Quick school update

I woke up to crazy amounts of snow this morning, lucky I caught that train back yesterday! I rang my new school and organised for a taxi to take me (wasn't going to walk in the snow when I didn't know where I was going) and was surprised at how close the school was to my home. I ended up walking home and worked out it's only 1.2km so when it's not snowing it will be a very quick walk. I keep thinking to myself how lucky I am because everything has actually fallen into place so perfectly. Happy, happy days for Zara!

So I got to school and was warmly welcomed by the office staff and taken to meet the other year 4 teacher. She's a HUGE Lord of the Rings fan so we hit it off really well. She started to tell me a few things but could tell I was a bit overwhelmed so she decided to take me on a tour of the school instead. I know I won't remember my way around on Monday but it made me happy when I saw the hallways were covered in art work and murals and all the teachers/teaching assistants greeted me with big smiles. The best part was meeting my new class! They all seemed so happy to meet me and were all like, 'Oh Miss Anderson you're finally here!'. One little girl said to me, 'Miss Anderson, I adore you already', it was very, very, VERY cute. Their last teacher retired at the end of last year so they've had a reliever for the last two weeks. She was a real gem and told me about some of the routines and had the children do an independent piece of writing for me today to help me in gauging their levels. She's also kept all their work they've done in the last few weeks for me to look through.

Now, I will tell you some things that blew my mind and the minds of my fellow teaching friends and family back in New Zealand. I was told I'd have a full time teaching assistant when I got here and I thought that would be pretty cool. Turns out I have not one but TWO for the whole day. I have P.E twice a week, one indoor and one outdoor lesson and a specialist teacher comes in and takes that. Music once a week is taught by someone else and so is ICT. I have no key for school and it's locked at 5.45pm everyday so looks like I'll be having full weekends while I'm here. Longest time we teach for without a break is 7 weeks!!! They're normally broken into 6 weeks blocks hehe which I will not be complaining about. I also get a £5 allowance for lunch each day and can claim my rent expenses back. Forgot to mention I have a smart-board too (YUS!). As you can probably tell I'm very thrilled with the whole thing really. To be fair I haven't started yet but I have a very good feeling about this.

This weekend I'm going to make up a power point about myself and New Zealand and think of some cool ice-breaker activities to do on Monday. The deputy head teacher (deputy principal) said I can make it a day about getting to know each other. I love first days back at school and I'm very excited about this one!

School in the snow 

On a sadder note before I go I just want to send all my love home to the Prior/Blandford/Pike family as today is the funeral of Simon's uncle, Simon. He was taken very fast and I just want to say I'm thinking of you all at this very sad time xoxoxoxoxox