My new novel, ‘The Silver Ladies Do Lunch,’ begins many years ago in a primary school in Oxfordshire. Three ten-year-old girls, Josie, Lin and Minnie, who live in Middleton Ferris, are about to embark on their final year before secondary school. As they wonder who their new teacher will be, they think about what the future may have in store for them. They know they will always be friends, but they have no idea what awaits them. Then Miss Cecily Hamilton steps into the classroom and their lives change forever.
I remember being a scrappy blonde-haired kid in primary school, and the cocktail of emotions that went with it. I was self-assured, gifted, outgoing, and at the same time I was an outsider, getting things wrong, into fights, full of self-doubt. The two extremes seemed to go together. One teacher wrote on my school report, She is far too overconfident, then the next term he put, lacks confidence. By term three I was far too full of herself. I think he got me wrong every time. Or he caused the fluctuation – I was often in trouble.
I remember the wonderful, best moments of my schooldays though, snuggling up in my desk against a too-hot radiator, the stench of school dinners in my nostrils, listening to a teacher reading a book. I adored The Wind in the Willows, the idea that animals had human personalities and qualities and secret lives. They also had adventures, battles, friendship and loyalty. It took me to a wonderful place. Isn’t that what teachers do, open doors, offer opportunity, choices? It should be.
If I asked you, who was your best, most inspirational teacher, no doubt you’d be able to launch into incredible and moving stories about someone who had a great influence on your learning and your life. (I hope so, but I can name at least two people who wouldn’t be able to tell me about even one person who was kind to them.) If I asked, who was your worst teacher, you’d be able to tell thrilling and horrific stories about injustice and wrongdoing. We all hope that education continues to move forward: I remember the getting cane, receiving public humiliation from teachers who made bullying routine. I remember students being turned off learning for good because one individual had no conscience and no ability to teach. So, the influence and potential of a teacher to change and build lives and a love of learning is priceless, invaluable. It is immense.
My own inspirational teachers were not often people I learned from as a student, but gifted professionals I learned from as a teacher. I could name so many – Shaz, Erika, Jon, Martin, Cath, Jill,
Dawn, Dave, Ellie, Jim, Pete, Joan, Trev. I could go on. And my best teachers were my students; I wanted to bring them the most powerful and beneficial experience I could, to champion their right to be who they were and to smash glass ceilings. I owe the kids I taught so much, every single one of them.
I enjoyed wonderful days being a teacher. The stories I could tell would fill a novel. But they are not all my tales to tell. I remember once though, coming into school on a Monday morning and someone had paint-sprayed graffiti on the school walls over the weekend, proclaiming in perfect vernacular that all the teachers in the school were excrement. Then the perpetrator had sprayed, Except Ms Leigh She’s a legend. Ms!!! And Legend was spelled perfectly! I felt honoured, although the context was a bit awkward….
Dynamic and inspirational teachers are role models; they are life savers; they set us onto a life path where we blossom and flourish. (Bad teachers do the complete opposite, but this blog post is not for them.) Miss Cecily Hamilton walks into Josie, Lin and Minnie’s lives at a point where they stand at a crossroads, not knowing which path they will take or what will happen along the road. She replaces a teacher who caned everyone in the class as they nervously recited tables, who punished Lin unfairly for bad handwriting and forced children to partner others they felt uncomfortable with for country dancing. Miss Hamilton is a breath of fresh air, a devoted educator who loves children and books and knowledge, who gives her life to their learning.
And sixty years later, she is back in Middleton Ferris at ninety years of age, riding a purple mobility scooter, ready to offer inspiration, guidance and the benefit of her knowledge yet again to the three friends and to the wider community. They meet, share lunches, laugh, cry, resolve problems. There is no substitute for great teachers, those who teach us well, those who teach our children fairly, honorably, without discrimination or dislike, and to whom each child genuinely matters. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. They are golden people.
I hope you’ll enjoy The Silver Ladies Do Lunch and that, as you read, you remember your own inspirational teacher (I hope there was more than one…) who made each day better for being there and offering you the chance to become the rounded, happy and bright person you now are.
You can get your copy of Judy Leigh’s new book The Silver Ladies Do Lunch here: https://mybook.to/silverladiessocial