Between the Prison and the Sewage Works - Maryline Suchley (read aloud books .TXT) 📗

The library filled with the remaining staff, one of whom was very noticeable; she had long curly red hair and a tight low cut cerise dress. The woman searched the room for someone to sit with, momentarily glancing in Mara’s direction before turning, flicking her hair and theatrically resigning herself to sitting next to a tiny girl who just paled in comparison.

‘That’s Steffi, the media studies teacher. She’s nuts, I’d keep away from her,’ Deon warned Mat.

Looking around the room Mara could see the librarian lifting papers while frantically talking on the phone in her glasshouse office.

‘She looks busy,’ Mara joked to Deon.

‘She’s mad as a bag of frogs that one, the school has been trying to get rid of her for ages.

Jim entered the room with an air of authority and the talking quickly died down.

‘Good morning. This morning we will be focusing on behavioural management in the classroom and the policies that are in place to deal with such conduct. I do really urge you to use the systems I have put into place.’

He rattled on for another twenty minutes, showing various flow charts and diagrams on the over head projector.

There seems to be a structure in place to deal with naughty children. Mara reassured herself.

It was now time for Joyce to take her place on the podium. At this point Mara shifted in her seat and glanced at Deon who looked positively dazed.

Must be on autopilot; too many sentences for a PE teacher. She joked to herself.

‘Hi team. My job is to oversee data. Today I’m going to talk about the classroom manager programme on the server, and how you can make my job easier,’ she chuckled.

‘Now, how to use it: A, you need to enter the correct data, b, stick to deadlines, because I’m far too busy to chase anyone up, c if you need to give me any information to enter into my system, which will happen, then give me the information on the correct colour paper. There are six different colours for each area, please don’t get them mixed up, otherwise you’ll have do it again on the correct coloured paper as everything has to be filed. Now yellow is for….’

Mara switched off and started to reminisce about her holiday in Portugal a few weeks ago. The difference was stark; no beach, no sun, no cheesy music, no drunken behaviour and no Don Juan’s.

‘And pink is for those students you have entered for the exam, but have not achieved any grades, and will probably be withdrawn, depending on wheather they gain any future grades. Then of course if that happens, you need to start using the buff coloured paper again. I hope that’s clear.’

The bell rang again to signal lunch. Jim stood up at this point and announced that lunch was in the canteen for all members of staff.

The canteen was predictably different hues of grey with food laid out as a buffet; consisting of sausage rolls, pies, cake, and an array of stodgy stuff and a sorry looking salad in a bowl. Jeremy, working on his figure, unashamedly filled his plate with mini pies, sausage rolls and chips. Mara reconciled to sitting next to Gordon and Daniel to eat her fish fingers and chips. Better the devil you know! She sighed inwardly.

With lunch over, the afternoon was spent getting classrooms set up and preparing work.

What a day, Mara thought, as she waited for the bus. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow, I may need to call into the supermarket and get alcoholic sustenance.

Chapter Three

3

‘Yet when I hoped for good, evil came. When I looked for light, and then came the darkness. The churning inside me never stops. Days of suffering confront me, hallelujah. Praise the Lord,’ Pastor Cosmos shouted.

The alarm clock was set to the religious station God Show Me the Way. A channel so tedious and thunderous Mara found it difficult to lay in bed and fall back to sleep.

Staring at 6:02 glowing on the clock Mara knew it was time to get up if she was going to catch the bus before the school kids.

The combination of nerves, fatigue and the residual effects of red wine, gave her a foggy sensation. As she showered, dressed, ate, drank and walked to the bus stop, she felt like a voyeur hovering above her head. Even the beautiful autumnal morning was eclipsed by the prospect of teaching. Headlights roared towards her; she squinted to see the bus number and then stepped back. Two more buses rumbled along throwing out plumes of smoke and stinking diesel, finally a number thirty six approached and slowed down as she stuck her hand out. Stepping onto the bus she showed her pass and the driver gave a quick look and nodded. She found a seat at the back.

‘God I hope no nut cases sit next to me today,’ she sighed, studying the parade of early morning workers exhibiting various degrees of misery. By the time the bus reached the school Mara was the only one left.

End of the line! Mara thought standing up waiting for the bus to stop.

This is the day I confront the academics of Thamesmead Polytechnic School, and impart my knowledge onto them. What a responsibility, she mocked, trying to lighten her mood as she walked through the gates.

Mara’s first tasks were to make coffee, check the notice boards and empty her pigeon hole. To her surprise Daniel Oliver was already in the staffroom and what looked like riffling in other people’s pigeon holes.

I’m making something of nothing, Mara thought. Just because I detest him, I can’t assume that he’s always up to no good.

‘Hiya Ma, what are you doing here so early?’ Daniel asked.

‘I have to catch the bus before the kids get on, so it’s an early morning start for me, but at least I can get some work done.

‘Yeah, I thought I’d come in early to use the computer and get…..’

Mara looked in her pigeon hole while Daniel prattled on about what he could achieve in the mornings. There were a few notices about staff meetings, a photocopying number, an important dates notice, a user name and password for computer and internet access.

‘Wanna cup of coffee?’ Daniel asked.

Mara paused.

‘No. It’s okay, I’ll make it,’ thoughts of Rohypnol being slipped into her morning coffee sprung into head.

He’s only being friendly, she chastised herself.

‘Did you know there was a meeting before lessons?’ she asked guiltily.

‘Yeah, waste of time, if you ask me, see ya.’

Mara retreated to her classroom to prepare the board for her first class. The nerves didn’t seem to subside no matter how many times she tried to calm herself.

The bell rang for the morning briefing. She made her way to the staff room, saw Daniel and sat beside him still feeling a little penitent. The teacher behind her was asleep until Daniel brazenly shouted.

‘Rise and shine sleeping beauty!’

Mara rolled her eyes, justifying her previous misgivings.

The headmaster walked in followed by his posse of deputies. Joyce took her place by the whiteboard ready to incessantly scribble the briefing notes, while Jim stood behind Alan beaming at his underlings.

‘Good morning all. Today’s the day the students come back,’ Alan said firmly.

Mara glanced at Joyce. Day one for students was being scrawled across the whiteboard; she then changed her pen to a different colour.

‘We need to start out in a positive manner. Remember always try to be encouraging, some of our students come from tough backgrounds and sometimes school is the only stability they have in their lives.’

Alan’s voice disappeared as Mara started thinking about her first class. She snapped back into the room when the tone changed. Jim had taken over to give out the daily notices.

‘All students must stay in class; they are not allowed to go to the toilet. If you must let students out, remember to give them a note which should have a time, date and signature, of course if it’s an emergency and you need someone from senior management, send a trustworthy student with a note containing the emergency code. Oh, that’s ‘red balloons’ for those of us who are new to the school.’

He continued to read a list of procedures for the next few minutes unaware that his audience had turned off.

Joyce was now crouching down low, trying to write in the final bullet point.

‘Just before you go,’ Joyce croaked.

‘The classroom manager system is being updated this morning by my guy Chris, hopefully it will be up and running by lunchtime, so I’ll be far too busy, PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t disturb me with anything else.’

With that final instruction the bell rang to signal the start of lessons.

An excited swarm of children had gathered in the corridor waiting for their teachers. As the classroom doors opened student’s disappeared and the commotion slowly dwindled. Mara now felt nervous at the prospect of teaching her first lesson.

As she walked towards her classroom, she could see a montage of students hungrily waiting at the front of the door. She waded though the children confidently greeting them with a smile as they gawked at her.

‘Come in and sit down silently,’ Mara said, still trying to sound firm.

None of the students said hello or asked a question. She was still an unknown entity.

The boys were typical inner-city teens, scruffy and spotty. In contrast the girls were excessively groomed, with tight pony tails heavily back combed to resemble dusting feathers and hostile make-up plastered to their faces

The last child to enter the class was a sheepish ginger haired boy called Darryl. Some boys had clearly held him down before the lesson and written loser across his forehead. Darryl had waited outside the room until everyone else found a place. As he looked for a seat another boy with glasses and short dreadlocks shouted.

‘Loser.’

‘How dare you speak to another member of the class like that? Wait outside.’ Mara said firmly.

‘What! I’m being sent out for that, that’s stupid,’ he slurred defiantly.

He was obviously high up on the pecking order and needed to show that he was not easily intimidated by a mere teacher.

‘Out you go. I’m not telling you again,’ Mara commanded

The boy left the room as dramatically as he could, exaggerating all his movements, slamming the door on the way out.

She cleared her throat and introduced herself to the class whilst writing her name on the board. For most of the lesson the students looked at her vacantly, occasionally copying from the board.

‘Miss, when are you going to let Michael back in?’ one of the girls asked.

She had forgotten about the boy she had sent out.

‘When I’m ready!’ Mara retorted.

A few minutes later she went out to retrieve the offending boy; he was gazing down at his feet looking bored and confused; not expecting to be outside the classroom for so long.

The lesson continued quietly with no one bothering to answer any questions or engaging with what they were being taught

The bell rang for morning break. Mara was glad to see the end of the double period; it wasn’t as tough as she had anticipated, but it was only the first lesson.

The rest of the classes followed a similar pattern to period one. Mara felt a huge sense of relief at getting to the end of day one. Now that she had met most of the students she was going to teach, she felt a little more confident.

Gordon called into the class room on his way out to ask how the first day had gone. He too had found the kids quite subdued. Daniel later informed Mara in the prep room, that he thought he’d made a real connection with the students.

The week, although busy, was non eventful. When the bell rang at 3:15 it marked the end of the week and two whole days away from Thamesmead Poly. Ten minutes after the bell rang, a message bellowed over the loudspeaker.

‘Heerre’s Boyo. If anyone is interested, there’s a staff debrief at the Pig’s Gut, over and out.’

She had already met Boyo