Hello

One of my bucket list items is to travel the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok – all eight days, eight time zones and five thousand seven hundred and seventy two miles of it! They say that when the sun rises at one end it is setting at the other.

In a way, that is just like first term. From an Indian Summer to the bleak mid-winter: from the dawn chorus to going out and coming home in the dark; from Presentation Evening to Mock Exams; opening assemblies to The Carol Concert and induction week to The Christmas production. You have banked more than three hundred lessons, fifteen duties, twenty meetings and fifty hours of marking.

I have often wondered what is the point of February and second term has its challenges, but for sheer, relentless graft I think first term tops the podium. But you did it! No more get-ups for a while, no more guilt over that weekday tipple, no more marking/preparation (I hope!) and time for the sheer, blissful wastefulness of watching morning TV.

Enjoy your hard earned, festive break, have an over-indulgent Christmas and an irresistibly optimistic New Year. You so richly deserve it.