i know it's been a while but i'm back, tonight will just be a short update/rant about nursery but tomorrow or the next day i'll have a more detailed post.
work has been going really well; the first week just flew by and now we're in our third full week life is settling down to the routine.
working in lodge has so far shown me that i really do love working with children and could definitely see myself working with a similar age group in the future. although i love most of the job (except mounting paintings...*shudder*), my absolute favourite part is over at nursery with the 3 and 4 year olds. they are so sweet and little and say the funniest/cutest things. one of my personal favourites was:
*while watching a video about a little girl wanting the moon, jamie the 4 year old ginger pipes up with*
jamie: miss grey, if a girl asked ME for the moon I would give it to her :) i'd pick it up with my muscles.
*cue everyone dying with adorableness*
working here has (so far at least) made me consider working with little kids more than primary/high school like i had previously thought; but i guess that it's only the beginning and i have plenty of time to be put off and also...i have a few years to decide.
in terms of out-of-school activities; last friday the 14th of january we (georgie, yve, janet, greer, caitlin and i) went out to yates; the pub in high wycombe and danced the night away until close to 3am.
this weekend i babysat for 2 girls on friday night - really good girls who went to bed when i told them too and did what i asked. it was surprisingly good and i earned £35 which is always nice!
on saturday georgie and i went in to london to meet izzy and janet for dinner before seeing CHICAGO!!!
ahhh it was amaaaaaziiiiiiing, the cast were incredible, the dancing was unbelievable and it was super mega awesome cool ahhhhh. thanks to train replacement buses; the trip took a half hour longer than it should have but otherwise was great!
yesterday we spent watching tv until close to 3pm when i decided that i needed some fruit, HP sauce etc. and went down to the supermarket.
flights for half term to berlin have been booked; as has an ANZAC tour of turkey for the easter break which i'm particularly excited about.
this morning georgie, rose and i switched on the tv and heard an australian accent and nearly died! lockie leonard (which i have never watched before) was on kids tv and made me feel really odd...not homesick but kind of nostalgic. i'll be sure to watch it again tomorrow!
as for now i'm off to watch another of the many movies we have hoarded in the flat and eat another tin of pineapple! i'm addicted, it's a curse...
Monday 24 January 2011
Saturday 8 January 2011
january 8
on monday we all woke up early for a meeting with david, the head master of godstowe. he basically gave us a welcome to the school and asked us to come back at midday with a good idea of what we wanted to do as our job. i hadn't really thought about working in lodge, with the kids aged 3-7, but once david started talking about it i was really interested. caitlin and i had to discuss seriously which one of us was going to do it because we both wanted to, but in the end i got the job!
at midday we went back to his office and met the house mistresses, yvonne the head of lodge and iliffe the vice head. we settled on our jobs and discovered yvonne is irish, from co. wicklow!
iliffe gave us a tour of the main school and then we went back to our home in highlands house to move out. after 4 trips along the path, across the tennis courts and up 3 flights of stairs, i was moved in and georgie and i began to unpack. this involved throwing everything that had been left behind OUT of the wardrobes and emptying our suitcases. neither of us have finished unpacking yet...but i will do it today.
tuesday and wednesday i was working in lodge, helping the teachers to organise themselves and doing photocopying and setting up displays. on thursday morning we were all ready to go by 8.15am and set to work. i was sent to do readers with a kindergarten (like grade 1) class which was the cutest thing ever. the kids were all really excited and some were a bit shy to meet me, and all their reading was great. the thing about godstowe is that all the children seem to love reading by the time they're 7. i went on my break at 10.20 and was put on break duty which was a rainy day program so that just involved setting up a video in the hall for the kids. after that i did some readers for a transition (grade 2) class and had lunch at 12pm. at 12.45 i went over to the nursery with one teacher to put the nursery kids (3 and 4 years old) down to sleep/rest and after 20 minutes anyone who was still awake was allowed to play. i played "noah's ark" snap with a girl called olivia before i went back to lodge.
in the afternoon i did more readers and at 3.30 went down to the hall to do after care. the kids have to be witnessed being picked up by a parent, so they have to individually go up to a teacher and say "good afternoon mrs ____" and shake their hand before leaving. at 4pm, the remaining children were seated in a circle for izzy and i to pass around glasses of water and marmite or jam sandwiches. little by little parents picked the children up. after eating, they were allowed to play and a few of the kids put on a puppet show for us until at around 5pm we were let leave as there were only 3 kids left and 2 teachers to watch them. we went up to the flat and collapsed with tiredness before getting up for dinner at 6.30. later on of course i spoke to my family and did some emailing.
yesterday was quite similar, readers, lunch duty, working in the nursery. i spent a couple of hours in the art storeroom, cutting poster paper to stick paintings on to and i spent a while sitting with one little girl to try and help her pay attention.
in the evening we watched just my luck and hitch and all went to bed even though it was everyones night off and we had all wanted to go out. the truth is that we're too tired at the moment.
at midday we went back to his office and met the house mistresses, yvonne the head of lodge and iliffe the vice head. we settled on our jobs and discovered yvonne is irish, from co. wicklow!
iliffe gave us a tour of the main school and then we went back to our home in highlands house to move out. after 4 trips along the path, across the tennis courts and up 3 flights of stairs, i was moved in and georgie and i began to unpack. this involved throwing everything that had been left behind OUT of the wardrobes and emptying our suitcases. neither of us have finished unpacking yet...but i will do it today.
tuesday and wednesday i was working in lodge, helping the teachers to organise themselves and doing photocopying and setting up displays. on thursday morning we were all ready to go by 8.15am and set to work. i was sent to do readers with a kindergarten (like grade 1) class which was the cutest thing ever. the kids were all really excited and some were a bit shy to meet me, and all their reading was great. the thing about godstowe is that all the children seem to love reading by the time they're 7. i went on my break at 10.20 and was put on break duty which was a rainy day program so that just involved setting up a video in the hall for the kids. after that i did some readers for a transition (grade 2) class and had lunch at 12pm. at 12.45 i went over to the nursery with one teacher to put the nursery kids (3 and 4 years old) down to sleep/rest and after 20 minutes anyone who was still awake was allowed to play. i played "noah's ark" snap with a girl called olivia before i went back to lodge.
in the afternoon i did more readers and at 3.30 went down to the hall to do after care. the kids have to be witnessed being picked up by a parent, so they have to individually go up to a teacher and say "good afternoon mrs ____" and shake their hand before leaving. at 4pm, the remaining children were seated in a circle for izzy and i to pass around glasses of water and marmite or jam sandwiches. little by little parents picked the children up. after eating, they were allowed to play and a few of the kids put on a puppet show for us until at around 5pm we were let leave as there were only 3 kids left and 2 teachers to watch them. we went up to the flat and collapsed with tiredness before getting up for dinner at 6.30. later on of course i spoke to my family and did some emailing.
yesterday was quite similar, readers, lunch duty, working in the nursery. i spent a couple of hours in the art storeroom, cutting poster paper to stick paintings on to and i spent a while sitting with one little girl to try and help her pay attention.
in the evening we watched just my luck and hitch and all went to bed even though it was everyones night off and we had all wanted to go out. the truth is that we're too tired at the moment.
Wednesday 5 January 2011
address/contact details
We're moved into the flat now, so we have a permanent address and landline number!
anyone wanting to send me letters etc. (hint hint) can send them to:
Aisling Grey - Lodge Flat
Godstowe Preparatory School
Shrubbery Road
High Wycombe
Buckinghamshire HP13 6PR
United Kingdom
the landline phone number is
0044 (or +44) 14944 29008)
and my English mobile is
+447576044319
anyone wanting to send me letters etc. (hint hint) can send them to:
Aisling Grey - Lodge Flat
Godstowe Preparatory School
Shrubbery Road
High Wycombe
Buckinghamshire HP13 6PR
United Kingdom
the landline phone number is
0044 (or +44) 14944 29008)
and my English mobile is
+447576044319
january 4
SO. WOW. NEW YEARS EVE.
we left high wycombe on friday morning around midday after some excitement about the internet and editing photos or something. the train was taken in to london (at the ridiculous cost of £11 pounds, a reduction from the usual £18 but none of us realised yet that discounted fares are gained by booking in advance...strange system). there was a muddle with the underground system too because the bakerloo line was down and we had to do some kind of walk around to a different station and change lines and then get a regular train and EVENTUALLY end up in paddington. Luckily our hotel was about 2 minutes walk from the station and after walking up 4 (count them, 4) flight of stairs we reached our rooms. Being highly intelligent, Georgie, Yve and I locked our key in the room after about 30 seconds so that was really great. After traipsing back downstairs and back up again, we were set.
A walk around Hyde Park was decided upon and we set off with really no idea where we were going, but a firm belief that "it's big and green, who could miss it?". Georgie got really excited when she saw some lights in the distance and with the really safe motto of "follow the sparkles", we trekked across the park and discovered a Winter Wonderland fair kind of thing. After walking for a long time and being cold and tired, we decided to head back but somehow came out a different entrance to the one we had walked in and found ourselves on Oxford Street where I got increasingly more stressed as the likelihood of finding somewhere to buy credit so I could send HAPPY NEW YEAR texts, but all was well. We decided to walk back to our hotel via some strange street which seemed to be in the right direction and that would intersect with our road eventually so we set off. Somehow though, we had ended up in the Lebanese district of London. Every restaurant we passed was advertising Shisha and kebabs with an enticing "come in ladies..." so we moved smartly along. After eventually finding a greasy hole in the wall style burger joint where we got burgers, chips and soft drink for £2.50 we made it back to the hotel and collapsed on the beds to watch Friends and Scrubs before agreeing to take a nap. Happy New Year indeed...we awoke at 9pm and Yve Georgie and I decided we HAD to celebrate so we got all dressed up and went outside...then realised we didn't know where to go. Paddington was full of equally dressed up young people like us, all wondering where to go and all with nowhere to go. We considered taking a bus into Trafalgar Square but didn't know how to work the bus system and in the end we drank our vodka and wandered back to the hotel to wake the others. Then we ventured down to the "old people pub" and Georgie made friends with a french boy who we all chatted to until he left, presenting us with balloons before doing so. At the countdown to midnight we all squashed inside where scary old people were drunkenly dirty dancing and cheered and hugged before Georgie proudly declared "Happy 2013!". We survived outside until near 1am before returning to our hotel where Yve, Georgie and I stayed awake until 3am. The low point was when Georgie and I settled down to sleep and Yve stood over us ordering "stay awake! stay awake!". So our crazy drunken NYE in London didn't really happen, but i actually had the best NYE ever.
New Year's Day we woke at 7.30 to have breakfast and then decided to be touristy and went to the Natural History Museum and Science Museum, both of which were entertaining although after visiting the Science Museum for several hours we were drained by the time we got to Natural History. Walking back to Hyde Park afterwards we reached the Royal Albert Hall and did token touristy photos, then it was on to Kensington Palace just as London began to rain. We attached ourselves to a tour group being run by a Scottish man, kilt and all, who was telling stories about William of Orange (and how the elderly Irish still say a toast to the mole that tripped him and made him fall off his horse). We eventually made it back to our hotel again and collapsed onto the beds. Janet arrived a while later so we dragged ourselves down to meet her at Paddington Station and went to dinner at what we thought was Chinese but turned out to be more generically an Asian restaurant. That night we all collapsed into bed and slept until 7.30 the next morning where we got up for breakfast again before walking up Oxford Street (forgetting it was a Sunday) and then taking the train back to High Wycombe.
I know my days are a bit behind now, but I'll catch up tomorrow hopefully!
we left high wycombe on friday morning around midday after some excitement about the internet and editing photos or something. the train was taken in to london (at the ridiculous cost of £11 pounds, a reduction from the usual £18 but none of us realised yet that discounted fares are gained by booking in advance...strange system). there was a muddle with the underground system too because the bakerloo line was down and we had to do some kind of walk around to a different station and change lines and then get a regular train and EVENTUALLY end up in paddington. Luckily our hotel was about 2 minutes walk from the station and after walking up 4 (count them, 4) flight of stairs we reached our rooms. Being highly intelligent, Georgie, Yve and I locked our key in the room after about 30 seconds so that was really great. After traipsing back downstairs and back up again, we were set.
A walk around Hyde Park was decided upon and we set off with really no idea where we were going, but a firm belief that "it's big and green, who could miss it?". Georgie got really excited when she saw some lights in the distance and with the really safe motto of "follow the sparkles", we trekked across the park and discovered a Winter Wonderland fair kind of thing. After walking for a long time and being cold and tired, we decided to head back but somehow came out a different entrance to the one we had walked in and found ourselves on Oxford Street where I got increasingly more stressed as the likelihood of finding somewhere to buy credit so I could send HAPPY NEW YEAR texts, but all was well. We decided to walk back to our hotel via some strange street which seemed to be in the right direction and that would intersect with our road eventually so we set off. Somehow though, we had ended up in the Lebanese district of London. Every restaurant we passed was advertising Shisha and kebabs with an enticing "come in ladies..." so we moved smartly along. After eventually finding a greasy hole in the wall style burger joint where we got burgers, chips and soft drink for £2.50 we made it back to the hotel and collapsed on the beds to watch Friends and Scrubs before agreeing to take a nap. Happy New Year indeed...we awoke at 9pm and Yve Georgie and I decided we HAD to celebrate so we got all dressed up and went outside...then realised we didn't know where to go. Paddington was full of equally dressed up young people like us, all wondering where to go and all with nowhere to go. We considered taking a bus into Trafalgar Square but didn't know how to work the bus system and in the end we drank our vodka and wandered back to the hotel to wake the others. Then we ventured down to the "old people pub" and Georgie made friends with a french boy who we all chatted to until he left, presenting us with balloons before doing so. At the countdown to midnight we all squashed inside where scary old people were drunkenly dirty dancing and cheered and hugged before Georgie proudly declared "Happy 2013!". We survived outside until near 1am before returning to our hotel where Yve, Georgie and I stayed awake until 3am. The low point was when Georgie and I settled down to sleep and Yve stood over us ordering "stay awake! stay awake!". So our crazy drunken NYE in London didn't really happen, but i actually had the best NYE ever.
New Year's Day we woke at 7.30 to have breakfast and then decided to be touristy and went to the Natural History Museum and Science Museum, both of which were entertaining although after visiting the Science Museum for several hours we were drained by the time we got to Natural History. Walking back to Hyde Park afterwards we reached the Royal Albert Hall and did token touristy photos, then it was on to Kensington Palace just as London began to rain. We attached ourselves to a tour group being run by a Scottish man, kilt and all, who was telling stories about William of Orange (and how the elderly Irish still say a toast to the mole that tripped him and made him fall off his horse). We eventually made it back to our hotel again and collapsed onto the beds. Janet arrived a while later so we dragged ourselves down to meet her at Paddington Station and went to dinner at what we thought was Chinese but turned out to be more generically an Asian restaurant. That night we all collapsed into bed and slept until 7.30 the next morning where we got up for breakfast again before walking up Oxford Street (forgetting it was a Sunday) and then taking the train back to High Wycombe.
I know my days are a bit behind now, but I'll catch up tomorrow hopefully!
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