I’m going to indulge in a little fantasy. I can’t stop you having a menopausal transition. I can’t change schools (much) but let’s see how our experience of perimenopause and menopause might be.

🦄You spot right away that something’s going on, because you’ve heard all about it and discussed it with others and we’ve time and energy to tune into our bodies.

🦄As soon as you realise you need extra help managing it, you get down to the doctors. In this world you can get a doctor’s appointment quickly — and your school, realising the importance allows you time off.

🦄You have a dream consultation with your doctor and come away with HRT. In this dream it works full time — but in the parallel dream it doesn’t quite, but that’s ok, because you explore different options with your doctor and your school understands it can take a while to get it quite sorted.

🦄HRT is great, but there are still niggles, still things that you are finding tough. Fortunately your school has a menopause policy so you knew who to talk to and what to expect.

🦄One issue is that your classroom was built like a greenhouse. In this ideal world your school helps find you a better room — or puts things in place to cool down the room you are in.

🦄Your school’s always had plenty of toilets and they’re all clean and sweet smelling, with a supply of sanitary products (this is a dream world), but you’re having difficulty getting to them when you need. Your school reviews your timetable with you and helps you switch some duties. They also make sure there’s a system whereby you can get someone to keep your class safe if you need to rush off. There’s even a locker near the loos where you can keep a spare change of clothing in case the worse comes to the worse.

🦄You’ve taken to wearing layers of floaty clothing. Thank goodness you’re not in a science lab, so nothing’s going to catch on a Bunsen burner as you waft past. You have a hook in your classroom so you can keep everything nice.

🦄You’re memory fails you sometimes. But everyone understands and no-one thinks you’re a mad old bat. They know you’re an experienced and competent teacher. But they’re considerate. They don’t dump lots of information or requests on you when you’re unprepared and they put things in writing if that helps you. You’ve even got a tablet in your classroom so you can set reminder and make notes and take pictures of things you need to remember. Once you had to be shown a tech thing you found hard (only once because this is a fantasy) — so you made a video of it on your tablet.

🦄When your temper felt stretched by some of the things happening in the classroom and the strain of keeping calm in the face of some very difficult emotions you were able to work with a colleague to find new ways of managing those problems and also had the opportunity to take five when you needed it.

🦄You felt you needed a bit more quiet time, and fortunately the school had a lovely internal yard where the children and the biology staff had made a garden and a pond (sorry, that’s my fantasy) so you could go there for a break. You were able to organise your time-table to give you plenty of breaks, but you also had the choice of compressing it so you could take blocks of time off site.

🦄There was also the option, if you needed it, to reduce your hours and keep your responsibility points and your influence in the school by working out how to share your role with others in your team.

🦄Your school helped you set up a support group. It was great knowing others were in the same boat and you never felt isolated. There was always a source of sympathy and solutions and it always made you feel better. The laughs you shared woke up your brain and boosted your mood.

🦄 You found you had time to do some exercise. Perhaps you did yoga with some of your fellow menopausal colleagues. Perhaps you found time for 20 minutes of weight bearing exercise with a video a couple of times a week. Perhaps you were able to get out for a walk each weekend. And you had time to make healthy meals and bring healthy snacks to school (and in this dream no-one was allergic to nuts!).

And although perimenopause was challenging at times, it never felt too much and you always felt that there was someone to talk to.

I have these tablet — £53.99 a month, nutrients, pixie dust and unicorn 💩

😊A whole staff talk can ensure that everyone in your school understands what’s going on — and from understanding springs empathy.

😊A workshop can connect you with your colleagues in the same boat and start the process of finding solutions.

😊Support building your menopause policy means that everyone is aware and invested in the process and that the policy suits your school.

😊One to one and group mentoring provides extra support for staff who are struggling.

😊The support group in a box helps you set up a support group that’s right for your school.

Together we can build the dream — or at the very least make things a lot better.

Because we all want our school staff in school doing their jobs in the way we know they can.