Eish! London - May 1

MAY

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Hebrews 11:1

Friday – AMEN! – 1 May

I’m doing a little dance of joy here  I finally have a PIN for my debit card. Amen! Yay! Hallelujah! Not so fabulously, I had to transfer rent into Ara’s account, so now my funds are really low, but that’s ok, because at least I can actually draw my last pennies from an ATM and I’m only left to figuratively ‘break the bank’ now. Great stuff.

My supply day today turned out rather interestingly: The agency with my CRB, who couldn’t be bothered to set up my payroll account with any decent communication methods, sent me to the same school they sent me to last Friday (where I had those horrid German and R.E. lessons). Fortunately the day was much better today, thank the Lord, and I even had a free lesson where I went and helped the admin staff in reception. I ended up putting job application forms into envelopes and making sure the right details were on the envelopes. There were quite a few positions and applicants, but the post that caught my eye was the one for a dance teacher. I scanned through the specifications, whilst pretending to fill envelopes, and realised that I could do the job. I asked the secretary if I could take an application and she said it wouldn’t be a problem, as long as I filled in my name on the address list. That sounded easy enough. I picked up the list and began writing until I got to the column: "Where did you see the advert?" I couldn’t say the agency informed me, because they hadn’t, but then I couldn’t say the internet, because that would be lying. I could say "I was being nosey in the school office", but decided that would not be a clever career move… I left the space blank. I’d have to figure out the answer when I filled in the application form.

In the staff room I chatted to the dance teacher who was leaving and she referred me to the Qualifications Website that would give me more information on the position. It felt like I had been in the right place at the right time…

Chatting about dance made me think of NJ in Australia. We had choreographed pieces together for school shows and Drama performances back in South Africa. I wondered what she would think of me becoming a dance teacher; and as fate would have it she had emailed me, so all I had to do was reply:

From: NJ
Subject: Teaching in Australia
Date: Friday, 1 May, 2009, 1:58 PM

Hello my friend,
Well my first week of casual teaching is over - am I exhausted? - YES. I also did two late nights (4-11pm)　at the crisis accommodation so really looking forward to the weekend :)
The school I worked at is lovely and very well resourced. Computers in each classroom, as well as a projector, aircon/heater, speakers, basin etc.　The kids however are VERY chatty - like - OVER-talkative and some of the younger ones Year 7 & 8 just insanely hyper. They are good kids though and most come from wealthy families as the school is private.
I did relief work for the music teacher and also one　double maths lesson on one of the days. The system seems to be really relaxed, didn't get much time to see what's happening with the drama department. There are 600 kids from Kindergarten (3 years old) to Year 12 so it is really small.
At the beginning of the day as a　casual teacher I received a kit　containing 4x whiteboard markers, 4x pens, scissors, ruler, map of the school, leaflet with bell times and contact numbers of each head (phone and computer in each classroom). Very organised. The staff are also nice but nothing compared to back home... I miss everyone!
We're going to pick up a TV cabinet and 6 chairs tomorrow for our new home, then will have almost everything we need :) YAY! Will send some pics soon!
Hope you are well. Miss you STAX!
Lots of love,
NJ

I couldn’t believe it, a supply teaching pack – that would be brilliant, why don’t they have that in London schools?