“White mouse for effort…” · Wed May 14, 19:49 by Eleri Straker
On Friday I said good bye to my wonderful Yr11 class. It was their last lesson before study leave. The next time I see them it will be in the exam hall when they take their GCSEs.
It was a bitter-sweet hour.
We spent the first half doing some quick revision then came the white mice.
Yes, that’s right , white mice.
This is a tradition that I borrowed from a friend at university, who, when he was impressed by something you’d said, would clap you on the back and shout, “Hey, white mouse for effort there….!”
Strange, but true.
So I adopted this, and whenever someone in an examination class said something right, or clever, or just plain brilliant, I would call out, “OK, that’s definitely a white mouse for that..”
After the initial confusion, the students cottoned on and many a class observer or visitor from then on would be flummoxed by students demanding, “Come on Miss, that has to be worth at leas half a white mouse…!
So for the last lesson I brought in a box of white chocolate mice and began by chucking single mice at individual students accompanied by some ‘accolade’ such as: “Andy, white mouse for putting up with Adam for two years….” “Nat, for growing in confidence, have a white mouse…” “Aliyah, have a mouse for making sure that Shakespeare never dies …” and so on, until everyone had been thanked or praised. Then I just handed them out by the handful.
I then watched as they hugged each other, wrote in each other’s diaries and let each other know in various ways how much they liked each other.
I had a lump in my throat which became almost impossible to swallow when one girl, sobbing openly, came up to me and said, “I know I’m not supposed to, but it’s our last lesson and I want to hug you…”And she did. Which opened the floodgates. All of a sudden I had a queue of sobbing girls who wanted to hug me and tell me how much they’d miss me. Then came R, who said that if the girls could have a hug, then he wanted one too!
As they all trooped out, sucking on their mice(!) they were all desperately keen for me to go to their Leavers’ Prom that evening. So of course I had no choice.
It was amazing. Gone were the kids and in their place, was a bevy of assured, beautiful young women in fabulous evening gowns and slightly awkward young men in borrowed finery looking a little awed at the transformation of their ‘mates’ into elegant, sophisticated women.
I’m glad I went. I felt privileged to witness their rite of passage. I also felt proud – “my” kids looked and behaved brilliantly. And I couldn’t help feeling that I had some little part in the way they had turned out.
I can’t guarantee what will happen in the coming exam, but I am very hopeful. But what ever happens, they definitely all deserve my thanks for being a fabulous class…and of course, more white mice.
