The head of my infants' school, in Sydney in the 1950s, was a formidable, eccentric woman called Miss Campbell.  She scared the parents and pupils, but we loved her for her mad ideas and crazy schemes.
At the end of assemblies, she would inspire our imaginations by saying:
"Now, go to your classrooms as giants."
And we would walk on tiptoe, stretching as high as we could.  The next day it might be:
".....as frogs" or ".....as elephants" or "....as trumpet players" etc.


She often performed Punch & Judy shows, with other puppet characters - in a genuine, striped, beach tent.  These performances quite often interrupted lessons, just because she suddenly felt the urge to put on a show for us.


When she hauled me out of class to play Joseph in the Nativity Scene, I went whiter than the sheet she wrapped me in.


When the mothers gathered in the playground just before the end of the school day, Miss Campbell warned them to 'stay outside the gates until the last bell sounds'.  Many mothers ignored this warning, and so Miss Campbell walked into the playground one afternoon, turned on the hose and soaked all those recalcitrant mothers.  Today, that would no doubt cause an uproar, but back then, nothing happened - except that all the mothers remained outside the gates from then on.


My own mother had an altercation with Miss Campbell, with me as an onlooker, over the issue of school uniform.  All I recall now is that my mother terminated the argument with the words:
"Miss Campbell!  You educate Lindsay.  I'll dress him!"


Incredibly enough, my brother met Miss Campbell in the 1990s, when she was in her 90s.  She remembered our mother, John and me.


That kind of crazy but imaginative teacher is now in an ever-decreasing minority.  I don't agree with drenching parents, but I do wish that there were more inspired teachers around.
OFSTED's 'ideal teacher' is the opposite of Miss Campbell - a box-ticking automaton.
May the new year see the demise of the OFSTED ideal.