An Englishman's Home is his Castle...

(apologies for taking so long to actually get this post finished & published)

A few months ago, my friend Sarah announced that she and her husband, Ben, were moving to Derbyshire. After staying with Sarah's granny for a few weeks, they have now moved into their new house, so we thought we would visit them on our way to Grimsby. We took the campervan and booked into Elvaston Castle (not a real castle at all!)campsite nearby to stay for the night.

After visiting Sarah & Ben's new house, we all went over to Elvaston Castle Country Park. A pleasant walk in the woods was the perfect opportunity for Big J to cover his lovely clean trainers and the bottom half of his trousers in two types of poo and some of his own wee! What a charming boy!

We headed for Nottingham the following day, which was not enjoyable in the least. I love Nottingham and as the children have been following the Robin Hood series (yes, yes, I know it's not age appropriate!) I thought they would love to visit the castle. Yes, I am sure they would have preferred to visit the Robin Hood experience museum, but at thirty odd pounds for the family to get in, we decided the castle was more appealing. Didn't I realise they would be disappointed when they saw it and found out it was not a real castle at all, but more like a large stately home? Did I really expect them to get excited about an art gallery and some plates, bowls & cups? Well, yes, hindsight would have been handy (or possible just some forethought!).

A longer than anticipated drive finally got us to Seany's house - not a castle either, but the kids were happy to see Uncle Seanie, as were we, of course!

Despite the fact that we had (and still have) no money, we still managed to visit a windmill (Windy Miller was not in so we didn't get to see it turning, although I managed to keep Big J quiet for about 10 minutes by saying, "Quick, I just saw it move - keep watching!"); a zoo (of sorts) in Cleethorpes (no, not the Sunday Market!)although Seany said it was not quite like the San Diego Zoo or the one in St Louis and we also went for a long drive in the country in search of Alvingham Watermill which I remembered visiting as a year 3 pupil with my favourite teacher and thought Little Z might like to see as the one we had seen in Elvaston had not been working. We also managed to reach the Appleby's Ice Cream shop in Conisholme just in time.

Thanks Seany for another great break.

The Slippery Slope...

At Paulton's Park last weekend, Seany & I stood watching Little Z and Big J have their last climb, swing, jump, bounce and slide on the adventure playground before going home. We laughed as we remembered how a number of years ago, we had visited Paulton's with Little Z and had ourselves had a go on the biggest chute slide. I was signed off work with depression (no, let me finish!) and remember thinking at that time "I hope no one sees me enjoying myself!" It's a common misconception that depressed people have to be miserable all of the time.

So, anyway, I was reading Seany's blog this morning about the joke someone has cracked at the Tate Modern (no, I'm not mocking it, actually I liked the thought behind it) and having clicked the link to the news article about "Shibboleth 2007" I saw a related article entitled "Tate Modern Unveils Giant Slides". Now, that is something I would really enjoy going to see. I love swings and slides and never seem to have grown out of them (mentally, ok?) so I was very excited to hear what the artist had to say:

Artist Carsten Holler said his work, Test Site, was a "playground for the body and the brain". He says slides can help combat mental health problems.

(Source: BBC.co.uk)

What a fantastic excuse!

So, my plan is as follows:
New Job, New house, Big garden, Giant slide, not thought beyond that yet...

How to Get a Primary NQT Teaching Job

I cannot believe how hard it has been to get a teaching job. I know some people have not found it so hard, but I also know some people who were happy to apply for and accept any teaching job in any school and some of those people ended up very unhappy and soon moved on to another school or left teaching altogether. What I am talking about, is how hard it has been to find the right teaching job in the right school. Too fussy? probably. Happy? Yes! I am now.

But this got me thinking how it would be nice (good descriptive word!) to put something together which might help some of the Primary NQTs still out there searching for the right job.

I have put this together and put a link in "Teachers Cupboard" on the right. I am not pretending to have more experience than others, but just wanted to share what I have learnt on my journey. I hope you find it helpful.

Free Stuff!

Yes, I know that Northerners (should that have a capital letter?) seem to have a reputation among the southern folk for taking anything that is free whether they need it or not, but this free stuff is really useful, for teachers and other people involved with education, that is. Yes, I do like the fact that it is free and no I would probably not order some of it if I had to pay for it, but isn't that true about many things? Are there not certain things in life which are free and which we take willingly, but would probably not pay for. Enough about that now.

Anyway, if you are a teacher or LSA or TA or Parent or someone interested in school / education stuff, then have a look at this site. You have to register and then you can (within reason) order what you like. Some things are restricted, but I have been able to order most things I needed to. Just thought I would share my find with you.

By the way, I have also put a link to this on the right hand side under "Teacher's Cupboard" so you can find it easily in future.

I got a job!!!!!

Yippee! I actually did it! I got a job!

Thanks to fantastic feedback from two job interviews I went to last week and this week, (and a lot of hard work from me, I might add!) I finally got offered a job at one of the best schools in the city! I'm really happy. I had a super day starting with lunch with the children at 11.45, interview at 2pm and then story at 2.45. I didn't want to do any ordinary story, so we did a "rap" version of The Little Red Hen with the children using body percussion to provide the pulse to the rap. When I left, the children said they hoped I would be their new teacher. Aww!