Chapter Eleven
It was Friday afternoon and Rosy was wandering through the school.
This was traditionally when the children had Golden Time, an activity that was extra fun or of their choosing.
This week she had asked Sylvie if she’d come in and show Class Four some basic self-defence moves.
Whilst she knew Amanda ruled them with a rod of iron there were some fairly feisty characters in the class so she thought she should maybe just have a meander through and make sure all was going well.
With Alice out for the afternoon and Amanda at a medical appointment, she needed to check that Sylvie hadn’t been bound and gagged and held to ransom by Rafe Marksharp, Marion’s oldest son.
He had form for such behaviour. He was the quietest of the three of her boys but still entirely capable of planning and enacting a classroom revolution.
He had never been as rowdy as his brothers but he was certainly the one who had inherited the most of his mother’s skills.
She walked through the library, gleaming as always thanks to the strong work of the PTA, whom she had successfully dissuaded from installing CCTV to monitor who was doing what where, and which child had dared, dared, to leave a crisp packet under the brightly coloured beanbags.
She spotted a small group from Class Three accompanied by their teaching assistant sitting in the corner taking it in turns to read from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and couldn’t help as the corner of her mouth turned up.
This was what it was about, those kids right there, engaged, happy, captivated even.
As she pulled the hefty wooden weight of the old door, ever so quietly so as not to distract, she saw the whole of Class Four in the hall.
One half sat on the benches watching the other, paired up and performing a very basic martial art move onto the colourful foam mats on the floor.
Sylvie moved quietly from couple to couple, instructing in a very gentle manner – her low voice pulling the children in to listen hard.
As she righted each pair, she would then explain to those on the benches the positive things each one was doing, or why she had made a correction.
She used simple language but without babying them and invited them to verbally participate.
Rosy leant against the door jamb; not a single child had turned to see who had come into the room, so enrapt were they with the lesson unfolding in front of them.
It was as if they were caught in the siren spell that Sylvie’s calm tones had woven.
Even Jade James and Rafe, who somehow Sylvie had paired together, were following her lead and doing as they were told.
She was using them as an example and their promotion to a position of authority was working.
Amanda did not usually give them the chance to even wiggle out of place, let alone lead the others, and it looked like Sylvie’s method was by far the most effective.
They were choosing to stay and learn rather than being metaphorically pinned down and forced.
A few minutes passed and Rosy watched as Sylvie smoothly managed a transition as those on the benches took their turn to practise.
Jade and Rafe were quelled with a smile when they began to giggle between themselves on the bench and Rosy stood in awe.
Sylvie was displaying the soft skills that every teacher needed and often took years to learn.
She had noticed when this mum was supporting reading in Class One that she had a natural style with the children, able to encourage and increase the confidence of the children she was listening to with no great fanfare or ego.
The children that often struggled seemed to migrate naturally to her and Rosy could feel the flourishing of an idea that had begun to germinate the minute she walked into the hall.
Sylvie looked up, as if knowing she was being considered, and grinned at Rosy.
‘Good afternoon, Miss Winter. We’re having a real nice afternoon, aren’t we, everyone? Do you want to join us?’
‘Do you know what, I just might, but only for a minute. Now I should warn you, Miss Williams has taught me self-defence before, so I’m not a complete newbie. Who wants to take me on as a partner?’
‘I will, Miss Winter.’ Rafe jumped off the bench, ready to have another go.
‘Does that mean you can beat Matt up, miss?’ Jade couldn’t help herself.
All the children in the school knew Rosy’s partner from their work at Penmenna Hall over the last couple of terms and it hadn’t taken long before the news that their head teacher was dating the television gardener had spread around the village.
It had taken Rosy a little longer to accept the fact that everyone knew and that was fine.
‘I don’t need to do that, Jade, he’s not daft!’
‘Are you the boss then, miss?’
‘I wouldn't say that. We work together.’
‘She’s the boss then,’ Rafe said knowingly as Rosy arched her eyebrows and considered flipping him to the ground. Her professionalism was stronger than her desire to beat up small children but she couldn’t resist teasing him as she pretended she was about to do so.
‘Whoa, miss!’ Rafe bellowed as he thought he was going to fly through the air, only to giggle as she pulled him back to straight up again on the mat. ‘Whoa, you scared me for a minute there.’ He grinned at her. ‘Got it, you work together.’
‘Yep, that’s the one, Rafe.’ She joined in with the class for a bit, glad to see that Sylvie didn’t seem particularly fazed by her presence.
As the hall clock started to edge towards three o’clock Sylvie got the children to tidy away the mats and benches and change from the PE kits they were wearing.
It was accompanied with a lot of groaning and, ‘Oh, miss. Do we have to?’ and, ‘Can we do this again next week?’
Rosy lugged the last mat back against the wall, helping Ollie who had been hauling it across by himself.
‘Miss Williams, that was so much fun. If you’ve got a minute – and I know you’ve got to get Sam – could we have a word in my office after?’