20/08/2025
I find today one of the hardest days of the year.
Schools went back & again I wasn’t there. 7 years ago I was a primary teacher starting the new school year. A week later I got shingles for the second time. I never made it back to the classroom.
My life changed completely overnight - uncertainty, feeling I was letting everyone down - the kids, my colleagues, my family - confusion, isolation, embarrassment! Was it all in my head? Would I ever get better? There was little support, little understanding of my condition & no treatment except the words ‘you’ll PROBABLY get better!’ My only comfort was family, friends & my dog to which I’m forever grateful.
To keep myself sane, as I’m not very good at sitting still, I continued with a British Council programme on Plastic Pollution which I’d enrolled in as part of school research, which thankfully I could join online. I started a litter campaign on Facebook called Paws on Plastic (which became a charity in 2021) encouraging dog owners to pick up a couple of pieces of litter on walks as it’s something my dogs have always done naturally. It grew & grew with now 28,000 members & followers across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and Bluesky.
It gave me a focus - if I did nothing else in a day, at least I’d managed a walk round the block & left the streets/park better. It helped me, it gave me a community & a support system when that’s exactly what I needed while on my own all day rather than a classroom and school full of children and colleagues.
The more I picked up litter, the more I strived to cut down my use of single use plastic which eventually led me to ENJO. I bought it because it was zero waste but, having low energy, couldn’t believe how quick & easy & effective it was. As a primary teacher seeing the huge numbers of children with allergies like asthma & eczema, cutting out chemicals totally made sense to me too & the fact that it saves so much money is an added bonus. They’re such a supportive, ethical & caring company to work with too which is just fantastic.
In the end I took a career break of 2 years from teaching & finally made the decision not to return when this was over. It’s strange how things work out. Hard as things are at the time, unbelievably hard, I’m sure that there is always something better ahead if we only look for it and I know I'm extremely lucky to now be in good health which I will never take for granted again.
Anyway, I still love all the back to school photos. I've seen it from all angles, from my own nervous first days as a child at a few different schools, experiencing a mother's angst at all my children's first days in Scotland and Norway and as a teacher at schools and colleges. I hope it went well for everyone today.