Anyway, with Nathan Finch’s new “mark smart” scheme, I’m going to free up hours of my day.’ She rolled her eyes.

Susie groaned. ‘Don’t remind me. My head hurts. What happened to easing us back into work gently? Did you even understand half of it?’

Penny used her fingers to help her remember the order: ‘The pupils write in blue pen. We mark in red pen. We highlight something good in yellow pen and something they need to improve in pink pen. They then go back and make changes in green pen. Have I got it right?’

Rory shook her head. ‘You lost me at the word pen. I’m lucky if my lot have got a pencil they’ve lifted from the pot in IKEA.’

‘What about the “RAG rating”?’ asked Susie. ‘Aren’t we supposed to tell them to use red, amber and green to show how well they have understood the lesson?’

‘Oh Susie, you’re so last term.’ Rory was back under the kitchen unit. ‘Next you’ll be telling me you’ve gone back to last academic year and are using two stars for something good and a wish for something they can improve.’

‘I liked two stars and a wish.’ Penny sounded mournful. ‘It was so hopeful.’

‘Speaking of hopeful, what do you think of the new deputy?’ Susie started to unscrew the red wine they’d picked up on the way here. ‘He’s pretty good-looking and clearly not married.’

Rory finally found the wine glasses she’d been looking for and pushed them towards Susie so that she could pour the wine. ‘I’m not keen, to be honest.’

Susie sighed. ‘You’re not keen on anyone, Rory. For us normal women, he looks quite a catch. They’re probably paying him a fair whack, too.’

‘I’m with Rory, I’m afraid.’ Penny held up a hand to stop Susie from filling her glass to the top. ‘He looked quite arrogant to me.’

Susie threw her arms into the air. ‘What am I going to do with you two? We don’t have forever, you know. I have very little left of my thirties and, post-forty, women have more chance of being abducted by aliens than getting married.’

‘Is that true?’ Penny’s eyes were wide. She was already past forty.

‘Of course it’s not bloody true, but it might as well be. In the last year, I’ve had three dates. Three.’ Susie held three fingers up for emphasis. ‘One spoke in sentences of three words or less, one was into dogging and the third one reminded me of the last puppy in the pet shop.’ She looked at them intently. ‘Mr Right is not going to fall into our laps, ladies. We need to work at it.’

Rory raised an eyebrow at Penny and nodded her head towards Susie, before leading the way to the sitting room.

‘You can mock me,’ continued Susie as she followed, ‘but you know I am right. We work in a job where over seventy-five per cent of the staff are female.’ She looked at Penny. ‘And that one is a fact. If we want to meet someone before we are pensioned off, we have to put down the red pen for a night and go out and find them.’ She sat down on the sofa and took a large gulp of her wine.

Rory fiddled with the radio for some background music.