I have had an exhausting couple of days at a school I thought I would never return to. I have taught in year 1 at this school before and a friend of mine has taught in higher yeargroups. We both agree it is not the best school to do supply at, especially in the afternoons. So, why did I go back? Well, I was offered 2 days in Foundation which in a Primary school is usually the Reception class. In this particular school the Foundation stage also encompasses the pre-school children of 3 years and over. I had heard that working in the foundation stage at this school was a lot of fun, so I thought it was worth a second chance.
I was told they were expecting 2 supply teachers, one for Foundation 1 (pre-school) and one for Foundation 2 (reception). I said I thought I would probably have been put into F2 as I am primary trained. But no, they had decided to put me with the pre-school children. I was scared!
Actually, I really enjoyed working with the pre-school children. The most difficult thing was communicating with the children. Many of the children did not speak English as their first language, quite a few were too shy to talk to me as they had never seen me before and some of them hardly ever talked anyway. I was completely exhausted after the first day and wondered how I would feel by the end of day 2, but the 2nd day was easier and much more enjoyable. I learnt (with difficulty) the names of the children in my group and was able to build a much better rapport and find out a bit more about them. The major incident of the day, which will probably remain with me for many years was seeing a child turn blue after sniffing a lego-type brick up his nose and almost choking on it. A few sharp slaps to the back ensured the boy coughed the brick up and turned pink again, albeit leaving him rather bewildered not to mention leaving most of the staff feeling shaken yet relieved. Other noteworthy events include being called a fat sheep and making or attempting to make sock puppet animals. I guess the bottom line is that I got paid for doing very little other than playing all day, so I really cannot complain about feeling a bit tired at the end of it. I was grateful, however, to have planned today off.
I spent most of the day with Big J at Paultons Park., for which we had bought season tickets last Sunday. Most of the rides are for children of varying ages, but there are a few which are just as much fun for the adults, such as the Raging River (log flume) and the Cobra (single cart roller coaster).
We are very lucky with Big J. The rule at the park is that children under a metre don't have to pay. He is about 93cm so we are still getting him in for free. However, most of the rides he wants to go on only require him to be 90cm or over, so although we don't pay for him, he still gets to go on most of the children's rides. I understand that once they are over a metre, the trick is to put them in a pushchair so that they don't have to walk under the measuring barrier! A friend of mine took her son in a pushchair until he was 5, when the staff eventually said, "I think it's about time he had a ticket of his own!"
I don't think it will be very long before we go again.
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