Top 5 Reasons I love my job! (Yes, there are more than 5)

1. The children I teach are second to none, they are funny, kind, eager to learn and charming (even when they're picking/scratching/fighting/farting!) They deserve wonderful, happy, charmed existences - and some of them have them, but over the years I have seen too many kids, with too much shit to deal with. Note to parents ok kids in my class(es) - past, present &/or future - you have wonderful children, take care of them!! They deserve so much out of life!

2. I have fantastic colleagues! Believe it (you don't get an or not!) working in a school is incredibly stressful, more so at some times than others, such as -

• OFSTED
• report writing time (you write 600+ about every child in a class of 30 and keep your pecker up about it!)
• announcement of new classes (Parent - I would rather my "little darling didn't go into that class! Me - Why? Parent - I've hear the teacher is troll bitch form hell #1! ....... Grrrr! Do you think this is like eeny meeny miny mo? I do think about where I put them!!)
• Christmas productions - I hate Away in a bl**dy manger, I hate tinsel (halos) and straw and I hate grey/brown fur (and the poor bugger you have to dress up as a donkey will wear this as a mental scar for life!

And through this all I have fantastic, supportive colleagues who are there for me; helping, making tea, mounting 25 pieces of writing about the great (Child last week - Miss does that mean it was really good?) fire of London, telling you jokes, mopping up your tears, taking you to the pub for lunch on Friday etc etc etc - Thank you guys, you know who you are!

3. The pay packet is improving slowly!! (It is still crap compared with most people who do a four year degree course to get their qualification & then I bet not many of them take responsibility for 27 children each day or work a 55 hour week!) Rant - moi? I don't know what you mean!! Note to Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly - pay teachers and teaching assistants more - we work damned hard and as L'Oreal says "we're worth it!"

4. Awe and wonder - if you enjoyed your school years then you know what this is! Remember the first time you lit a circuit, got a gold star for a piece of writing you'd worked hard at, saw the roots of a bulb growing, made a PC work, read a sentence and realised you understood what it meant - awe and wonder! I see this on the faces of young children every day - and boy it feels good!! Note to God - grown ups need awe and wonder too!

5. As I say to Steve when he complains about the education system in the UK "Don't ask me Steve, I'm only in teaching because of the holidays!" (I'm certainly not in teaching because of the price I have to pay for holidays as I can only go out of term time!!) Note to holiday companies / ABTA Travel Agents - you gits!! Just because we - teachers &/or parents with children &/or people whose work place has a "stop fortnight" - can only take holidays out of term time, we don't deserve to pay double for flights and holidays!! I might just be your child's teacher one day - be nice to us!!!

Right guys I'm off to school :o)