Summer pressure to perform passes as schools go in

What is it that’s so comforting about school term starting up again? Especially if, like me, you have no school-aged children and are not a teacher and didn’t particularly enjoy school when you were a pupil? Whatever the reason, I still get a feeling of reassurance when I start to notice the back-to-school stuff in the shops.

Maybe it’s because I realise we’re almost at the stage where we can stop hoping the rest of the summer will be full of special, wondrous days covered in fairy dust and can go back to expecting our day-today challenges.

The constant expectation of our summers can be frankly exhausting. We can now declare an end

to people asking whether you’ve had a fantastic summer, before regaling you with their own exploits in great detail.

Of course, if you are parents of school-aged children, that feeling of joy as term time looms needs no explanation. “Six weeks? Was it only six weeks? It seemed so much longer…” I can still recall the relief that we’d all survived the summer holidays. As well as my oft-expressed vicarious excitement at the thought of a new pencil case.

We can also take comfort that the return to school period also means real films back on at the cinema. While some of us are happy to go to see certain films aimed at children without taking any children with us (Toy Story 4), there is, however a limit to this (Playmobil: The Movie).

Roll on grown-up films and the new season’s TV. My anticipation for the next series of Peaky Blinders is verging on the tragic.

At other times of the year, I would say this is a sign I need to get out more, but it’s a scientific fact that after schools go back, staying in and cosying up is the optimum activity for wellbeing.

Don’t worry though – I’m not going to get all giddy about the prospect of woolly tights just yet. There’s always a window for some more good weather before we start looking forward to that. I don’t want to peak too early in the year.

I can still recall the relief we’d all survived the summer holidays