The Summer of 2010

Ship in a bottle in Trafalgar Square - London

By now, I was beginning to discover that teaching opportunities in South Yorkshire were a bit thin on the ground and, without a car, it wasn’t easy to explore further afield so, when the English Experience  contacted me again, to ask if I wanted to teach a group of French teenagers, I jumped at the chance.

French students at Norfolk Park

This time, no field trips had been planned and I was only required to teach the students in the mornings for two weeks, using the facilities at the Centre in the Park in Sheffield.  Alternating the classes with my co-teacher Tommy, who I had worked with at Swinton Community School, there really wasn’t time to plan projects.

With only a flip chart and – occasionally - the computers to work with, most of the time was spent thinking on my feet.

Out of the blue, I was asked if I could lead a field trip to London on a Saturday and although I knew that it could only be a lightning tour around some of London’s landmarks, and that more time would be spent on the coach than in London itself, I thought that it would be a fun day out, and so it was.

Dropped off at the Palace of Westminster, on a hot summer’s day, everyone had the chance to marvel at Westminster Abbey, St. James’s Park, the Burlington Arcade, Picadilly Circus and Horseguard’s Parade, they were only interested in finding Abercrombie and Fitch that, to me, seemed just like a nightclub and I could hardly see the products on display.

Buckingham Palace

The delay on the coach back to Sheffield, on a sweltering evening, confirmed my initial feelings about this field trip, that it was really too far to do comfortably in a day, especially since I just missed my bus back to Treeton and I had to spend the best part of an hour in Sheffield. Taking advantage of the sun trap outside the Sheffield Tap, in the late summer evening, I enjoyed a well earned pint or two of their best beer, and reflected on the day, before finally getting home.