, and she didn’t want to worry her by talking about how she’d been thrown up over and had to deal with urine-soaked clothes. She knew how aghast she’d have felt if someone had told her the same before she’d actually experienced the year group. ‘It’s been busy, but fun. Wemanaged to get the parachute out on the playground for PE when the rain stopped earlier.’
