Jennifer Garner has thanked her children’s teachers for all the support they have given them.

The 52-year-old actress has Violet, 18, Fin, 15, and 12-year-old Samuel with her ex-husband Ben Affleck and almost five years on from when their divorce was finalised, she took to social media to acknowledge the way in which her children’s educators have “cared” about them over the years.

She wrote on Instagram: “Thank you for caring about my children with me, for tying their shoes and holding their hands. Thank you for disciplining my kids when they’ve needed it and for offering more hugs than some children receive in a lifetime.

“Thank you for all of the hard work that goes into having high expectations, for buckling down and teaching them the discomfort and joy of tolerating frustration toward a greater good.

“Thank you for choosing to study and become educators and for doing your jobs with your whole heart. I’m sure that the demands and frustrations of the classroom can obfuscate the mission behind your place in it, but what’s more noble than teaching children-not a whole lot, as far as I can tell.”

In the caption of her post, the ’13 Going on 30′ star noted as her eldest finished high school and her youngest finished elementary school “gratitude” was needed for the educators after so much time together.

She said: “A little gratitude for our wonderful family elementary school at the end of 13 years together applies to all educators: thank you for doing what you do.
“And congratulations to all the mamas out there with kids moving from one phase to the next.”

Jennifer – who is currently thought to be dating John Miller again after a brief period of separation whilst Ben is married to pop superstar Jennifer Lopez – previously admitted that the “hard” part about her divorce was having to go through it in the public eye.

Speaking on ‘CBS Sunday Mornings’, she said: “Looking back on that, I really feel the stress of it. I really — I could cry talking about it. What I think I’ve learned is that the scrutiny in your private life puts a pressure to make something happen. You feel a pressure to hurry up and get married, ‘cause you think that’ll end the, ‘Are they engaged? Are they not?’ And that’s true in reverse, as well. If you are — if there is any inkling of trouble, or if the tabloids decide there’s trouble, it can create trouble. But to be honest, public scrutiny, everyone says, ‘Oh, you’ve had to go through this in public.’ The public isn’t what’s hard. What’s hard is going through it.”