Monday, the rain fell, and the temperature was freezing. It was all a bit of a challenge, but the children coped wonderfully. They are not afraid of being outdoors. The rest of the week, every day was cold, with children arriving on site in minus degrees centigrade.
On Wednesday, we had the dreaded phone call from an OFSTED inspector to say that we were to have an inspection on Thursday. It would be the first full inspection since we moved to Tarly Pit.
We were blessed that day with sunshine and a fire that lit so easily. Between the two we were kept warm on a day when the temperature ranged from -2 to +6 degrees centigrade. All went very well and we were so grateful.
Most memorable will be the boy who was squealing from a tree he had attempted to climb, with another already on a favoured perch. We all assumed that the fuss was a dispute about rights to that branch, until the distraught lad demanded, “Get me down!” It then became apparent that the problem was nothing to do with territory. Unseen even standing immediately in front of him, the boy had caught his hood on a broken branch and could not move an inch. It could only happen in view of an inspector.
All went well. The tree climber was rescued, and the day ended happily. The children went home; the inspector offered feed-back; the staff felt proud.
On Friday, we were doing it all over again, but only under the gaze of heaven.
That was the ultimate week.