I Wanted To Do A Really Good Post Today

But I just went in my rucksack to take out my camera (used in school this week to take photographic evidence of the children's collages of 'favourite food') and it wasn't there. I looked again and then looked a third time but where it is, I just don't know. I'm hoping I'll go back into school tomorrow and find it on one of the cupboards. Fingers crossed!

It's been a bonkers week.

If you read my Twitter feed, you'll know that on Monday afternoon the school where I'm based for my final placement received the dreaded call from Ofsted and we spent until late on Monday evening running around like calm but headless chickens tweaking plans and making the classrooms look like highly 'effective learning environments'.

Ofsted came and went and on Wednesday at 4pm we breathed a sigh of relief. Thursday was spent having a bit of a treat day, giving the children a 'cinema afternoon' with The Lion King and popcorn as a thank you for being so switched on over the two days (although probably more importantly it gave us teachers an opportunity to flop for the afternoon).

On Wednesday evening I felt I was getting a sore throat and by Thursday night I had the start of a proper cold. My voice lasted until 7.50pm on Friday night and I've spent the rest of the weekend sniffling around.

I did venture out yesterday to pick up a parcel from the Post Office (enamel mugs for our Campervan trip!), then I popped in to the butchers before heading to the Craft And Art Fair that was being held at my church. The church looked beautiful, decked in flowers and bunting and with a lovely selection of lunches and afternoon teas. The variety of home-crafted goods that were for sale were amazing. The only condition for having a stall was that you had to be local and I was surprised to find out how many talented people there are on my doorstep.

I bought a gorgeous owl cushion and a whimsical brooch (must share when/if I get my camera back), some very interesting air-drying play-dough and tried my first cake pop (yummy!). There were so many things I wanted to buy that Mr P and I had to do a 'walk' of the stalls first and then go back to buy the things that really appealed.

Then it was back home to watch the final Doctor Who (Saturday nights won't be the same for a while) and tolerate Eurovision. By then I was so exhausted that I slept through the final bit - probably a good thing as it wasn't that impressive this year. 

Now it is Sunday afternoon and I'm sat in the garden with a mug of tea and typing this, while Mr P plants some climbing hydrangeas that we bought at a garden centre last weekend and have only just found the time to put them in the beds. I feel guilty not to be helping but I'm poorly, after all! ;0)

It's been a very long week and no doubt this week will be another busy one. I'm looking forward to half term coming up but now that this week will involve making sure I have everything I need for planning for the final 5 weeks of my placement. 

Then it is all over. Just 7 weeks and 2 days to go - phew! How many sleeps is that?

(Sorry for the dullest blog post ever. It's full of dull details and so boring without any pictures but I just needed to write something in here this week!) x

More Blue Blooms

On the May Bank Holiday Weekend we attended my cousin's wedding in Battersea.

They had beautiful blue hydrangeas as their wedding flowers which matched a lovely navy blue colour scheme. They had worked so hard to make their special day unique and personal. It was fabulous!

Congratulations Louise & Ian! x

Not So Blue-bells

Spot the odd one out.

Greys Court
National Trust Property
Henley upon Thames, South Oxfordshire.
Sunday 12th May 2013
Just before it tipped it down.

Starting School: SE2

I'm making my first visit to my new placement school today.
It's the start of SE2 - School Experience 2.

Back to learning the names of 30 new little people and and getting to know and work effectively (effective seems to be the in-word with educationalists!) with another bunch teachers and support staff.

I hate to admit it but I'm still feeling a little concerned about it being an Academy. Although I did have a nice email from my class teacher so I'm hoping that is a good sign.

This is the last big step before (hopefully) becoming a proper teacher.

I've updated my favourite teacher picture for the sunny Summer Term.
(You can make your own avatar here - it's not just for teacher folk!) 
Hopefully I'll be looking as sunny and unstressed as my avatar does come 9th July!

Doubly Good News!

I've been absent for a couple of weeks but it's not all been bad stuff and busyness.

Please join me with a cup of tea and a biscuit to celebrate two pieces of good news!

Firstly, I passed my Numeracy QTS Test. All trainees (and from last September all those applying for teacher training courses) must pass this and a similar Literacy test to acquire Qualified Teacher Status. It's supposed to be a 'professional qualification' meaning that the skills you use for it are ones that you would use as a teacher but not actual teaching.

I sat my Literacy QTS Test back in November as I was very confident I would pass first time (and did) but I put my Numeracy test off time after time because I never found the headspace to solidly revise. I was also anxious about it and conscious that mental arithmetic is a real weakness having relied on calculators for so many years.

Luckily I found plenty of time over the Easter break and sat the test at 8.30am on a rainy Tuesday morning. I felt it was touch and go and was sure I hadn't passed but I was delighted to come out of the exam room and be given the slip of paper that began with the word 'Congratulations'. Brilliant! And at 9.30am on Oxford Street what more can you do but head to John Lewis and treat yourself to some lovely Liz Earle face products?

Another Tuesday morning, a week later and I was heading off for my first proper 'teacher' interview at an infant and nursery school. I had to teach a 20 minute maths lesson to Year 1 (multiples of 5) and be grilled by the headteacher, deputy and key stage leader. It all went well: the children were lovely and very accommodating towards this random, very nervous newbie, and the interview panel put me at ease, seemingly making all the right noises.

I then went off to an afternoon ICT session at uni in attempt to stop me looking at my phone every five minutes to see if the school had called. I had just left uni, when the headteacher phoned to offer me a place for September. 

Hooray!

It's an understatement to say that I'm absolutely delighted. It is a lovely school, the staff seem very friendly and welcoming. I'll be on a 1 year maternity contract but will have my own class and be provided with the same NQT Induction Year training as if I were a permanent employee.

In the past week I've been celebrating the good news with champagne, dinner in a swanky restaurant with Mr P and Sunday Lunch at a country pub with Mum and Dad. The best has to be a trip to McDonalds en route to our dancing lesson on the day I got the good news because we didn't have time to do anything grander.

It is lovely to know what I will be doing once the PGCE is over and begin to think about what sort of teacher I will be when I have a class of my own. You imagine it throughout the whole year but it doesn't quite ever feel real. I don't think it will quite sink in until I have a classroom of my own to prepare for the autumn term and 30 little people to get to know. 

Now I just have 11 final, busy weeks to survive. This includes 1 presentation, a final draft to submit of the BIG essay and 8 weeks on a Reception class placement where I will have my trial go at being the teacher for 5 weeks. I'm rather nervous especially as it is an Academy and they are notorious for having high expectations but I keep reminding myself that it is all good experience that will put me in a great position for being a confident teacher in a school of my choice in the Autumn.

Totally scary but exciting stuff ahead!

The Great British Sewing Bee - Week 2

Another fantastic watch this week.

Lovely Ann

I can't be the only person who wants to adopt Ann as their surrogate grandmother? 

She's amazing! It makes me feel very sad that my own dressmaking, knitting Grandma (pronounced Gramma - she was Welsh) passed away when I was 19 and just starting to get properly interested in crafting. I would have loved to have benefitted from all her wisdom acquired over so many years (she was 93 when she died) and taken advantage of her skills by asking her to alter and make me bespoke items. 

Back to Ann though - she's lovely and her comments are brilliant, especially the one about boys wearing jeans made by their mother. But my favourite quote from Ann this week was...

"I'd rather do something simple and do it well, 

than something complicated and full flat on my face."

Wise words! Even though they didn't prove particularly successful for Ann, I think I'll be carrying this motto with me throughout this week!

I was sad to see Mark and Tilly leave. It would have be nice to see the other exciting period creations that Mark could have made and I always liked whatever Tilly made or wore, but I think they were probably the right choices. Onto the semi-final now - definitely hot competition between Ann and Sandra, Lauren always selects such pretty material and designs and Stuart could speed ahead if he chose to create another innovative design.

And one more thing for this week. 

Where can I buy a Stuart style tulip skirt? Absolutely gorgeous!

Spring Sunday

A sunnier weekend meant that there were no excuses not to go out for a walk.

We headed to one of our favourite National Trust sites, Cliveden in Berkshire.

We tiptoed through the last of the primroses...

and admired the beautiful daffodils.

It does seem that they've come out later than usual and don't seem as cheerful. They're probably suffering from the cold and lack of sun as much as the rest of us.

I also endured a Bear Grylls adventure using a stick and hair bobble to retrieve a beautiful, big pine cone from the other side of a high fence. 

Hair bobbles are such handy things!

Finally we took a walk through the new Cliveden Maze. With my navigation skills we found the middle quite quickly. In fact, it seemed like much longer to find our way out. I won't say who was leading then! ;0)

Celebrating getting to the middle of the maze

What did you do with your sunnier Sunday?