The captain had just announced that we were flying at 14,000 feet and had 45 minutes until we would start our descent. As I sat on flight ZX423 to Alicante, it would be fair to say that I was feeling very "shappy" – shattered but happy (a word invented by one of my more creative year 6 pupils!).
The last academic year (my 12th as headteacher of Anton Junior School in Hampshire) had finished just 18 hours previously and the Leavers' Assembly, our staff leaving do, and the year 6 graduation ceremony were already distant memories.
There was much to reflect on after the 2014/15 academic year. It started with my literacy and numeracy subject leaders leaving Anton for promoted posts and the governors wondering how we would cope without them.
It finished with us becoming a National Support School, achieving Teaching School status, and my dedicated and talented teachers securing our hard-working kids another set of very impressive SATs results – I guess we coped!
In-between it was another incident-packed year with ups and downs, trials and tribulations. It would be almost impossible to pick just one single highlight in a year, which was without doubt the busiest and most incident-packed of my 25-year career.
I say "almost impossible", because it was made all the more easy because last year a pupil called Travis completed his four years at Anton. When Travis joined our school, his Cerebral Palsy meant that he was confined to a wheelchair and his autism meant that socially he also faced a struggle.
Last week as he walked down the steps of the local theatre and made his way independently up on to the stage to shake the hands of the mayor and receive his graduation certificate there was not a dry eye in the house.
Now, Ofsted talks about progress and makes judgements about the amount of progress schools enable pupils to make – what Travis has achieved in the last four years is progress beyond his, and our, wildest dreams.
So how has it been achieved? In a word – love. The staff at Anton that have worked tirelessly with Travis love him, in fact without exception every member of staff at our school loves Travis – this is not an exaggeration, this is entirely accurate. Travis is in every sense a one-off, he is a character and at our school we welcome, embrace and indeed celebrate quirkiness and "quirky kids".
Travis has a difficult home-life and there is no doubt that staff have often acted as surrogate parents. This has meant that sometimes they have had to be firm with him in order to help him overcome difficulties and achieve things he never knew he could.
In March, when he performed a dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller at the end of our weekly Achievement Assembly word got round and every member of staff suddenly appeared around the edges of the hall. They were there to witness his progress, to support and encourage him and to show that each and every one of them is an important part of "Team Anton".
Even my caretaker, who is six feet tall and built like the proverbial house made of brick, was there watching. And he cried. We all cried. We cried because it was moving and because we were proud of what Travis had achieved. It is my dream to be walking up Andover high street on my way to a coffee with my wife one day and I will see Travis as an adult walking down the street and know that his independence was only made possible by the dedication, commitment and love of my staff team.
What will the next 12 months have in store for Team Anton I wonder?
- Tom Donohoe is the headteacher of Anton Junior School in Hampshire.