Back from my travels

Wow, it seems like ages since I got to sit down in my favourite chair, watching the TV and of course playing about on my laptop.

In my last post I said I was off to the Netherlands, so I'll start there with this post.
We had a very busy 3 days visiting our partner school in Terneuzen. Things began with a flight to Amsterdam - there were, of course tears - and then a long car journey to the south of the country. Having hired a car, I thought I'd easily be able to drive on the "wrong side of the road". How wrong I was! Fortunately Marije, a native of the Netherlands was accompanying me and was able to do the driving. It's amazing what 8 years of marriage and motherhood seem to have done to me. Ten years ago, I'd have thought nothing about hopping into a foreign car and driving it but I simply panicked and the thought of a 6km tunnel turned me into a shivering wreck! I feel I've become somewhat deskilled - something I need to address very soon.
Once we had arrived we were whisked off to a meeting in Gent of all teachers involved in international projects whe the ZSC. A bit of a shock, I have to admit, as we hadn't been warned about this. It was fascinating to see how keen schools in other European countries are to be able to work on collaborative projects with other schools in other countries. I think they found it very hard to understand that many schools in England are driven so much by results and league tables that they are unwilling to let pupils and teachers out of schools for any length of time because they worry that results and reputations will suffer. Anyway, we eventually got "home" and were asleep very quickly - not even a hint of alcohol all day (very unusual for me!).
Wednesday was a very busy day, leaving for Ypres (or Ieper as I will now call it) at 9 and returning to school at 9.30 in the evening. We went with some older pupils at the ZSC and Spanish pupils from Madrid who were working on a project there. We went to the "In Flanders Fields" museum which was very interesting. I particularly liked that pupils were allocated a personality from the was and they had tasks to fulfill, using that person's experiences. It meant that the kids couldn't wander aimlessly around the museum not really picking up on anything. We then headed off to Tyne Cot Cemetry which was an odd experience but very interesting nevertheless. What I found most amazing was finding the name of my grandad's Uncle Tommy Bower of the Seaford Highlanders on the Tyne Cot Memorial and taking a picture of it. We next went to a trench at Hill 62 and the kids enjoyed seeing real trenches and getting very muddy in and out of the tunnels. After a very informative look at the trenches we went back into Ieper for tea, a tour of the town and Last Post at the Mennin Gate which was packed. All in all a very tiring day, physically and emotionally. It's certainly something that will stick with me for a long time!
Finally on the Thursday we had a 2 hours in the ZSC with a school tour and meeting the staff before heading off back to Amsterdam. I managed to get the kids some slipper cloggs which they love before going to check in and board. There was a little bit of drama as we thought we might not get on the flight but in actual fact we were moved up to business class - nice!
A wonderful trip and I am very grateful that my Headteacher had enough faith in me to send me to plan our project and represent the school - first for me! The thing that most sticks out for me, however is that 10 years ago I would have taken all of the challenges presented to me - particularly the car thing - in my stride and now I found these things rather difficult. How can this have happened? I'll have to build on this and find my ability to do most things without a problem...oh and did I mention that alcohol did not pass my lips for the whole time I was away!!! I was please to see the family again though :o)