Woop-de-doo.... after quite a bit of waiting, and too-ing and fro-ing, my enhanced CRB clearance form popped through the letter box this morning - yay! That means that I'm officially cleared to work/volunteer with kids, so can get straight in there tryin to get more school experience after Easter. I knew there wouldn't be any problem getting cleared (don't worry, i have no dodgy secret past), I was just worried about getting it done by post-easter,as I've heard stories of the CRB process taking ages.

I now await my 2nd 'paid for' (grrrrr - £33) CRB form, with "Trainee Teacher" on it, instead of "Classroom Volunteer", before September...

*warning - it's a long 'un!*

On Tuesday, being the lady of leisure that I am now, I spent the entire day at school. It was great to be around for some different lessons to normal, and I really got a feel for what a whole day is really like. First thing we had the Infant easter assembly, attended by doting parents, and 'my class' did SO well. I know I'm biased, but they really were the best - they spoke into the microphone so clearly, and their little persentations/sketches were really interesting, and well done. At one point, whilst another class was performing, I had to jump to stop one little guy, who decided to wrap the window cord round his neck, from meeting a premature end. Luckily that worked out fine - he was completely ablivious to what he was doing!

After the assembly, and break, I did some reading with individual children, whilst the rest of the class did science - beans! Growing beans was one of my most memorable primary school lessons. back in 1989 or so, we grew our beans in jam jars (as opposed to specially made plastic greenhouses) and we kept a detailed daily diary of the exciting things our bean was getting up to. After some repotting, and a journey home, mine eventually prouduced 4 little beans in a bean pod - and I still have one to this day in my 'important things box'.

After lunch (when I toddled back up to the University to meet Ben) I spent a bit of time in a different class (split year R/1) where they started of watching a video on school 100 years ago - ah, history, my favourite! It was a really good film, although in the ensuing discussion, the kids were so fixated on the fact that in the dramatisation the teacher hit a boy with a cane, that they appeared not to have noticed too much else... but I enjoyed it! One thing I really can't wait to teach is history. Despite my furthest formal qualificaton being an A at GCSE back in 1997, I am a complete history geek - I can't wait to plan exciting lessons on WW2, the victorians, ancient Egyptians! Ah, just thinking about it gets me all dreamy...

After the film, I helped out a group of 8 or so children (mixed year R/1) cutting out pictures of school 'things' and either sticking them on their 'past' page of their literacy book, or the opposite 'present' page. The kids were great - one boy asked me what my name was (I'm really getting used to being 'Miss Butterworth' now) and then introduced himself, and everyone else on the table. I was persuaded to read a bit of a book to some of them when my group finished, which was great fun, as ever. I started off reading to about 4 children, and ended up with 20 or so of them crowding round me, so closely that I struggled to turn the pages! At break time, they managed to drag me outside, where I got involved in teaching a girl how to skip with 2 people holding the rope, and was left holding one of Willow Base's cuddly bunny, whilst she went off to play!

For the last session of the day I was with a group of children who were finishing decorating their easter bunny cards, and had a great time. I think I've written about this before, but one of my favourite things, and something I know I won't get to do half as much as I want to when I'm a 'real teacher', is just chatting to people in the class. I had a great conversation with a couple of them about Busted and McFly, and made the mistake of telling one of them that I found McFly's Red Nose Day song "it's allll about yooooou" really annoying, but couldn't get it out of my head.... so he started singing the opening phrase over and over again at me, with a big grin on his face - arrrggghhhhh! ;)

Although I may go back after easter, Tuesday was my last 'official' day in school, as I may have to temp post-easter, so I made the class a card, and gave it to them at the end of the day. It had flowers on the front, to go with the 'garden centre' theme of their home corner, and they all seemed to really like it. Only a few really realised it could be the last time they see me, so I had a few wonderful limpets stuck to my leg until they were prised away to head home.

I really really enjoyed my afternoons in school. they are an absolutely wonderful bunch, and I will definitely miss them, although hopefully I'll get a chance to go back in the next term. They've helped make me very very sure that my decision to go into teaching is the right one... thinking about having my own class, planning all sorts of fun things (and getting very tired.... but hey...) makes me really very happy. :)

it's my last day at work today, and I'm feeling very odd. This could be the last time I work in an office ever (although I have a feeling I might end up temping over the next few months... ah well, I can hope...)!

School on Tuesday was good fun - we started the afternoon with rehearsals for the Easter Assembly the class are doing next week, which went pretty well, then it was up to the Juniors for ICT once again. This week, instead of helping with ICT, I took groups of 6 off to do some 'creative stuff' This involved showing them how to fold a piece of coloured paper in half, draw round their hand, cut it out and then curl the fingers down with a pencil. And it's harder than it sounds! The 'hands' will ultimately be made into flowers, although I didn't get to do that. I really enjoyed doing it, and got through almost all the class.... t'was very very fun.

Next Tuesday I'm going in for the whole day, for including the Easter Assembly, and I'm going to be quite sad, as it's probably going to be my last day there. I've really loved working with this class, and they'll definitely always have a special place in my memory - they're a really great class. Who knows, in a couple of years I could be teaching them in the Juniors! :)

As always, I had a great time in school yesterday. I've decided one of the best thing about wroking with kids is just chatting to them - although i realise as a 'real' teacher, I won't have time to do much of that! I had some great conversations with some of the children - they're a wonderful bunch.

When I first arrived, the class TA showerd me where the sugar paper was (ah, memories from my own primary days!) and I set to work cutting out petals, leaves, stalks, 'middles' (of flowers, that is) for the class to make and put on the wall in their new 'Garden Centre Home Corner'. After a bit of time on that, when some of the children seemed far more interested in what i was doing than what they were meant to be doing (can you blame them? I was working with sugar paper!!) we headed up to the Juniors again for ICT.

In ICT the class were drawing pictures of a) the great fire of london, and b) something in a garden centre, using a fab programme called 'Fresco'. Unfortunately, I didn't get to play around with it for long, and I was taking groups of about 8 children for 'library research'. Each group is learning about a section of the Easter story for their Easter Assemble in a couple of weeks, so I talked to them about researching in the library, and showed them how to find books on easter. It was quite cool actually - they children treated it like a treasure hunt, looking up the reference number of the theme/book they wanted, then rushing around the (rather small) library to find it. Unfortunately there were only about 2 half decent books on easter - but they now know (almost) everything about library research!

I only have 2 afternoons left volunteering in this school (unless I'm unemployed for the summer term, in which case... I'll be back!) and I'm really going to miss them. They're a wonderful bunch, and I've learnt a lot... and they've confirmed that I'm definitely making the right decision to go a-PGCE-ing...

I'm feeling in a funny old mood today, but I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe it's the thought that next Friday is my last day working here? But surely I should be euphoric at that thought, not feeling strange?! Hmmm...

I'm off to school in 10 minutes, so hopefully that'll cheer me up - at least it'll distract me for a couple of hours! And who knows, maybe there will be some more comedy giggling moments...

I've been messing around with my website quite a bit today - i've made the pgce links a little more prominent, as I seem to be getting quite a few visits, and they were a little bit hidden on the right hand side bar.

Back in January I managed to write about each week at school, but I've managed to get so caught up in 'other things' that I haven't done so for the past few weeks. But it's still going well, and I've been involved in quite a few different things. This week was comedy - I had to reenact a baptism with a group of children, having been given very little briefing on what I need to do. To some people this wouldn't be a problem, but I'm definitely not a Christian, and only ever witnessed a handful of baptism at Church Parade when I was a Brownie (we're talking ~1988)! Needless to say, it was... interesting...

Before the reenactment, the visiting RE teacher talked to the children about baptism... and one of the children came out with an absolute classic:

Teacher: "what does it mean to get baptised?"
Boy: "it means you can't drive your car".

He misheard 'baptised' as 'flat tyres'!! I was in absolute fits... one of those moments where you just can't stop yourself from laughing. Even thinking of it makes me giggle.

So, yes - I'm still having a fun time at school! No regrets yet...