Learning on the job

On cars, and specifically Fiestas, and how one has changed my life. My mum learnt to drive in a Fiesta and so when she passed her test she bought a Fiesta and has loyally stuck with the make, aided by the fact that my uncle worked for Ford and could get her a discount. So when I eventually passed my test, her advice to me was, "You could drive a Fiesta!" and I laughed and shared my husband's Astra. Although once a Year 7 boy told me out of nowhere, "You look a bit little in t

I got my first speeding ticket this week. I've emphasised the 'first' when I've mentioned it to people, to save face, and to make it...

"This is my granddaughter," my grandfather told him, "and she's brilliant!" "That's nice," I thought, my brain flicking to an ad about...

"No regrets" sang Robbie Williams.  "Funny," I thought, singing along to the CD, "I have plenty of them." Unwise impulsive choices and...

I'm coming to the end of my third teaching job, and weirdly starting to get excited about the leaving speech. For French A-level, we...

I’m a Northerner living in the South, and I find accents really interesting.  When I first moved to Cambridge, I was living in a college...

On Monday 15th April, I sat down at the teacher's desk in my new classroom at my new school to log on to a school computer for the first...

We recently visited a friend whose home was full of animals. No exaggeration. Five tortoises, six cats, dogs, rabbits, fish, frogspawn......

I'm writing this in bed, sipping tepid drinks through a straw and trying to keep my head still, following a wisdom tooth extraction...

Matilda-like, I spent a good deal of a fairly solitary childhood visiting the local library, which is probably why I ended up with my...

To dye or not to dye? That’s the question I ask myself as I stare at the bottle of ‘L’Oreal’ brown hair dye on the bathroom shelf, then...

Thus began last night’s church meeting. We’re a funny motley bunch of different nationalities and ages and stages, meeting in a nursery...

It is not surprising given that I am someone who is often dashing off to the next thing, that sometimes things get lost along the way....

I’ve gone back to ballet! After a gap of a decade, it’s mostly all still there in the muscle memory, which is quite nice and reassuring....

Tonight was pretty exciting for me - I got interviewed for an event at church. I was more anxious than you might expect for an extrovert...

I remember the first time I fainted. I felt inordinately proud of myself afterwards, like I had fulfilled a childhood fantasy of being...

Yesterday at church, we learned about and prayed for persecuted believers around the world, as part of IDOP (the International Day of...

We’re coming to the end of a lovely half-term, just back from visiting my mum for a few days. One son was a bit sad because he missed out...

It’s half term and I was ready for it. I’m tired. Tired like I’m trying to do a full time job but also leave school when the children do...