O coach

Retirement

Posted on 18 Oct, 2009 by Lynne Walker | Filed under Blog • General

Well, life has taken an unexpected turn. In mid-June, there was a ‘voluntary severance trawl’ of teaching staff in Inverclyde. As geography was one of the subjects mentioned, I applied and then heard on the last day of term that I was being offered a ‘severance date’ of 30th September 2009 (no negotiation allowed, not even to the Friday of the week) with 4 years enhancement which took me to the age of 60!

I could not quite believe it; I was enjoying my work but there were some negatives – another amalgamation to go through, changes to the curriculum, a very full teaching timetable (minimum non-contact time), a classroom where the temperature reached such high levels that it was often necessary to have four fans on full.

It took me a while to accept that I was not just finishing work but was actually retiring from the teaching profession. Having been in full time work since 1977, this had the potential to come as a bit of a shock. Work has never been a 9-to-5 occupation; at Ardentinny, there was the residential side with evening, overnight and weekend work. When I went into main stream teaching in 1996 there was the evening lesson preparation and development which did lessen a bit over time but was always there. Would I cope? Would Paul cope with me not disappearing every day at 7:10am and returning 10+ hours later?

During the summer holidays, I made sure that many in the orienteering coach education world knew that I was finishing work and would be available to do training, assessment and verification. This is now bearing fruit and I have a few bits of work around the country. One of the assessments is in Northern Ireland at the end of November so we might take the opportunity for a few extra days there.

I have now been retired (yes, I have come to accept the term) for almost three weeks. It has been a busy time and I have spent about half of it away from home.

First of all, there was the ‘Tour of the highlands’ and then the ‘Aberdeenshire Double O weekend’ – see a separate blog post on these.

Last week I was away with Inverclyde Academy on their field trip for Higher Geography pupils. They run this most years and this time were allowed to take a couple of days during the week. I caught the 7am ferry over and then met the pupils at Inverclyde Academy. A couple of them were pupils I had taught at Wellington Academy and one I had taught Higher Geography (not very successfully!) last year. The Wednesday was spent in the Yorkshire Dales, time in Ingleton and then up the valley to look at the limestone pavement before a visit to Great Scar Caves. (My hip did not like the bending under the low roofs in the caves – roll on the physio on Wednesday).

The night was spent at Helvellyn Youth Hostel which catered for the group. The standard of the food was excellent. There were a few other visitors in the hostel but they were all teachers or retired teachers! The pupils worked for about an hour and then they played ‘Articulate’ which Paul Crosby had brought along.

After a reasonably quiet night it was a misty morning so we went straight down to carry out field work in Glenridding. The village was looked at as well as the stream running into Ullswater. A steep walk up into Grisedale followed, then a brief stop at Rhegid before heading back to Greenock.

So, I have just had my first weekend at home since retiring. The weather has been mixed but I have weeded the garden and part of Jim’s.

I have also made a resolution to update the blog more frequently even if no one reads it – watch this space!

Tagged : Blog • General