THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

My first few days at School felt like trying to feel my way through the dark. I didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing. I was friendly nonetheless, to the staff, the students, and my fellow Fellow Sarah Johnson, who is also placed here.

I felt simultaneously closer and further away from the rest of the group. We’d had an incredibly intense boot camp week, where we were collectively thrown into unfamiliar and humbling situations (from the Cabinet Office to the North London YMCA with a hop, skip and a jump off the 91 bus) to ‘safe’ periods of reflection, during which we analysed our performance, behaviour and purpose. A lot came out, and very quickly, I’d gone from feeling like an outsider (a fraud from an Art school who thought Eton is primarily a type of pudding – what’s all this fuss about puddings Gove?) to part of a fellowship, specially selected, a comforting and inspiring feeling, even if I did have to be Hagrid.

But then, at my placement, I felt quite detached from the momentum and morale of the first week. It had felt like a dream, and it felt absurd that I’d become so involved with a group of strangers, who were now all off being their best possible selves - friendly and pro-active like me - doing what they could on the frontline they’d been thrown into.

As for the school, I turned up on my first day with a sore nose (I’d been instructed by the principal to remove my studs after meeting him at the launch event – back to school indeed) and a pair of eyes as wide open as I could make them, hoping to witness and document every detail, every problem that needed to be solved and every cry for help from students and staff alike.

I had the idea in my head that I needed to seek out the flaws, the poor disadvantaged, the gaping holes in the curriculum or education system. As a result, there’s been a delay in me writing a blog. After a few days with nothing to report, (with the help of my Mentor Sophie Howarth) I realised that’s probably something worth writing about in itself.

So far, my first impressions of this school are that it’s pretty amazing. The staff are engaging and friendly, from notifying colleagues of their students successes in extra-curricular activities during staff briefings (and bursting into proud applause) to deploying a highly-advanced teaching technique that combines criticism, discipline and praise, which I currently cannot imagine ever being capable of mastering.

The students are inquisitive, bright, cheeky and I've found my students a delight to work alongside. But admittedly, I was pretty shocked with the language and behaviour of my first class. It was a Physics cover lesson, with a cover tutor who had never taught Physics before - I was wondering why so many of the kids needed the toilet, turns out they were taking advantage of the newbie. It's been better since then, and I feel happy saying so far, so good. I'm interested to see more and as week 2 rolls on, I'm looking forward to getting to know the students better.