School Days

I spent the day working in a village school today! One of my sister's friends is a teacher in a village about an hour's drive away and was in real need of some help as the year draws to an end so I asked if I could go and get some experience.

The school is unqiue in that although it spans the age ranges 4-11 there are only 3 classes... so this particular teacher has a class with children ranging from ages 4-7!! Not the easiest of things to plan for as whole class teaching needs to cater for all the age groups and group and individual work has to be set at each child's key stage plus their own personal levels!!

I really enjoyed the day, it was great being around the kids but I am exhausted as I had a busy weekend with friend's staying over and then getting up at half 5 this morning and only getting home at 6pm... I'll post an update later in the week along with (hopefully) some photos I took in the castle grounds and from the observatory tower the other day - they are cool!!

Talking of the observatory tower, we were climbing the stairs to it (and they were really steep), following this little girl and her dad. She said "I'm going up first" and then when we caught up with her I told her that she was doing so well because even I was tired and she showed me exactly how she was climbing up the steps (you know what kids are like when you praise them and they want to show you just how good they are!!). She then asked what my friend was doing (he was taking a photo at the time) and when her dad told her that was what he was doing she asked "is he taking a picture of me?" Oh, she was so adorable... and so cheeky!!!!