Dear children,
As you turn 4 it will be a while until you read this yourselves, if ever, but I hope there's nothing I can say here that would be new to you...
It sounds so silly to say, it's almost hyperbole, that it has been a pleasure to teach you, but no other words conjure my meaning quite so well as that old adage. Your peers leaving reception this july were my first class, but in a way it was you that were with me the most on my learning journey, just as I was with you on that very first part of yours.
Some of you have been with me for five terms now, joining our nursery in the January of my NQT year. I was still shiny and new, and your winter start gave me chance to apply the lessons I had learned from your friends starting in September and take that leap into on my own journey of reflection, refinement and practice. In this way we took some of our first steps together. As July rolled around your classmates moved onwards and upwards to reception, almost unrecognisable from the small, shy people they were in September. I could have burst with pride. You stayed. As I experienced that strange bittersweet joy of seeing a class move on, you provided continuity at the start of the academic year. A reminder that maybe I did know what I was doing after all, even if sometimes I didn't quite believe it.
You bonded quickly with your new classmates and it has been a joy to be a part of your learning over the past year. I hope that what we learned this year will stick with you and benefit you in the years to come, I hope that I have helped in some small way to help you to choose wisely, to be the best people that you can be, and to share the creativity and imagination you have shown here with the world.
I know that you have made me a better teacher, but more than that, a better person, and I know that I will never forget that.
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