I’ve been to Scotland! 😁 From my armchair, that is! And as I was sitting and watching, ‘Britain’s Gardens From the Air’, my mind went back to 1973!
I was training to be a teacher, in Hertfordshire, and I was in my second year, with a T.P. ( Teaching Practice) about to start after the Easter holidays. Those were the days when you could plan your own projects in the primary classroom and with no National Curriculum guidelines, you could do whatever you wanted, within reason! Teaching ‘topic style’ suited me!
During those holidays, a friend and I decided to spend some time youth hostelling in Scotland. And it suddenly struck me that I could use Scotland as a project. Why not? My mind was working overtime as I thought about art…tartans…Robert the Bruce…castles…and all sorts of other things connected with Scotland! And so that is what I did! My class of 7-8 year olds had a wonderful time and I had a teacher (with whom I’m still in touch!), who handed her class to me, trusted me to take over and still get the basics done but also to make the time very special indeed. I received some wonderful comments from my tutor too. How I loved that T.P. It was at a junior school in a place called ‘Goff’s Oak’, Hertfordshire.
So there I was watching this wonderful series and at the same time reminiscing, which I often do! Where did those years go?
I felt quite sad that this particular episode, ‘Aberdeenshire’ was the final episode. And it was lovely! I mentioned Christine Walkden in my last blog post and I also felt quite sad that she didn’t do more on the TV yet at the same time, that was probably how she liked it, being such a busy lady.
I preferred being able to go off at a tangent, too, rather than following the same topics, year after year.
ReplyDeleteI have some fond memories of TP too, especially my final one where it all came together for me. xx
ReplyDeleteI wonder if one of my three children enjoyed your class. We lived in Goffs Oak and they went to the local school.
ReplyDeleteOh my! Which year did they go to the school? The class teacher was called Miss Osburn and not long after I did my teaching practice, she married the son of the headmaster, who was Mr Thomas. They were lovely people and it was a lovely school!
DeleteWe are clearly of a similar age. I stated training to be a teacher in 1973 in Weymouth and loved my topic based teaching practices. Teaching today is much too constrained and prescribed. My best lessons were always those spur of the moment occasions when a child mentioned something in class and we ran with the idea. Those were the days! B x
ReplyDeleteYes, most definitely!
DeleteScotland would always be an excellent topic for a project!
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