On Tuesday the 28th of June 2005, I went on a school trip to Samphire Hoe, near Dover, on a geography field trip with one hundred year five students. It was chaos. When I arrived at the school I was tired enough as it was, but sorting the kids into groups of seven or eight is quite difficult when all they want to do is run around. They were all dressed in non school uniform, and I was allowed to wear more casual clothes then the day before. Looking at the children in their normal clothes gave me an insight as to how my teachers feel on our non uniform days.
The children were dressed in all sorts of clothes, some sensible such as jeans and trainers, others not so, like a mini skirts and semi-high heels. I stood there and though “I never wore those sort of clothes when I was ten”, it just shows how times change, plus it made me feel old!
When we finally boarded our coaches, the kids started to settle down but twenty minutes down the motor way it was a different matter. We drove through a dark, downhill tunnel, and the screams were unbelievable! Trying to keep the coach in order was extremely challenging.
Sitting at the front of the coach was a new experience for me. I normally sit at the back away from the teachers but for that day I was a teacher, and had all the jobs and seating arrangements to go with it.
We climbed off the coaches and made our way walking on a very wet sea wall to learn about coastal defences and long shore drift. The weather could have been better; it was very windy and cold which made the experience even more so challenging. Everyone was cold; especially those children who didn’t wear appropriate clothes!
Walking along the sea wall I got to talk to my teacher, Mrs Rachel Semandeni, about the children in my class. I managed to work out who were going to be a difficult to control and who we’re going to play up to test my limits! I learnt a few names and started to feel settled. We wandered along looking at coastal defences and the damages the sea can do to the cliffs. The children seemed interested, but I got the feeling they we’re just paying attention to not get in trouble, after all, I’ve only just learnt what they’re learning now and it seemed a bit advanced for them.
After playing on the beach and watching the kids paddle and play with seaweed (whilst wishing our school trips were more like this) we went and had lunch. I sat with one of the other work experience people and watched the kids spilling ice cream everywhere!! They were running in and out of the shop like mad hatters and keeping an eye on them was very tough, it makes me realise what me and my friends are like!
After Samphire Hoe, we went to Folkestone to look at more coastal defences. To be honest, the emphasise was more on keeping everything running smoothly than teaching them, and they didn’t have to do one work sheet through out the whole thing! They all seemed very interested though, and very keen to pipe up with answers to questions. It shows the difference between junior school and secondary school a lot.
They paddled in the sea again, while me and the other work experience guy sat by the break waters and watched from a distance, making sure no-one ran off! Luckily no-one did and we had an easy half an hour of just chatting.
After paddling on the beach we went to an adventure park hidden on the hills, I really wanted to play with the kids, but I kept my distance making sure I didn’t look unprofessional. The adventure playground consisted of a significantly large wooden climbing frame, complete with slides and climbing walls. Around it were themed areas such as a wooden rocking boat in a sand pit. Watching one hundred children mix with another school is really hard, especially when they’re all running around. They were all very excited and getting them back into an orderly fashion was hard, especially since I didn’t know any names to call out!
We started to walk back to the coaches and the children seemed very tired and ratty. They all just wanted to go home and go to sleep by the sounds of it, and they weren’t the only one!
We all got back on the coaches and made our way back. The kids seemed quieter then on the way there, which was fine by me as I was falling asleep! It was all very tiring and I was glad to get back to school and go home. I slept like a baby that night!
The experience was shocking; it made me feel like a child again watching all the children running around. Trying not to join was very hard. I also got to experience what being a real adult is like. I was treated with respect and involved in all the gossip between teachers!
The rest of the week was just as fun, I watched my class enjoy sports day at the Julie Rose stadium in Ashford and I also had the pleasure of watching my class perform a Jewish wedding, from which I learnt a lot!
Overall, I learned a lot from the experience, defiantly more than I thought I would. I felt very involved in everything the children did and if I could have stayed on another week I would have.
