I can’t wait to go back to school. There, I’ve said it!

I’ve had enough of this now.

The gloss has well and truly worn off. Let me get back to my classroom - there are so many things I miss but I think these are the biggest three.

1. I miss the (controlled) chaos

I miss noise. I miss mess, I miss laughter.

There really isn’t anywhere quite like the inside of a school building.

It’s fun, chaotic and loud, and I would imagine that almost all teachers would tell you the same.

2. I miss the people

I miss my colleagues, the staffroom, the playground. Stopping and talking to someone between lessons. My school has tried to recreate this collegiate feel online but it’s simply not the same. How could it be?

We get so much from the interactions with our colleagues both professionally and personally.

Yes, we have become more independent and less reliant on others but with this comes the risk of isolation and loneliness.

3. I miss the spontaneity

It’s also brought about a strange lack of confidence in what we do. Without the ability to interact with others, how do we know we are still achieving what we want to achieve? You simply can’t replace that on-screen.

I miss spontaneity and going off on a tangent. I miss throwing your lesson plan out of the window because a totally new learning opportunity has presented itself.

The classroom should always be a creative, dynamic place and learning should always bend and flex. It should also be pupil-centric and student-led, and not be so structured that nothing can ever come as a surprise.

That said, there are lots of things though, that I really don’t miss…

What I don’t miss:

1. I don’t meetings

The meeting has been replaced by the one-to-one catch-up, the quick phone call or video chat. It’s become less formal and more personal, and I like that. I’ve always been an advocate of just going and speaking to someone, and even though I can’t physically do that, I have enjoyed the ability to just drop a quick message and get a personal reply.

Jason Fried, the chief executive of Basecamp, told the Economist magazine “too many meetings destroy morale and motivation” and that “excessive meetings tend to be draining on employees and waste company time”.

We’ve all sat in meetings about meetings or meetings that don’t seem to go anywhere.

Thankfully, we haven’t needed to replicate this on screen - let’s hope we remember this post-pandemic.

2. I don’t miss detentions

Controversial, I know, but I just don’t think they work the way we think they do. I would love that when we return, we reassess the value of detention as a means of changing pupil behaviours.

Dr Ruth Payne, a lecturer at the University of Leeds, conducted a wide-ranging study into this in 2014 and the evidence was clear. Detentions don’t work. “It might make teachers feel good to put someone in detention but children aren’t being taught to behave.”

We use detentions as purely a means of controlling them rather than as a learning experience. Dr Payne says: “Students may learn that bad behaviour has consequences but they are not learning how to behave better.”

And I would have to agree.

Unbelievably, I heard a rumour of a school in the UK setting virtual detentions online last week. Thankfully we haven’t needed to replicate detentions on-screen.

3. I don’t miss paper

This may be an odd one but I really don’t miss walking past the photocopier and seeing a forest worth of paper in the “scrap paper” box.

A study in America found that “at least 40 per cent of the typical school waste stream is paper” and that schools and other education facilities often are among the largest waste generators in any city.

In the UK, meanwhile, it has been found that “the average primary school student produces about 45kg of waste” and “each secondary school student is responsible for about 22kg”.

That doesn’t even take into account the amount of paper that is used in administration or that never reaches the pupils because the photocopier is possessed by a demon and goes haywire.

With the increase in the use of online platforms for the distribution and submission of work, there really should be no reason to go back to paper-based activity. I certainly have every intention of continuing to set work “digitally”.

I know it’s not possible across every pupil, in every school, in every setting but the more we can retain this momentum, the smaller the pile of paper will be. Thank goodness we don’t need paper on screen.

We are all missing different aspects of school life and quietly enjoying the lack of other elements. We must be honest about these and think about what we want to do next to keep the good and lose the bad.

Philip Mathe is director of sport at Brighton College Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates