A quick dose of inspired creativity this morning – from my son’s class teacher.  Harry’s teacher is the stuff storybook heroines are made of; beautiful and perennially cheerful, brave enough to scoop up giant spiders from the classroom without a tremor; kind enough to dispatch them gently out onto the windowsill.  As ultimate proof of her greatness, I offer you the fact that she has an invisible pet unicorn that sits in the front of the classroom and can be petted at break.  When you’re 7yrs old, teachers don’t come much better than that.

Last week she asked each child to label a cup with their name, and to line them up along her desk.

They waited, in hushed expectation.

Then she asked them each to fill in strips of paper with the very best thing about each other, picking five or six people.  Slowly the cups filled up with touching affirmations, from the obvious to the surreal;  ’Jake wants to be a cook when he grows up’, said Harry, ‘So I wrote: I BET YOU MAKE REALLY GOOD CAKES’.

And then the thrilling process of tipping out your own cup and reading through the statements.  Harry came home that day lit up with happiness and still clutching his, and carefully showed me each one.

Such a simple thing, and yet so wonderful (I might try it at work..)

Happy Monday!

p.s. The one that no child received: ‘your so good at speling’