The new school year has begun. 2014-2015 will bring its share of fun and surprises. Welcome to all my new students, young and old, to my blog. You will need to visit these pages very regularly, so save me in your favourites !!! Take some time to have a look around, find things that interest you and that will be useful to you. But above all, take a moment to read, understand and reflect on my quote of the day.
Twenty-five years ago this week, I was preparing for my first ever “Back to School” as a teacher !! Twenty-five years sounds positively ancient so I guess that makes me positively ancient !!! In those twenty-five years, I guess I have probably done twenty official “Back to Schools” due to time out for babies and for my period working in industry. I still enjoy the buzz of the return to school, with the new classes to discover, the new routines to put in place and to build on over the months ahead. It always feel like sweeping with a new broom and, as the teacher, the onus is on us to establish how things are going to be right from the word ‘Go’.
As a “Prof Principal”, I will be the first contact with the school for the kids on their “Back to School” too. Discovering their timetables, their teachers are all elements that will impact hugely on how the year goes.
First lessons are always an important moment when contact is made between teacher and pupils. Reputations preceed you, as a teacher whether they be justified or not. Sometimes it is perhaps better not to know what the kids say about you when you aren’t listening !!
As the summer holidays draw to a close for the teachers, it is always important to remember that they are drawing to a close for the kids too. Two months of break from school are almost over – hard to believe but it is true. So, happy Silver Jubilee to myself and to my future pupils, and to all pupils everywhere, have a good year !!
The time for the big switch off is fast approaching as July comes to a close. You may remember a recent post about decorating and turning out of my study. Well, it is now done and virtually finished. I am now writing from a magnificent 3 metre long desk with more space than I know what to do with (not for long !!), the tidiest bookshelves in the history of mankind and a cool, subtle colour palette of cream and macaroon-coffee (well, that is what it said on the tin !!).![20140730_163702[1]](https://jennyleger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140730_1637021.jpg)
![20140730_163641[1]](https://jennyleger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140730_1636411.jpg)
It smells clean and fresh and will be awaiting my return from our family break by the pool. Three weeks of work, on and off – but an immense sense of satisfaction now that it is completed.
Work will be resuming in my new study after the summer break. For the moment, it can remain all tidy and beautifully neat – for the time being.
Happy summer holidays to everyone. Enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the chill-time and the relaxation, enjoy the big switch off which is almost upon us !!
A while ago I mentioned I was going to give my blog a facelift, well you can now see the result. No panic – it is nothing major, just a bit of tweeking and twiddling. After two years of the Union Jacks and the tea and scones, it was time to move on. HOWEVER, as you can see, I haven’t moved very far. The tea-time theme is still there as it is very much a part of me. A lot of my students say they learn to make a cup of tea through watching me make my morning cuppa in the classroom. The click of the kettle going on signals that the lesson is almost at an end and my choice of mug is never coincidental.
For the feature image, I toyed with a number of images. To begin with, they were more of a London-based theme – Big Ben, taxis, phone boxes, letter boxes … but then I decided to change tack. When I go back home to England, that is not where I go or what I look for. I have decided therefore to feature MY England in my chosen pictures. When I go back to England, it is to the south coast essentially, where my parents are based and where my sons are for their studies. The New Forest, Southampton, Christchurch, Chichester, Bournemouth – these are the places I return to and so these are the places I shall be featuring on my blog. This is no disrespect to London at all, BUT I am sure anyone would agree that a country is not fully represented solely by its capital. There are some truly beautiful spots to be discovered in the south of the UK, as there are in all parts of the country, so I hope you will enjoy discovering this corner of my world.
To begin with, a view of the place where my parents live : Barton-on-Sea is a small town on the coast with this superb coastline, as you can see in the feature picture. This area is as spectacular in the winter as it is in the summer. When the wind whips the sea up, it can get quite hairy. My sister and I got absolutely drenched walking along this very quay in February of this year. The storms of this winter did a lot of coastal damage. This coastline is gradually eroding, but for the moment, it is a joy to behold. 
Watch this space for images of the New Forest with its ponies which live in the wild. The light shining through the trees on a Spring morning has an almost magical quality. Here is a taster.
I have just finished tonight boxing up my professional life. This is what it looks like :
Why this excess of tidyness ? Well, after thirteen years, I have decided to redecorate my study space. It was originally done out as a nursery for my youngest (now age 13) and as you can see from this photo below, the teddies and stars on the wall are perhaps in need of an update !! 
Packing everything up into boxes was not only intensely satisfying, it was also quite therapeutic as a way of saying goodbye to the old year before heradling in the new, with its new challenges and classes.
Packing up boxes means that at some point, the boxes are all going to be unpacked to take their place in my shiny, newly-decorated office. I am going to be ruthless. Just today alone I binned an impressive quantity of old lessons and exam papers. Bac exams dating back to 2004, when I know for a fact that all resources are on-line. BTS lessons from 2005 are now out of date and so, are now filed under WPB, as my Dad always says. (Filed under WPB = Waste Paper Bin !!).
In the coming days, I am going to hit the paint big-time !! First decision – what colour scheme should I choose ? This is going to keep me busy for a while, just deciding !! No more teddies, but do I go for cool and restful or funky and colourful ? Decisions, decisions, decisions !
Watch this space to see how things progress and to see how long before I get my life back into some kind of order !!
I am proud to announce a new arrival on my blog – I have created a page especially for Kids’ Literature. If you know me, you will know I have an unending passion for kids’ stories and I love including them in my teaching. Yes, even with a class of grumpy seventeen year old boys !! I am pleased to be able to develop this passion further in the coming months during various training programmes and in anticipation of that, I have today started the dedicated pages on this blog. If you have a moment, check them out. You will find them by clicking right HERE.
Check this out !!!
To celebrate the summer holidays and to celebrate my two years of blogging and to celebrate my 25 years in teaching and to celebrate my son’s Baccalauréat and to celebrate … well, any excuse is a good one really … I am going to be giving this blog a facelift, a makeover, a “relooking”. So watch this space to check it out over the next few weeks or so. I hope you will like my new swagger !!
The TDF has been in the UK for the past two days and it seems everyone has gone mad, once again !!! What is it about the Brits that gives them this capacity to put on an event ?? I don’t know what it is, but I wish you could bottle it and sell it abroad !! And the wackiest things are going on – dyed lamas and sheep in the colours of the Tour jerseys, cheese sculpted into bike shapes … it is all so quirky and yes, so British !!
Watching the finish in Harrogate yesterday, I apparently screamed when Mark Cavendish went down, although I still don’t remember doing it !! My family members were witnesses !! I so wanted him to win, along with all my fellow countrymen, I am sure.
My nephew, Jamie, is living the dream today. We were all brought up on a diet of bikes and cycle races as my Dad was a keen cyclist all through my “yoof”. Dad has passed the bug on to Jamie who is now 23. For a while Jamie worked in Halfords in their Bike Hut department and through contacts made there, he has been invited to follow the Tour around in a team car during the stages in GB. He is just in seventh heaven and we are all so pleased for him. Way to go, Jamie !!
I know how I shall be spending this wet Sunday afternoon. Watching the Tour de France on the TV in July is synonymous with the holidays for me. And as it is raining, I can’t be out in my deckchair, so this is a pretty good alternative !!
My blog is two years old today. I am very proud to have had onver 20,000 hits in two years. Thank you to everyone who has visited me, wherever in the world you may be.
The Big English Blog 