My first day of school

I had my first day today, the staff are lovely, they were really pleasant to talk to and everyone was really welcoming. The school is really nice too, I like how they focus on apprenticeships for the kids that aren't going to do so well in academia. There are about 25 kids doing GCSE Spanish or French, in one of the classes I observed today there were only 10 there. One of the kids, St., in that class was a sweetheart and was really trying hard. She wants to do Spanish, Biology, Music and Drama for her A levels as she wants to be a singer but wants to do Medicine just to fall back on! She also wants to live in Spain

I also observed a year 7 class, I forgot how tiny they are!! That class was a Journey 7 class, I'd never heard of this, but it's intended to make the transition of primary to secondary school easier. They were supposed to make a poster to advertise a modernised play of Romeo and Juliet (including living on the Verona Estate!). It would have been great but many of the laptops weren't working which meant the class got quite frustrated and loud. They really produced some great work though!




I really need to re-evaluate my views on bad behaviour and what that means to me. I used to think bad behaviour was talking out of turn, not doing your homework etc. and yes to a certain degree that is true. However many of the kids from this school are from impoverished backgrounds, one of the kids was told at Christmas that his foster family doesn't want him anymore. Another today found out his Uncle was going back to prison and he lives with his Aunt and Uncle as both parents are in jail. I'm pretty sure that learning Spanish really isn't the highest of his priorities right now and I need to remember that many of these kids come from these backgrounds and that they have low self esteem, crave attention and are just plain stressed.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my first day and am very glad to have started!