Abi's Birthday

Well today was Abi's birthday so we made a day of it. Started by getting her nails done (very lady-like and posh!) and then we went for high tea to Danesfield House. It is a beautiful old home which is used for weddings and parties - the view is absolutely gorgeous. It is a very British home with rambling countryside all around it including the river.

Henley Pix

Here are the photos from Henley, a very beautiful old medieval town. It is set on the River Thames and the very famous rowing event called the Henley Regatta is held here every year. One year we even came to watch the balloons over Henley which was amazing (I have included a photo here for you!) The buildings are quite topsy-turvy at times with beams here and there, leaning roofs and tiny doors. They almost seem fairytale!

Today in Henley - look what I found?!

A teacher took a stroll through the deep dark wood.

A fox saw the teacher and the teacher looked good.

"Where are you going to little teacher there? Come and have lunch in my underground lair."

"That’s terribly kind of you fox, but no! I’m going to have lunch with a gruffalo."

"Where are you meeting him?"

"Here, by these rocks. And his favourite food is roasted fox."

"Roasted fox? I’m off!" fox said.

"Goodbye little teacher!" and away he sped.

On went the teacher through the deep dark wood. A squirrel saw the teacher and the teacher looked good.

"Where are you going to little teacher one? Come and have lunch in my tree that’s fun."

"That’s terribly kind of you squirrel, but no! I’m going to have lunch with a gruffalo."

"Where are you meeting him?"

"Here, by this stream. And his favourite food is squirrel ice-cream."

"Squirrel ice-cream? I’m off!" squirrel said.

"Goodbye little teacher!" and away he sped.

On went the teacher through the deep dark wood.

A mouse saw the teacher and the teacher looked good.

"Where are you going to little teacher there? Come and have lunch in my hole by the stair."

"That’s terribly kind of you mouse, but no! I’m going to have lunch with a gruffalo."

"Where are you meeting him?"

"Here, by this lake. And his favourite food is chocolate mouse cake."

"Chocolate mouse cake? I’m off!" mouse said.

"Goodbye little teacher!" and away he sped.

All was quiet in the deep dark wood.

The teacher found some chocolate and the chocolate looked good! 

Hi Room 14!

Hello Room 14! Hello from sunny spring-y England! I hope you are all having a great time and been awesome for Mrs Low and Mrs Cutler.

We are having a great time and are enjoying beautiful weather which has brought out all of the daffodils and even some tulips! England in the spring is very pretty because most of the trees are deciduous so the spring blossoms are everywhere here. The nights are very cool but the days are blue skies and lots of warm sun.

We are going to Bath and London next week. I have posted the links to these places for you so click on the words above and you can see where we are going. We are going to the Tower Of London, The War Rooms, The Tate Gallery and the Natural History and Science Museums.

I will make sure that I post lots of photos for you next week then! Work hard, have fun and keep blogging on the Room 14 blog so that I can see what YOU are doing too!

Love from Mrs R xxx

Photos!

Had to throw some photos in - we went for a lovely walk in Marlow which is on the River Thames. It has been beautiful weather - about 20degrees each day and really blue skies. Cold at night - the temperature goes down to about 5 overnight.

Anyway, we saw some swans come in to land on the river, chased a few geese and then the kids discovered a real British phonebox! They were wondering how you would text on it???

Day 3 - back to school!

Had a long day, 4 hours of driving around the English countryside. Dylan fell asleep on the way there and Abi crashed out on the way home! Must admit to wishing I could swap places by 6pm!

We went to see some coding and gaming with a Year 3&4 class in a smallish school close to Southampton. It was a great experience and fantastic to see kids controlling their own learning in such an authentic way. The teacher was relaxed and confident - clearly he has built strong relationships with all of the children in the school through being a float teacher. He teaches only ICT and releases teachers regularly to do this. The teachers seemed as happy as the students! I have some awesome ideas to bring back for Room 14!

We also went to visit the new puppy that Leanne and Alfie are adopting in 8 weeks. It was incredible to see a brand new, 16 hour old puppy. They were so cute and made little squeaking noises in search of their mum! We all got to have cuddles and are going back next week so the photos comparing how fast they grow will be cool!

Day 2 - Windsor

Hello from the sunny side of the world! I have good news everyone - I have discovered where our NZ summer went to - it headed over to England to wait for us to visit! Having had 2 glorious days of 20+ degrees and sunshine, blue sky and daffodils aplenty, I know where the good weather is!

We arrived yesterday morning just before lunchtime and came into the smoggy haze of London after circling it 4 times. There was no parking spot for the plane because we were half and hour early so we did some lovely big circles over London until someone freed up our spot! Customs and immigration was surprisingly quick so we made it back to Leanne and Alfie's place by lunchtime. Yesterday was a lovely walk to the local shops (the high street) and a late afternoon trip for coffee at the park. Dylan and Abi did pretty well with the jet-lag, but considering that Dylan only got about 8 hours sleep across 2 flights he ended up sleeping for 14 hours last night!

We managed to get to Windsor Castle today which was a great visit. The kids just loved the huge old doll's house which was originally Queen Mary's and then she gifted it on to Queen Elizabeth. I can't imagine playing with it - it's so delicate and ornate it seems criminal to imagine a child anywhere near it! Everything here is all around the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year so there was an amazing display of 60 photos depicting 60 years of her rule as monarch.

The funniest part of the day was watching Dylan around the buildings. You would think with an armory and weapons everywhere as well as suits of armour, he would be salivating over those, but no, my son couldn't get over the architecture and the buildings! He was constantly walking around the columns oohing and aaahing over the ornate decorative nature of them and dribbling over the lofted ceilings, stained glass windows, alcatraves and the chandaliers as well as the internal structures of the actual castle! As for Abi, in a typical girlie way, she oohed and aahed over the furnishing, lighting, tapestries and artwork! They both loved the castle and grounds. I was pleased to see the daffodils in full bloom everywhere we looked, the real England of my memories.

I did a visit to my old school, Cookham, and had a great catch up with the 2 staff who are still there from my time. Annie, who was the nursery nurse (like a learning assistant) in my class when I taught the new entrants is still there and recognised Dylan immediately. He and Abi got swept up in the most gorgeous of hugs about 20 times mixed with a few happy tears from Annie which was lovely. She was thrilled that we had called in to say hi and delighted to see us. The school has changed a bit since I was there but is still very much the same to look at.

Cookham is still the quaint little village that it always was, so some things never change!

On Our Way!

Well, we are sitting in the Koru Club, munching on some delectable nibbles and counting down until we depart. We leave here in 1 hour and 45 minutes and it's a 12 hour flight to Los Angeles (the home of Hollywood!) in the USA. You can look at the map of LAX, which is the airport we leave through if you click this link.

We then stopover for 4 hours and it's on for another 12 hour flight to London's Heathrow Airport. London has 4 terminals at Heathrow, 2 at Gatwick and another at Stansted - all airports that service the greater London area which is the exact same geographical size as greater Auckland (Orewa to the Bombay Hills.) In London, there are approximately 12 million people during the day, which includes tourists and those who commute by trains to the city. In the evening, London's population can drop to 6 million which shows you how many people work, travel and study there!

Anyway, in 12 hours time I will try to post from my phone and will add a photo of L.A for you. Then it will be halfway through the journey to get to England!

Oh and don't panic - I am hardly likely to get 'star struck' and wind up staying in Hollywood, although...who knows???

The Journey Begins!

Having been awarded the Shroff award this year, it is the beginning of the journey back to where I spent 10 years of my adult life, back to where my children were born, back to where I did 10 years of amazing learning and growing.

The next post on this site will be from Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where we are staying, so I have included a picture of the place! It will be guaranteed to be an amazing learning journey indeed...new memories and new experiences never to be forgotten.