Beating Back to School Anxiety

I’m running down the corridor, shouting “Line up SENSIBLY please year 8” as my keys swing dangerously round my neck. Panting slightly (a lot) I let them into my classroom, and scrabble to get the lesson up on the board, whilst bellowing instructions at my class. It is at this point that I realise I’m still in my pyjamas.

Yes you guessed it – every English teacher’s favourite surprise twist – it was all a dream. As the return to school date looms unnervingly, the clutch of dread, the anxiety dreams and the general hum of background panic crank up their volume.

Having just had the joy of my first Christmas with my baby girl, the prospect of returning to the extreme busyness of a school day feels, frankly, as unwelcome as yet another meal consisting of cheese and chocolate. Judging by my twitter feed, EduTwitter seem polarised into two camps of either positively looking forward to seeing their students again, or lamenting the end of regular wees, hot drinks on tap, and Netflix. January always seems particularly bad, with the dark mornings and early evenings with not even the prospect of Christmas to look forward to, and, worse, the fact that everyone is hangry due to ill-fated diets and resolutions. So how do we cope with the back to school anxiety?

To-do lists are the ultimate art of the organised – the act of getting it out of one’s head and down in black (or red, or green, or purple) and white can banish those swirling thoughts and allow you to sleep peacefully. My favourite suggestion to upgrade this is having a pad by the bed to get down those 3am moments of sitting up bolt upright with an obscure and overlooked ‘to-do’ on your mind to add to the list.

Cleaning out your school bag is a particular favourite of mine – there’s something about rooting out the wizened banana, leaky pens, hair bobbles (why? Why so many?!) and the shameful scrumpled Macdonalds bag that makes me keen to start afresh, revolving to keep this state of bag organisation for all of the first week at least…

Buying a new coat was a new one on me, and although swishing around the playground during lunch duty in a delicious toffee-coloured trench sounds appealing, perhaps it would be more useful to flat out buy something bulky enough to protect from Year 10’s errant football, Year 8’s cheeky snowballs and Year 7’s snotty tears – maybe a tank?!

But in all seriousness – returning to work after the holidays can be really tough. Some things I’ve found that really help me include:

Listing the positives – which students are you looking forward to seeing again? You know the ones – with funny stories about their holidays, and a cheerful grunt of recognition when they see you. There’s always some extra colleague gossip from the end of term festivities that you can eek some more juice out of, and sometimes a return to routine after days of excess can be a blessing.

Hydration. Hydration at school is always a delicate balancing act between being a dried out angry headache monster to dancing manically to avoid the pelvic floor giving up, but I find it is key to making me feel able to cope with the day.

Sometimes the return to work is frustrating, particularly if you feel like you need a new challenge. Search for new opportunities – believe me, they’re out there! It could be just the thing to reinvigorate your passion for education. Alternatively, it may be the time to question whether your school is really for you, and to look elsewhere for a new role.

Finally – connect with others. Take the time to say hello to your students and colleagues. Enjoy conversations about the weird and wacky! Look around at the positives, of which there are many in our funny, frustrating and demanding jobs, and spread the joy.

Know this – whatever you do to beat the back to school anxiety over the next few days, it’ll never be as bad as you thought when you actually get there!