A lazy weekend for some!

Hi,

How are you? Well, I hope. 

Well, I spent today at school cleaning/sorting/tidying out the music room (and the cupboard of doom in the hall)- stayed for about 5.5 hours.  Was glad to get it done at the start of the holidays and indeed, I HAD to do it now as the cleaners need to do the deep clean and that frankly wasn't possible without this! 

BUT, the weekend was a nicely relaxed one!

I got up around 8.45 to water the garden and then we headed to see the piano. We met my Piano technician friend L there who gave the piano the once over and said it was a good piano so we are going ahead with buying it (Friday).

After that, CBC wanted to head to Leigh-on-Sea to go and fetch a birthday present for his sister. I had already purchased her a cute Tatty Devine notebook and a pretty Citronella candle in a teal ceramic pot but he wanted to get something.

We went into a very fancy florist where he bought her a money plant in a pretty pot (very expensive though!) The florist was arty, fun and quirky and very hip which is very Leigh-on-Sea.

After that, CBC wanted to stop somewhere for a drink/brunch so we went to our favourite cafe, Stop The World, where he had Eggs Florentine, coffee and a smoothie. I had just a smoothie because I didn't want to be spending lots of money  on the first day of the holiday.  It's a very lovely cafe though and I LOVE their veggie breakfast usually which consists of Halloumi, grilled tomatoes, tomato salsa, spinach, broccoli, asparagus oh and mushrooms but I swap those for avocado!

 After that, we headed towards home but CBC decided we should have a walk and so we went to Belfairs woods which are a very pleasant place to walk- I've walked there once before but it was very muddy that time!

We ended up walking on the golf  course as part of our walk and sat on a bench and watched someone teeing off which was hilarious from behind!

In the woods, we saw this very pretty Green man carving.

 There was also vast quantity of Speckled Wood butterflies around. There were some other varieties but they were very skittish so I didn't have the chance to identify them.

The woodland parts of the walk very pleasantly shaded.  Out in the sun wasn't soo cool as I hadn't put on any suncream as we were originally just out to see a piano!

 The grass is very parched everywhere.  Maybe just one day of rain might be ok?

 Back home, I had some leftover sandwiches from the staff tea party as my version of lunch/breakfast and watered the garden and put some washing in.
I noticed how happy my Aloe Vera is with life at the moment.  We recently bought it a new big pot to live in and it has spread out and grown profusely up and outwards.

 Plus, several babies have been born!

 After that, we headed over to CBC's Sister's house where his Mum was also. She's pregnant at the moment- due in 2 weeks and has a 23-month boy who was having a meltdown when we arrived.  Luckily, that was instantly abated as he was curious about us!  I ended up going off with him to inspect the hoovers - he likes the hoover and he seemed very happy. We gave her her presents which she seemed to like and then took his Mum out to dinner at Prezzo so they could do the Bed time routine in peace.

When we returned home, I did some more work on Another Day of Sun (part of my list) and CBC prepared for Sunday's cycling ride from London to Southend.

CBC set off at 6am to London and I slept on!
At around 11, I rode to the station on my Brompton to get the train to Southend Victoria to meet him at the finish line.

Unusually, Abellio Greater Anglia were giving away free ice-creams to everyone who travelled on the train so I had a 99 before leaving the station.  Here it is with my bike!

 I cycled down to Priory Park and waited at the Finish Line for CBC.

 There he is at 12.10ish!  I then stood around for 2 hours or so as he and his two cycling pals had some beers and chatted and tried not to get too impatient!
We rode back to Southend Victoria, irritatingly missing a train by 2 minutes which meant 28 minutes wait.

 Back home, I decided I should really tackle the bag of present from school, most of which hadn't been opened in the hurry on Friday.
18 boxes of chocolates is perhaps a bit much for one person to receive and not very healthy though I appreciate the gesture.  1 box had already been given to my piano pal.

 These were the non-chocolate gifts

 My favourite was this pair of cat-themed gifts which I DID open on Wednesday when the boy gave it to me.  I said, "Oooh, I love them! Did you choose them?" to which he replied affirmatively and when questioned how he knew to choose them, he commented, "You wear a lot of cat-themed clothing so I thought you might like them!"  How utterly thoughtful for a 9-year old boy!

Here are most of the cards minus one or two that were upstairs already.

There were three bunches of flowers. I gave one to my neighbours as I don't have enough vases for 3 and it seemed nice to share the joy (which I also intend to do with chocolates).

It's nice to be appreciated.

Later that evening, I cooked a dinner of pasta with green vegetables and passata and then finished Another Day of Sun!  

Task 1 completed!

How was your weekend?

xx

Balloons for celebrations!

And so another year ends.  My eleventh year in teaching in fact. 
It's been a year of some really wonderful moments and some incredibly hard ones. Behaviour of children has been something I've felt myself getting very upset and cross about at the same time as being so overjoyed by the achievements of others.  It was sad that today was the first time I have ever had a year 6 where there were children who were utterly foul on the last day.
Saying Goodbye to year 6 is always hard. It was strange this time because there was a LARGE contingent of excellent musicians who were do dedicated.  I had this group of girls who were just wonderful- who took every opportunity with great joy.  I've had that wonderful year 6  boywho is, quite simply, the most naturally musical and talented pupil I have ever taught (There was another one who was Grade 6 violin but that was largely achieved by herself) and hearing him play the recorder this week in both the talent show and the summer concert was a moment of real pride and delight for me. When he performed Dvorak's Largo from the New world Symphony for the Talent show, he performed it like an adult. The delicacy of his tone, the way he moved and all the  ornaments he added to the music were so inately musical, he performed it as I might have done!

 I wore a charity-shopped Swan-print dress with a tiny fox necklace my work colleague's daughter had given me for my birthday and these massive balloon earrings which I bought from Lorelai Le Quillec who is on Etsy as part of her Kick Starter campaign to buy her own acrylic laser cutter. Perfect for a celebratory mood, eh?

 We had a lovely afternoon tea after school where my Headteacher gave very long speeches (about an hour!!!!)  about the 8 staff that were leaving.   I'm particularly sad this year because so many of my favourite colleagues were leaving and those who had been in the school a long time- some of our most dedicated and excellent staff.
The first was the lady who has been a year 6 teacher at our school for 17 years.  She is the most wonderful, humorous, down-to-earth person who managed to work wonders with our kids.   She was the teacher who, when I was spending 2 weeks at my school before I even applied for a PGCE, was the teacher who most inspired me. She was an acting Deputy Head when I came and Maths Coordinator although she stood down from both roles.

The second was my NQT (Newly Qualifed Teacher) mentor- she was my fellow year 5 teacher when I started teaching 11 years ago.  She is THE most dedicated, organised, clever lady, gentle, graceful and so kind.  She was so organised that she set me a very good example.   She is one of the few other teachers who were willing to teach year 6 as well and held the poison-chalice role of ICT coordinator!

The third is one is the teacher who taught me how to be an excellent Literacy teacher.  She joined a term after me but has been teaching for 35 years. She was our EAL Coordinator, SMT and we used team-teach on Wednesday and Friday mornings.  We talked about books often and her son was taught bee-keeping by my Grandfather as she lived in the same town as him. I really like her.

In addition, other crucial and integral members of staff left. It really does feel the end of an era.

 But, life moves on, despite my sadness and worry about how things will be without them. 
I have an absolute mound of presents, possibly more than I have ever received before.  Not quite sure how I am ever going to get through the chocolates!

I'll be back into school on Monday as my room is still a big mess, I didn't really end up with much time in my room today to tidy and the cleaners won't be able to do their deep clean until I have done something about it.  Tomorrow, we are going to look at a piano!

Hope all is well with you!

xx

And can it be?

I actually quite enjoyed today. My little cherubs behaved, and although I had a lesson observation which wasn't super, it was ok. Literacy and Numeracy were ok and then I played flute for Year 5 (which they loved). Then, I did a music class with the kids this afternoon, one of their first opportunities to compose, and I think they enjoyed it. RE was somewhat challenging, but we survived and finally I played them some flute. Maybe the flute is the reason for the good mood, or perhaps the end being nigh.

I also discovered the miracle that are easy-thread needles. They are fab! I may even do DT with my cherubs if sports day doesn't go on all morning.

Trying to write my CEPD statement. For those in ignorance, this is essentially a 'what I am good at and what i am not' statement for future professional development. It is not what I want to be doing when feeling like I am coming down with a cold, but ah well, it's better than having 2 weeks left of term left!!