This evening I shall be entertaining three ladies. This in itself is good news, but when one considers that all three are former pupils and two of them were in my class in 1981, when they were about 9, that makes me especially pleased. I can't have done everything wrong.
Edit: of course, they could be planning to murder me...
We had a wonderful evening! From left to right, Juliet, Katherine, some old geezer, Lynnette.
I am amazed, to be honest, that they remember me so fondly. They were the first class to be subject to my tender mercies in junior teaching, after 6 years in a very rough boys' secondary modern. For me, it was a very steep learning curve with help from the Dep. Head (whom I must phone tomorrow - he's 85 and lives in rural Wales) but almost no-one else. I reckon I made more mistakes teaching that class than any since.
Katherine and Juliet still live locally, Lynnette lives in Normandy. Juliet was never in my class, but I remember her because, around the age of 10, she joined the school from Spain and couldn't speak any English, so was very noticeable and needed quite a bit of guidance whether in a classroom or the playground. She told me last night that she had very fond memories of Mrs. Furby, the woman in charge of remedial teaching (as it was called in those days, "Special Needs" not yet being a thing) and after she left she used to go and visit her at her house until one day Mr. Furby answered the door with the news that his wife had been taken ill and, within 3 weeks, had died from ovarian cancer. I don't think she reached pensionable age.