Keep Smiling guys…
Hello lovelies, I hope you are well, its been a long time since my last post but everyone’s worlds have been turned upside down so I guess we can let that slide right?
Its safe to say I have been struggling the last few weeks. Three weeks ago we were told that we were shutting school except for key worker children and told to plan and resource as much work as possible for the children to take with them. I spent a week of late nights preparing and trying to come to terms with the fact I may not see my class for a very long time.
Nothing ever prepared me for that Friday afternoon saying good bye to the children and parents. Its safe to say I was an absolute mess. I sobbed … uncontrollably for the entire day and evening. My class mean the world to me and not seeing and teaching me has really effected me a lot more than I would have ever imagined.
So I haven’t really told you much about my school before but we are pretty small, we do however have a number of key worker children. So the last two week I have been in school for half the week to look after the key worker children. I have tried to make it as fun and relaxing as possible whilst still being productive. We have been loving the Jo Wicks PE sessions in the morning but have also been doing Yoga, arts and crafts and obviously work set by their individual teacher as well.
As well as still going into school I am now keeping in touch with my class in a few different ways. I have been tweeting throughout each day on my class twitter page and commenting/retweeting any of the children’s work that is put up. I also have been recording daily story times and posting them for my class to watch. Some of the parents have said the children are really enjoying watching them which was really nice.
I am also ringing parents once a week to check how they are getting on. This takes about a day to get through them all but its really nice chatting with the parents and even sometimes speaking to the children too! We’re using a new app to be able to send extra work to the children so that’s been taking some time to get my head around how it works.
We are in a situation that I never thought would happen, and there has been a lot of tears from me in the last three weeks, everyday has its own challenges particularly when I’m sat working from home on my computer. Being an early years teacher is so far from what I am having to do now it is a real struggle for me.
So I have said it many times on my Instagram but for the love of God stay in your bloody houses. If it is not safe for children to be at school its not safe for you to be out regardless of if you are seeing family or friends. It is at the point were on the days when I am in school I have to take my clothes off at the door, put them in a bag and get a shower straight away. My hands burn because I have to clean and scrub them so much when at work.
If you are a parent currently home schooling please don’t thing that you aren’t doing enough. Your home is not a normal teaching environment. The expectations are completely different. No child sits at their school desk all day. You are doing amazing!
If you have any questions just drop me a message! and stay safe guys!
Lizzie Florence 