03 Dear Teacher Read Online Free Page A

slowly and clearly, ‘Our first story of the year, boys and girls, is
The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse
,’ and she winked in my direction. I nodded as I recalled the classic story of the little wood-mouse who strove to keep her house in order in spite of numerous unwanted visitors.
    As I walked back to my classroom, with the end of our first day of school approaching, it occurred to me that Beatrix Potter definitely knew what she was talking about.

Chapter Two
    The Gateway to Harmony
    County Hall authorized the replacement of the school gates. The Revd Joseph Evans took his weekly RE lesson
.
    Extract from the Ragley School Logbook:
Tuesday, 25 September 1979
    ‘PEACE AND HARMONY,’ said Vera triumphantly. She opened her elegant Marks & Spencer’s leather handbag and held up a sheaf of carefully typed notes entitled ‘The Gateway to Harmony – 30 days to a harmonious life’. It was Tuesday, 25 September, and we had all gathered in the office at the end of the school day. ‘Would you like to hear it?’ asked Vera expectantly. She stood up behind her desk and smoothed the creases from the seat of her immaculate two-piece charcoal-grey suit. Everyone stood around, feeling awkward.
    ‘Of course, Vera,’ said Anne quickly and with slightly too much enthusiasm, ‘but … er, perhaps tomorrow lunchtime when we can fully appreciate it.’
    ‘And it will give you one more night to practise it,’ added Sally, both helpfully and hopefully.
    ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ said Vera, looking slightly deflated. ‘The first section, “Day One – Harmony Through Inner Peace”, probably requires a little fine tuning.’ She carefully folded her life-changing speech and returned it to her handbag.
    As president of the Ragley and Morton Women’s Institute, Vera was anxious to make her mark and the following evening she was to deliver a lecture at their monthly meeting in the village hall. The special guest was Lady Alexandra Denham from Harrogate, author of
A Woman’s Guide to Happy Living
, and one of the most influential ladies in the Women’s Institute movement in the north of England.
    Suddenly there was a knock on the staff-room door and Vera opened it. ‘Oh, Mr Trump,’ she said, looking disdainfully at the little man clutching a paint-splattered clipboard. ‘I don’t think we were expecting you.’
    Cecil Trump, the school maintenance officer, stiffened slightly and removed a pink maintenance slip from his clipboard with a theatrical flourish. ‘We’re painting y’school gates tomorrow,’ he announced proudly, ‘so sign ’ere.’
    Vera studied the form. ‘Yes, I reported the poor state of the gates last term but County Hall said they would be replaced,’ she said.
    ‘Don’t know nowt about that,’ said Mr Trump defiantly. ‘Ah’m just ’ere t’mek sure they’re painted.’
    ‘And what colour are you painting them?’ asked Vera.
    Mr Trump coughed affectedly. ‘It’s one of our more subtle blends of Sienna Amber an’ Rustic Redwood,’ he announced with the confidence of a man who misguidedly believed he understood the mysteries of colour coordination better than a woman did. With a smirk of satisfaction he pointed to his dog-eared Crown paint colour chart.
    ‘You mean brown,’ stated Vera dispassionately.
    Undeterred, Mr Trump pressed on. ‘They’ll be ’ere at t’end of school an’ finished afore it gets dark,’ he said. Vera signed and he thrust the carbon copy into her hand, turned on his heel and drove away in his little white van.
    Vera opened her grey metal filing cabinet and filed the sheet under ‘Maintenance’. Once again I reflected what a wonderful servant she was to Ragley School. I would have been lost without her ability to organize the day-today administration and finances. Vera and her brother, the Revd Joseph Evans, lived in the elegant and beautifully furnished vicarage in the grounds of St Mary’s Church on the Morton Road and each day she brought order into our lives.