D is for Dismal Damp

Welcome to my posts for the A to Z Challenge 2016.

This year, I am posting 

Special School Stories

 tales from either my time as a teacher or teaching assistant within classrooms in the U.K. or from my own school days growing up around the country

Getting your own classroom is supposed to be one of the best days of your teaching career – a blank canvas for you to create a wonderful learning environment for your first class of children.  So you can probably imagine what I thought when my first classroom came complete with black mould growing all around the top of three of the walls just below the ceiling. 

Obviously, I asked the Head what was going to be done about it during the long, six week, school holiday and his reply was nothing as there were no funds for extra work (our school corridors were works of art where visitors to the school could marvel at how he had transformed the school from such a run down place – my classroom certainly wouldn’t be on the tour)! 

Therefore, armed with scrubbing brushes, mould remover, tools and anti-mould paint (all paid for by myself) I set to work in the first week of the school holiday ridding my classroom of that horrible mould. It was tough work but I did it – and I got to know the school caretaker well who despite being very overworked found time to clear out the guttering and take a look to see where the problem might stem from.  

You might think my new Head would be pleased with what I had done but on one of his visits to my classroom he told me how and where I wanted to put in effort was up to me and he was only interested in the children’s results.  However, I felt proud of the job I had done and that my new class would not have to sit beneath black mould in a damp classroom.

I didn’t stay very long at the school – my class were wonderful – but unfortunately the attitude of the Head and other members of senior management did not sit well with me – so after gaining my full teaching qualification I left to go back to being a classroom assistant for a while in a much nicer school before girding my loins and becoming a classroom teacher again and luckily never found another damp, mouldy classroom!

So now it's your turn - have you ever been in a damp, mouldy classroom or maybe a hotel room didn't live up to expectations with that ominous wet patch on the ceiling or wall?  Have you ever gone beyond the call of duty to be given the brush off by your "superiors"?  Tell me all about it in the comments below and remember you know I'd love to know :)