Making a completely new start.

I'm making a completely new start. 

I have to admit, it's not something I expected to be doing when hurtling towards my mid thirties but nevertheless here I am.  I going to become a nail technician.  This has proved to be much more difficult than I originally thought, largely due to other people not doing what they said they would, not responding to phone calls or email queries and what I genuinely believe to be complete incompetence - something which does not inspire confidence in a place of further education.

I have sent off many emails through training salons' own website "contact us" buttons and have been ignored completely.
I have sent off online application forms as requested and not had any response.
I applied for an apprenticeship through BTFC.  I filled in their application form, including all my details and previous qualifications and sent if off.  They sent me an invitation to an apprenticeship selection day at the college.  I phoned them to confirm I'd be attending.  I went on the day ready to jump through whatever hoops I needed to.  I took their literacy and numeracy tests, met with learning support, waited around (a lot - not good planning on behalf of the college when largely your group is made up of teenagers who would rather be out in the sunshine anyway), sat through the talk about CV's, interview questions and supported the other members of the group in thinking of answers to their questions and sat through a talk by two lovely managers from a local water park who had come to tell us about what they were looking for at interview (this had been organised for us despite the fact that nobody in the group wanted to go into the leisure industry). They were lovely though and did their very best to be supportive, give application and interview tips and answer questions (some of which were really daft).  The last part of the day was to be interviewed by the person responsible for apprenticeships in our own area.  I was the last one to be interviewed (after much more sitting around and probably because I was the only one not complaining). This was the fifth person from the college with whom I'd come into contact and who had seen my application form. She took one look at it and said "Do you have a degree?"   "Yes," I replied.  "Then I'm really sorry, but you are not eligible for an apprenticeship."  Disheartened, upset, angry do not even begin to describe how I felt.  When I asked how I should proceed she said the only way I could do it was to come and do the full time health and beauty course starting in September. Not something I'd wanted to do and definitely not now I know that 4 out of 5 people who work at the college can't/don't bother to read their own forms.

By this point I had been unsuccessfully hunting down a nail technician qualification for 3 months.  I had had more than enough and was ready to surrender and just find a job. I decided to have one last try and went back online, searching for a course or a salon offering training.  I found a beauty academy offering pretty much exactly what I wanted but I didn't get too excited, this had happened before and come to absolutely nothing.  I decided to test the system.  Their "contact us" page claimed they would respond to my query within 48 hours.  I wasn't holding my breath, but I typed in my details and pressed send.  Within 24 hours they had phoned my back and in less than a 10 minute conversation I had booked all the day courses I needed and registered myself for a distance learning NVQ. 

After all that faffing with the college and all of the false starts I couldn't believe it was that simple and that quick.  A little faith has been restored.

So fingers crossed.  I start next month. Wish me luck.

Christmas Cheer

This was the last week of the Autumn term, and a hugely busy week it was.

We had our Christmas concert at church which went very well, the children sang beautifully and joyfully and (in some cases) reduced their parents to tears - in a good way of course!  We had our Christmas party which was enjoyed by all the children and a visit from Father Christmas, who said I'd been very good, made everyone's day.  I took my lovely little choir to sing at a local rest home too...

We arrived just after lunch at a very very hot rest home. The children were melting, we piled coats and jumpers high on a table and undid top buttons.  Our audience, of course, needed the room that warm and didn't realise why we were all turning bright red!  We sang all the songs from our Christmas concert for them.  They sang beautifully and I couldn't have been more proud of them.  They were in an entirely new situation in a place they didn't know with people they didn't know.  Lots of old ladies and gentlemen calling out "Aren't they lovely!", " Don't they sing beautifully",  "I can see you all you know" and "Oh isn't it wonderful". All very complementary but all called out or discussed loudly with the person sitting next them during our singing.  Some even joining in but singing the wrong words or at the wrong time.   My little choir carried on and continued to sing no matter what went on around them, no one so much as glanced away to see what was happening.   I was and am extremely proud of them.

We definitely brought a great deal of Christmas cheer to the folks in that rest home and will be doing so again next year I hope.

Christmas is coming

I like Christmas

I like it a lot.  Family, friends, occasional snow, carols, Christmas dinner.  Fab!

I am a teacher, I teach young children so Christmas means Nativities and Christmas concerts too.  This year, one of my many changes has been to move into teaching a KS2 class (from Foundation Stage),  change I didn't want and wasn't looking forward to.  Thankfully, it has not been as bad as I'd thought.  Bits of it I really quite enjoy.  I am used to the chaos of the Nativity Play.  Finding costumes, begging for hall time for rehearsals, repeating lines over and over.  I've missed that a bit this year.  As a junior class we do a Christmas concert at our church. We went down to practise for the first time today. So far so good and I'm told that this is the smoothest it has gone for a long time.  Fingers crossed there.

I am also responsible for the choir at school.  (Also new for me as last year I shared this responsibility with another member of staff.) It consists of children from all KS2 classes.  Last night we took part in an Advent service with lots of other local schools.  I am EXTREMELY proud of them.  They sang their hearts out, moved together and smiled the whole way through. I'm sure they don't know just how brilliant they are.

This time of year though I think about MY school.  Not where I teach, where I went. We always started Christmas with a Carol Service in church.  The whole school (and their families) attended.  I sang with our choir.  Christmas had really begun then.  After leaving school members of the choir we were invited back to sing with the choir again, which I did until my school closed.

A Christmas ritual that I truly miss.  I hope that one day that the children I work with now will feel just as proud to have been a part of our choir as I do at having been part of mine.