University visits

[Magic Mouse]

Just a quick update on DD. She’s now in her fifth week of school placement. She’s in a mixed year 1/2 class in a primary school about half an hour away.

She’s absolutely loving it, but the workload has really surprised me. The amount of planning she’s doing is huge and the resources she has to make for lessons is incredibly time consuming. I’m becoming very handy at cutting, sticking and laminating! She also has to do a pretty lengthy assignment whilst on placement. Luckily it’ll be half term in a few weeks so she’ll have some extra time then.

It’s so lovely to see her enjoying this - after the difficulties with on line lecturers and being so isolated, it’s great that she’s now in school doing what she loves and her feedback so far has been really positive.

Hope all our students are coping and let’s cross everything that come September things may be better for them.

[Lisa123wm]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

I’m so sorry to hear that Ryan’s final year hasn’t been as it should. Even though it’s been hard for the first and second year students this year, I feel it’s harder for those in their final year as they are leaving on such a low note. Heartbreaking that they won’t even have their graduation ceremonies yet again too

I do hope work picks up in Ryan’s chosen sector and that he can start on a very interesting and successful career soon xx

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I feel the same. My daughter is also in her final year and almost finished. They are having a virtual ceremony or something like that from what she’s said - no idea how that will work.
She has now accepted an offer to do her masters so will be starting that in September. She’s decided do it over 2 years as she also works full time (she has done basically since uni went to online studies). Although she’s missed out on a proper Uni experience, she is in a very fortunate position compared to most of her peers and is very thankful for that.

[Lola]

Magic Mouse: great to hear she’s loving it, she sounds like she’s going to be a great teacher. Workload is always a surprise to trainee teachers as a lot of the behind the scenes work isn’t seen by pupils or their parents. Your support sounds invaluable, hope she has a good half term

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Magic Mouse

Just a quick update on DD. She’s now in her fifth week of school placement. She’s in a mixed year 1/2 class in a primary school about half an hour away.

She’s absolutely loving it, but the workload has really surprised me. The amount of planning she’s doing is huge and the resources she has to make for lessons is incredibly time consuming. I’m becoming very handy at cutting, sticking and laminating! She also has to do a pretty lengthy assignment whilst on placement. Luckily it’ll be half term in a few weeks so she’ll have some extra time then.

It’s so lovely to see her enjoying this - after the difficulties with on line lecturers and being so isolated, it’s great that she’s now in school doing what she loves and her feedback so far has been really positive.

Hope all our students are coping and let’s cross everything that come September things may be better for them.

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That’s wonderful news I’m so pleased your DD is enjoying her placement and finally getting to teach. There is a huge amount of prep work for teaching, she’s very lucky to have your help with the cutting and sticking tasks 😂

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Lisa123wm

I feel the same. My daughter is also in her final year and almost finished. They are having a virtual ceremony or something like that from what she’s said - no idea how that will work.
She has now accepted an offer to do her masters so will be starting that in September. She’s decided do it over 2 years as she also works full time (she has done basically since uni went to online studies). Although she’s missed out on a proper Uni experience, she is in a very fortunate position compared to most of her peers and is very thankful for that.

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So sad that they won’t get to experience their graduation ceremony after all the hard work over the last 3 years or more. I do hope your daughter manages to enjoy her extra 2 years with her masters, congratulations to her on being accepted into the course

[DisneyDaffodil]

Georgia is back in Bristol and did get 2 lab sessions in the past few weeks, so that totals 5 lab sessions in the whole year 😢 . She is now busy studying for her online exams in just over a week’s time, where she has 6 reports to write in 13 days so she’s rather stressed over it.

She also has an uni field trip at Slimbridge wetlands centre in July and has arranged 2-3 independent conservation work placements over the summer period to improve her practical experience and to go onto her cv for the future. She will have a very busy summer ahead I feel. It’s so good to see her actually starting to get on the ladder for the type of work she’s dreamed of doing for so long. It’s been a hard year (2 uni years in fact) for them but I know Georgia is looking forward to her summer work, her final year in uni and possibly a masters degree for the year after.

[Magic Mouse]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

Georgia is back in Bristol and did get 2 lab sessions in the past few weeks, so that totals 5 lab sessions in the whole year 😢 . She is now busy studying for her online exams in just over a week’s time, where she has 6 reports to write in 13 days so she’s rather stressed over it.

She also has an uni field trip at Slimbridge wetlands centre in July and has arranged 2-3 independent conservation work placements over the summer period to improve her practical experience and to go onto her cv for the future. She will have a very busy summer ahead I feel. It’s so good to see her actually starting to get on the ladder for the type of work she’s dreamed of doing for so long. It’s been a hard year (2 uni years in fact) for them but I know Georgia is looking forward to her summer work, her final year in uni and possibly a masters degree for the year after.

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Good luck to Georgia for the exams. Fantastic news about her summer placements, I’m sure they’ll be invaluable to her.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Magic Mouse

Good luck to Georgia for the exams. Fantastic news about her summer placements, I’m sure they’ll be invaluable to her.

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Thank you. She’s worked so hard trying to get something as everywhere has been closed due to Covid, then 3 opportunities came along together 😂

[DisneyDaffodil]

Just wanted to wish all the students a happy summer break and fingers crossed for a more hands on teaching approach for next year.

I know quite a few unis have said they plan to continue online only next year, or blended learning which seems to mean very little in person learning at all. Georgia is hoping for more face to face teaching as she’s found it more difficult online. She is getting a field trip in July with her uni, which was residential, but will now be bussed into the conservation area each day instead and she will need to take daily Covid tests. This will give her some hands on experience at least.

She came home last Saturday and has taken on the huge task of sorting out her bedroom so that should keep her occupied all summer 😂 although she has a few volunteering opportunities and we have a couple of Airbnb breaks booked too so I don’t think it will be a boring summer for her

[Magic Mouse]

DD is still on her teaching placement. She has loved it but it’s been incredibly hard work.
The level of lesson planning is massive.

She’s out of the house by seven, rarely home before 5:30, sometimes later and then spends the evenings planning and making resources.

She also has a 4000 word assignment due on Friday. I feel quite annoyed about it on her behalf. Her placement was due to start in March but due to Covid it was pushed on to April. Had it gone ahead with the original dates she would have had a few weeks after the placement to concentrate on the assignment but now it still has to be done by the same date and she’s still on placement. It’s not something she could have done before placement started as it’s based on her work with an individual child.

She’s now very stressed and up all hours trying to complete it. I’m disappointed that the uni wouldn’t give them a couple of weeks extension given the circumstances.

I’ll be glad when it’s all done, I think she’ll probably sleep for a week!