This year (2020) has been unexpected – and to use the word heard on the news a lot unprecedented – the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that have been in place throughout the world has left us all with many challenges, such as financial and employment worries, concerns about the health, safety and wellbeing of our friends and families, and personal anxieties such as our mental health and wellbeing. It has been a complete whirlwind and while the lockdown restrictions may be easing, we are all still worried that there might be further problems down the line.
At the start of this year, I had all these elaborate plans that I’d be starting my teacher training at the University of Reading to train to teach Secondary MFL, and I was hoping to spend the summer travelling and having a holiday in France, Italy or Germany. However, a major operation and health challenges of my own, as well as global pandemic later, neither the teacher training course nor the travelling are going ahead. While I was unfortunate enough to have had my one remaining ovary (and the massive tumour clinging on to it) removed in February this year, I count my blessings that I was well into my recovery just as lockdown hit us here in the UK, but it meant I had to wait longer for the further tests which followed and even longer before I could start the HRT – this hugely factored in my decision to not undertake teacher training in September. I was fortunate to have had my SKE courses to focus on whilst at home, on furlough from my job with Energy Kidz, but I started questioning whether my language skills would actually be good enough to teach languages to 11-18 year olds, and I had also planned to volunteer in local secondary schools once I was recovered enough to be able to do so, but of course, lockdown happened.
About a week before my Birthday in June, completely out of the blue, my old secondary school contacted me (it was in fact my former history teacher who is now a deputy head who phoned me) and asked if I would be interested in a position as a Learning Support Assistant with English as an Additional Language teaching responsibilities. Back in January, I’d actually been offered a position there as an LSA but I felt it was right to turn it down as I was just weeks away from a major operation and anywhere between 6 to 12 weeks’ recovery which was achingly disappointing. I jumped at this opportunity and a week later, had a Teams interview – which ended up being more of a catch up really – and the following day, a job offer… I’ll share how and when I found out I’d been offered the job because I think it’ll be one of those moments I shall cherish forever. I was out for a ‘socially distanced’ catch up with my former French teacher, and now dear friend, in a garden park local to her (and the school), with my dog Harvey, and I received the email. It was a lovely moment and I felt an equal measure of excitement and uncertainty. The days and weeks that followed, I met the Initial Teacher Training Coordinator at the school and we had a very useful and in-depth chat about how I could undertake teacher training through the school the following year, and also whether I had thought about teaching English, and this had left me with a lot of food for thought because I’ve always been convinced that a Uni-led PGCE would be right for me, and I’ve not considered teaching English until now because my degree is in Translation and MFL, and I just scraped a ‘D’ in my A Level English Language and Literature (I’d done amazing on my coursework but I fully recall turning up to my exam having had a stomach bug and flu).
So, I’m starting a brand new job in September – and I always had these crazy ideas as a teenager that one day I’d actually teach at my old secondary school and now it is actually happening. Sometimes, it all still feels quite surreal. Often, it feels exciting and WHY ISN’T IT SEPTEMBER YET? Other times, it feels quite daunting because I’ve never taught EAL to UK students, and also all the uncertainty about the coronavirus too. But, I am hopeful that I will have the chance to meet new people, really get a feel for school life, and have more practice at developing a good work/life balance, a good routine, save some money so I can potentially rent my own place should I do my teacher training through the school next year. Life is all about learning – all the time and currently, we are all learning to adapt to this strange, “new normal”.
And, it’s okay if life doesn’t always go to plan. Because, “if plan A doesn’t work, don’t stress because there are 25 more letters in the alphabet.”
