Cait's Travel Tales

Decade party-times, amazing breakfasts & OFSTED!

caitlin_wills — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:31:00 GMT

Decade Party-times, Amazing Breakfasts & OFSTED!

Just another update of the past two weeks or so! I actually wrote this about a week ago but having some internet troubles, so expect another installment after the weekend with details of my lovely birthday!!

I moved into my GORGEOUS house in Sedgwick St, Cambridge, last Friday night. Emily drove over to Dirk’s to come and collect me and my slowly accruing belongings! For the flight over I had managed to pack everything into my suitcase (including an empty backpack), a laptop bag and a handbag. To get to Cambridge, I had a full suitcase, half full backpack, laptop bag, handbag and several plastic bags packed full of things like new ugg boots, welli’s and peanut butter. Hehehe… I don’t have any idea how I will get my stuff home… Perhaps I can privately book a cruise ship & fill the whole damn thing!

Last Saturday was actually Evelyn’s birthday so we had a bit of a shindig with a bunch of friendly faces to celebrate. Ev decided on a ‘Decades’ theme, so we had lots of different costumes. I decided to don a pink bob wig and shift dress to be a 60’s gal, Ev was looking very glamourous as a 20’s lady, Aine made the 40’s look good and Emily was in her element with a big-haired 80’s look (hilarious photos to follow). We had several drinks (& even some shots) at our place, and then wandered into town for a bit of a dance at the local Carnegies-equivalent, Revolution.

Well, let’s be honest, I’d had several drinks by that stage and managed to be rushed out of the house with my wallet, phone AND camera, but forgetting my COAT!!!! So little old Caitlin’s hanging out in town, in the first week of Spring in Cambridge at night time, in nothing but a tiny little dress and boots, waiting in a long line to get into the club!!! Some creativity was clearly required...

I found a way to wander into the smoking section and begged a random to lick their stamp and then press it onto my wrist so that I’d be free to wander straight back inside. She couldn’t resist my charm and complied, so within about 3 minutes me and my accomplice, Brighid (lovely girl traveling around from America) were inside at the bar giggling about how clever we were… Definitely a trick to try again methinks!

I was introduced to the Sedgwick Street tradition of birthday breakfasts the next morning, with a feast of home-baked soda farls (Irish bread), bacon, eggs, sausage, champagne, OJ, freshly brewed coffee and an amazing fruit salad full of seasonal berries! Mmmmmmm… With the hangover gone and the sun shining, we decided a punt on the River Cam was in order… Unfortunately, by the time we’d all showered and dressed, the weather had turned back to England-appropriate weather with dark skies and bone-chilling winds, so that plan was traded for an afternoon on the couch. (Crash is a good film if anyone’s looking for something to watch on a winter’s arvo).

We were given notice on Friday that our school was going to be visited by OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education). It’s a B I G thing in England, where they give you 2 days notice and then come through and do an inspection on ANYTHING! They can observe lessons, students, teachers, have interviews with parents, teachers, students, senior leadership or pretty much do ANYTHING that they want to, in order to rate the school on criteria. The last time my school was visited they got a 4 for Student Behaviour (1 = Outstanding, 2 = Good, 3 = Satisfactory, 4 = Inadequate), so were given ‘notice to improve.’ This visit, the focus was on teaching and learning.

I was told by EVERYONE that there was no chance they would visit me, so headed in to school on Wednesday feeling fine. I had a free period first off so continued to chill. Within the first 5 minutes of my first lesson, in walks an Inspector and sits down with her clipboard and notepad and proceeds to observe/rate my teaching/lesson with a bunch of fairly challenging Yr 9’s, one of whom decided to climb onto a chair briefly and swing from the roof – HOORAY!

During a chat at lunchtime, we worked out that I was THE ONLY teacher from English/Drama/:Languages up to that point who had been observed. Everyone was quick to tell me that I could relax now because there was NO WAY that OFSTED would observe the same teacher twice, especially a teacher who had been in the school for 3.5 weeks! So off I toddle to my last class for the day (a fairly nice bunch of Year 8’s) and before I know it, in walks another OFSTED inspector, accompanied by our Deputy Principal!!! This lesson went MUCH more smoothly, and I had some very nice feedback about this one, but MAN was I stressed out by the end of the day! To top it off, we had a Community Arts Event at our school that evening, so I left for school at 6:55am that morning, and didn’t arrive home until 9:20pm!!! Ewwww… Thank goodness my gorgeous housemates had a delicious dinner and glass or two of wine waiting for me upon my arrival home!

Thursday was much of the same and teachers running around in terror! There were stories of some terrible things, like Yr 11 students miming sexual acts with a skeleton, during an observed lesson, and a bunch of students deciding to be ‘Rolf Harris’ and use their whiteboards like wobble boards… Ah bless… The findings aren’t good news. SOMEHOW (I am peeved about this!) the students behaviour was scored as a 2 (good), and the teacher’s were rated as a 4 (inadequate), and as a result, my school has gone into ‘special measures.’ In essence, what this means is that we are no longer a Specialist Drama school (any school in Special Measures loses any specialist status that they had previously), and that we will continue to have incredibly bad staffing problems as people jump ship. There is a good chance that we will be required to do vast amounts of planning and prep, which will need to be approved by our faculty leaders before we can teach any lessons and continual OFSTED observations, every three months or so, until we improve.

As Emily put it, this school will be an amazing thing to have on my resume!!! It will be very interesting to see what happens from here…

Gallery: In and Around and About

caitlin_wills — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT

A bit of everything

Some Exciting News...

caitlin_wills — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:45:00 GMT

Some Exciting News...

Well folks, here it is – Some very exciting news for you all…

(drum roll please...)

I officially shaved my legs for the first time this weekend just gone… They were looking pretty awful but over here I’m never caught in anything less than two pairs of pants so I figured what the hey… ;)

Hahaha, well that IS true, but it’s not the exciting news I was referring to…

I HAVE A HOUSE! Well a ROOM in a house with two lovely housemates and all the mod-cons a traveling girl could ever want! I had a look at a few places this weekend with varying degrees of horridness.

The first place was generally very nice with wooden floor boards and a big living room with a fancy tv and lots of those big comfy leather chairs that you can recline (giddy up!). There were 3 people living there – oh, plus a boyfriend upstairs asleep and a friend who had crashed out on the couch. All of these guys were lovely and we had a nice chat (including a game of “Where Did Caitlin go last night?” in which I described places we had gone and they put in their opinions of where I had been). Then came the tour of the house, which was fabulous but for one small dilemma – my room was not in fact a room at all… It was a teeny tiny box with a radiator and a couch… Not a bed to be found… Oh and no wardrobe/cupboard etc, although there was a small storage space down the hall a bit that I could use “if I had clothes”… If I had clothes!? Pfft! I’m traveling lightly, but not THAT lightly!!!

Then there was a lovely, quaint little cottage (semi-detached) with 2 tenants, a 30ish yr old Aussie architect called Hugo and a my-age-ish English girl called Rosie who is doing some kind of post-graduate studies at the University of Cambridge. My room had a bed (wohoo!) AND a wardrobe AND a desk. AND the house has wireless internet and a home phone and a washer and dryer and a cute, cute, cute little tree out the back (alright, let’s face it, I was sold on the tree). My ONLY concern about this one was that I have to sign the lease til October and I intend to be out and about and exploring the world over the Summer (at least). But after speaking to the landlady, who offered to sub-let across the Summer, I was sold… So I have a new home, sweet home! I’m a fifteen minute walk from the centre of Cambridge and three roads away from Abi (Head of Drama at St Neots, who has VERY KINDLY offered to drive me to/from St Neots daily). Wohoo! So I’m moving in on the weekend of the 27^th Feb – 1^st March and will then be living at number

93 Sturton Road

! YAAAY! Oh and for any of you that I promised a couch – We do have a couch but it’s pretty small so you’re probably better to come over & sleep in my room or in my bed if you’re fussy and want things like a quilt and a pillow… ;)

This Saturday night just gone was my first night out on the town. Met up with Emily (Abi’s housemate – oh and freaky, born on the 9^th June – the same date as my sister Emily – da ner ner ner, [creepy alien sounds] da ner ner ner) who cooked me a fabulous dinner before we headed out to meet up with 4 other ‘cool, young’ teachers from my school. First stop the ‘Slug and Lettuce,’ where they do jugs of delicious cocktails. Next, we moved onto ’B-Bar’ which is where the devillery began… Kate you will be very impressed – we celebrated another fictional Hen’s Night! Emily had had a rotten few weeks with a male suitor being a bit of a muppet, so she set herself the mission of taking lots of photos of herself surrounded by men for future facebooking revenge. So we wandered up to a group of about 15 boys and asked to have a photo with them. They immediately asked if we were on a Hen’s Night to which I replied that of course we were and over the night the stories got more and more ridiculous – I had flown over from Australia to the Maid of Honour, but then Emily said she wasn’t getting married for 6 months, so it turned out that I was staying for the six month build up – What a great friend I am… J The next morning we woke up to find Emily’s facebook status had changed to “Emily is getting married to a man I don’t know and Caitlin is my maid of honour.” Hahahaha… Oh and the hilarious resulting photos included a late night photo of the ‘hot kebab man’ – Hahahaha, beer goggles indeed! But a hilarious first night out and many more to look forward to! Especially when I’m living nice and close.

Hope you’re all well and having lots of fun, running riot on weekends etc… J

Love you all. xxx

Home Sweet Home!

caitlin_wills — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:39:00 GMT

Home Sweet Home!

Hello again!

I migrated up to Cambridge/Cambourne/St Neot's last Wednesday which was a task made difficult by the snow/sleat/rain that managed to bring England's public transport system to a virtual stand still! Oh - and the fallen power line on the Cambridge line - Happy adventures! But I eventually arrived last Wednesday evening (backpack, suitcase AND handbag in tow) and met with the lovely Abi Doyle (head of arts) and the generous Dirk Pereira (behaviour management specialist and tenant who is putting me up until I find a place). Both are amazingly kind and thoughtful and made this last week a breeze!

Thursday was due to be my first 'day at school' but alas, snow blizzards made this aim treacherous and school was cancelled - Leaving a day to watch telly, movies and just generally be a sloth and mooch around. And so came Friday - my first 'day at school' - and off we set at 8:00am in the middle of a blizzard (& total whiteout) because the head had decided that the show 'must go on!' Approximately 15 mins after the first siren, the head revised this somewhat rash decision and sent his students home (staff & students at other schools got snowed in for several hours!). To put into perspective how rare snow like this is - St Neots Community College (SNCC from here on in) has had a TOTAL of THREE snow days over the past TWENTY FIVE years - and then I arrive and lo and behold - THREE days in ONE week!!!

So with the afternoon at leisure, Dirk took me to his Leisure centre where we relaxed in the pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. Yes, believe it or not, my first purchase in Wintery England was a bikini!

Abi invited me to her place on Saturday night for dinner with a bunch of 'cool, young' teachers and this was a fabulous chance to meet some of the lovely English teachers, as well as her stellar housemate Emily and a friend they went to 'college' with. The night was full of hilarity and in typical Caitlin/dramatic style, ended up with sing-a-longs and lights-out/interpretive dancing for several hours. It was a hilarious night, and hopefully there will be lots more like it in the not-too-distant future. One of the other teachers I met was Erin - A Canadian who is teaching her way around the world - It was BIZARRE to find out that in 2007/08, she had been staying in Perth - In Murdoch in fact about 5 mins from me house, and going to Murdoch Uni... Who would have thought we would meet here!? It's a small world!

Monday was (FINALLY) my first day of school and I had a slack day with only one Year 9 Drama class. I've since taught Yr 7 English and Yr 9 Dance so getting a better impression of the school and students. There are some 'challenging' ones but mostly all just hyperactive and super chatty with a bit of attitude ("wha-ever miss") so actually quite fun! Lots of opportunities to practice my stern teacher face and voice ("BOYS!" and "Uh... NO!") Hahahaha.

I have decided to look for a place in Cambridge, despite it being a bit of a pain in the butt to get to/from work because I figure if I move to a little village right near the school then I'm stuck on weekends/evenings too. Cambridge is STUNNINGLY beautiful! Am looking forward to having a good explore around there over half term break next week (yes, holidays already - how slack!).

Aside from that, having a shindig at one of the other Drama teachers house this Friday night (supposedly a 'faculty planning' session but I've been told it's really just a great excuse for a piss-up... Hahaha, god bless Arts teachers...) Thinking about trying to organise an outing for Valentine's Day for the lonely hearts club. Anyway, it's holidays so something exciting will be on!

Hope you're all well. Lots of love,

Caitlin. xxx

Gallery: Arrival in England

caitlin_wills — Wed, 4 Feb 2009 19:43:00 GMT

Perth, Singapore, England!

The Adventure Begins...

caitlin_wills — Mon, 2 Feb 2009 16:03:00 GMT

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS...

I arrived at Heathrow at 4:50am this morning, Monday 2nd Feb. I was really bloody lucky that I knew the guy in Perth who checked me in (regular heavy drinker @ Carnegies) so I got away with having overweight baggage (27k instead of 20), too much hand luggage (3 pieces rather than 2) AND managed to nab my own row of seats on both legs of the journey!

The lovely Bradley Mearns met up with me in Singapore during my 6ish hour stopover and we did a whirlwind tour of his new homeland, including visits to China Town, The Quay and their top notch new condo that Brad had just moved into that day.

Randomly met 2 bogan (drunk) Aussies from Perth also headed to England on the same flight so hung out with them for a bit - They had been travelling through Asia for several weeks & both only had t-shirts & singlets so looked pretty unimpressed once we arrived at Heathrow - where it was snowing & a 'fresh' -2 degrees... Brrrrr.... Oh and snowing - "The Big Freeze" as they call it - worst snow storm they've had in 18 yrs!!! Our flight managed to get in fine, but a flight shortly after mine apparently skidded on the icy runway and off into the grass - oops... Jess & Liz - you'll be pleased to know that my 'excursion lunch' came in handy befriending people at this point - the guys were hungry and boozed as & EXTREMELY excited to be offered pretzels - hahaha.

Catherine's brother (Mike) and mum (Judy) came to meet me at Heathrow airport - Leaving their house at 3:30am to be there by 5:30am - Top marks for dedication!!! In my first here, I have already realised one thing, which is that snow in England = TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TRAFFIC!!! We spent the next 6 hours (8 hours all up for Mike & Judy) on the usually half hour drive to their house in Surrey - MADNESS! Traffic was literally at a standstill, but we managed to keep ourselves occupied by playing Hangman, writing poetry and building snowmen on the side of the M25 - One of the busiest roadways in the world (hilarious photos to follow)!!! Oh, not to mention the warm tea and jaffa cakes Judy had coincidentally packed 'just in case' which provided a lovely feast. It was a HILARIOUS start to my adventure.

I am supposed to be in London tomorrow arvo for my orientation with Smart Teachers but all busses, tube lines and airports are down now (with heavier snow predicted this afternoon/this evening) so that may become impossible. Have had a relaxing afternoon playing Wii with Mike & chatting up the Condie's gorgeous pooch, Jasper.

Will write again soon. Love all of you beautiful people.

Lots of love, Caitlin xxx