Chapter 3
Chapter Three
‘Can I carry that?’ Freddie pointed to Gemma’s guitar, which was leaning against the desk, as he jumped from foot to foot at the front of the line the class had formed by the classroom door.
‘It’s okay, Freddie. I’ll carry it but thank you for offering and thank you for reminding me to take it.
’ Gemma grinned as she stepped away from the front of the line of children to grab it.
The last time she’d let Freddie carry it, she’d been surprised it had reached the hall intact, he had bashed it on doorframes and dropped it on the floor so many times.
‘Miss Murray, Jeannette won’t let me in the line.’ Tabitha squealed as she tried to push in.
‘Ah, Tabitha, can you do me a favour, please?’ Gemma waited until she had Tabitha’s attention before continuing. ‘Can you help Ms Groves at the back of the line, please?’
Crossing her arms and beginning to pout, Tabitha’s eyes lit up as Tania thanked her for her help.
‘And let’s see who’s ready to go to the hall for assembly today.
Who shall I choose to be our special helpers and hold the doors open for us?
’ Gemma walked down the line, tapping her chin with her forefinger as the children straightened their backs.
They all loved to be the helpers, and truth be told, they were a lovely bunch of kids, so Gemma kept a list in her drawer to tick off whose turn it was each week.
She’d never be able to choose otherwise.
‘Oh, it’s so tricky to choose, but this morning I think we’ll have Jerry and Kelsey on door duty. ’
As the two children hurried to the front of the line, an audible sigh swept through the rest of the class.
‘Hey, don’t worry. I’ll be keeping an eye on who are being my fantastic listeners during assembly to see who I choose as our door helpers for on the way back.
’ Gemma stifled a smile as the children immediately straightened their backs again and stopped chatting.
She loved this about this age group, they were so eager to please and thrived when given responsibility. ‘And let’s go.’
‘I’ll get the next one, Miss Murray.’ After watching as Jerry held open the classroom door for the class to file through, Kelsey walked as fast as she could without full-out running until she reached the door at the end of the corridor and pulled it open.
‘Thank you, Kelsey.’ Gemma five-fived the young girl as she led the class through the school’s foyer towards the hall.
‘Hold up, Gemma.’ The school’s secretary, Joanne, cleared her throat before correcting herself and lowering her voice. ‘Miss Murray. Have you heard?’
‘Yep. That’s why I’m taking assembly today.’ Gemma tapped her guitar case with the palm of her hand. She could almost see the atmosphere buzzing around her, the gossip was so rife.
‘Of course, of course.’ Joanne covered her mouth with her hand and widened her eyes. ‘I can’t believe they sacked her. Just like that. With no warning. What are we supposed to do?’
‘I’m sure Bertie will take the headship.
He’s the deputy. We’ll cope just as we always do.
’ Yes, it was a shock that Diane had left, but that’s why schools had deputy heads.
And whether she’d chosen to leave or circumstances had forced her out, Gemma was sure they’d all hear in time.
Not that it changed the current circumstances, anyway.
‘But that’s the thing, Bertie’s not in this morning either. He arrived, called for the emergency Senior Leadership meeting, took it and then disappeared.’
Gemma paused, and her class came to a stop behind her, waiting patiently. ‘He left?’
‘We’ve not heard a peep from him since the meeting. Not one word.’ Joanne shook her head firmly.
‘Oh, right.’ What was going on then? Something suddenly felt a little odd, and as much as she didn’t want to listen to any rumours or believe something untrue, the absence of both the head and deputy today was strange.
And Bertie must have known before them about whatever had happened to Diane, so why had he left immediately after the meeting?
It was quite literally his job to step in.
‘Miss Murray.’ Jerry whispered loudly from in front of them as he held the door into the hall open. ‘The other classes are coming in now.’
‘Thanks, Jerry.’ Gemma glanced back at Joanne. ‘Sorry, I should go.’
‘Yes, yes, off you go. I’ll find out what I can.’ Joanne tapped the side of her nose before turning away.
‘Okay, let’s go.’ Walking backwards, Gemma pointed to various children and gave them the thumbs-up, showing them she’d noticed how well they were behaving.
‘Mind the bucket, Miss Murray,’ Jerry parroted what she must have told them a million times over the past three months.
‘Oops!’ Half-tripping, half-jumping to avoid the bucket catching the rainwater from the hall roof, Gemma reached out and steadied the bright yellow ‘Wet Floor – Cleaning in Progress’ sign before it fell.
Hearing a cough and a splutter from behind, she glanced back to see Tania giggling behind her hand.
Waving her hand in front of her mouth as she calmed down, Tania called, ‘Sorry, but you see what I was saying earlier?’
Grimacing, Gemma turned back to face the front of the hall and led the class through the rows of other year groups who were ready and waiting.
The layout of Woodland Primary was a simple one; a large hall was positioned in the middle with corridors leading off the edges, one for the Nursery and Reception classes, which also led past the school foyer, one for Years One and Two, one for Years Three and Four and then the final corridor leading to Years Five and Six.
It made sense. It was logical, but the layout also led to the tendency for isolation.
Especially, Gemma had found for the Early Years department.
Possibly because their visitors had to make their way past the school foyer before reaching their corridor, or perhaps just because Early Years was always deemed to be a little ‘different’ to the rest of the school.
She wasn’t sure, but she knew she wasn’t making it up.
People tended to give their department a wide berth.
In fairness, when she herself had been teaching in other parts of the school, she’d done the same; she could probably count the number of times she’d ventured into that part of the building on one hand.
Not because of any reason other than there hadn’t really been any need.
Any resources she’d needed had been kept elsewhere in the building, and so the ‘great divide’ as some had termed it was really probably just a lack of necessity rather than a belief people would catch all the lurgies younger children tended to incubate.
As she led her class towards the front of the hall, Gemma smiled back at the children she’d previously taught as they waved at her.
Pointing towards the far end of the row in front, Gemma guided her class to sit down before stepping back and letting Tania help them straighten up as she walked to the front of the hall and unpacked her guitar.
‘Are you sure you’re happy taking this?’ Walking up to her, Annie shielded her mouth with her hand and whispered.
‘Yes, of course.’ Gemma smiled as Annie and the rest of the staff members left the hall.
Looking towards the three hundred or so children sitting expectantly in front of her, Gemma grinned.
She knew it likely seemed daft to some, but she could quite happily chat or sing in front of hundreds of children but throw a couple of adults into the mix and she’d be a quivering mess.
Which was one reason she’d never even thought about moving on or applying for another job.
One, because she loved her found family here at Woodland Primary, two, because its location was just so perfect and being only a five-minute walk from home, it would be daft to even think about changing jobs, but three, because the very idea of having to speak in front of a panel of interviewers just about terrified her.
Yes, she might come across as feisty and confident, but even she had limits, and speaking in front of her peers was one of them.
She could just about cope with having Penny and Sylvia, two of the loveliest people she’d ever met, who supported a couple of children who needed one-to-one support, in the hall whilst she sang but that was only because she’d trained herself to realise they really wouldn’t think any less of her if she dropped a cord or stumbled over her words.
‘Good morning, everyone.’ Gemma grinned.
‘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 began to 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 to every 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.