Sydney

G’Day. We have finally finished teaching! No more work for 7 months! We have actually had a really good time teaching and we have learnt a lot. We worked for 8 weeks in total. Lins had 3 weeks at one primary school, 2 at another (lovely), 1 at a different school (same school that Dave was at for 6 weeks) and 2 weeks doing odd days at schools. Dave had 6 weeks at one school and 2 weeks at different schools each day. The blocks of work were at primary schools. It has been a great experience teaching abroad and also seeing what the primary aged kids get up to. All our schools (mainly slightly west of central Sydney) were very multicultural; the vast majority of the pupils (usually over 90%) were Korean, Chinese, SE Asian, Kiwi, Middle Eastern or ‘islanders’ (Cook Islands, Fiji etc). We did one day of child care in the school holidays, not our best experience.

Teaching in Oz has not differed too much to that in the UK. One main difference is that most of the primary schools teach split classes (e.g. Years 5 and 6 together). Also, most of the schools do not seem to care much what ‘casual’ teachers do. Often if we asked whether any work had been set or what topics or textbooks we could follow on with for continuity for the kids, the other teachers looked at us as if we were mad, and just said ‘do whatever’! We think that this was mainly a primary thing though. However, it has been interesting to use other school systems and curriculums. Another variation we have noticed in terms of the syllabuses is how much they teach their kids about state and federal governments and the environment in primary schools. They seem to do this really well; perhaps this, along with singing the National Anthem every week in assembly, is one of the reasons that most Aussie’s are so country proud. We were also quite surprised that the sport in public schools does not see that great compared to that in the UK. Perhaps we were expecting too much. One of the best things about teaching in primary schools was the free time they get on occasions, where we could play Monopoly and other games with the kids, not bad for a hard days work!

Most of the kids also use those ridiculously big bags, like you see on Home and Away. Quite different to our senior school kids that use handbags that can barley fit a pen and pencil in along with their make up. The kids themselves do not seem to be that dissimilar to those in the UK, the main difference is simply that a lot of them do not speak English very well.

The schools are more informal than those in the UK, for example, the dress code (or lack of one). A lot of teachers wear jeans, trainers and no ties, and the women often look as if they are going out on the town (really low tops, extremely tight jeans and high boots!). Quite strange.

In the school that Lins taught at for three weeks, 90% of the children were from China, Korea, or India. She got called Mr Chee Man by a little Vietnamese boy for a week until he finally clicked on what her name was. She also taught Michael Jackson for three weeks! It amazed us how some of the kids would speak half Chinese, half Korean and half rubbish, yet the other kids would somehow still understand most of what they said and be able to translate it to us! Lins did not like it very much at this school, they had really strange policies, such as parents being allowed to come into school at break and lunch and spoon-feed their children their food, literally. Lins also taught at a lovely private boys prep school for a day, really sweet kids that REALLY wanted to learn!

Here are some quotes from the lovely primary school that Lins was at for 2 weeks, which you would not usually hear in a typical secondary school in the UK: “Teacher, please can we have peace and quiet’, “Miss, please can we do some more learning”, “Miss, please can you tell my friend to stop talking to me so that I can work”! This was definitely the exception to the rule though.

At the primary school that Dave taught at for 6 weeks, the staff were really sound and the kids were not far off mini versions of Quilley kids! He was really sad to leave. They had a really good Aussie Rules football team and were crowned the AFL champions of all primary schools in NSW at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

Whilst we were in Sydney, the kids were on holidays for 2 weeks, so we did loads of sightseeing. We loved Sydney so much. We did: the Oz tower (great views over the city; we had a really good view of the tower from the end of our road), climbed the harbour bridge at dusk and had a really great sunset when we were at the top, toured the Opera House and saw Burt Bacharach one evening on his farewell tour. We cruised around the harbour on a coffee cruise with lots of scrumptious blueberry muffins (now Lins’ favourite ahead of chocolate!), did a whale-watching trip (where 75% of the passengers were violently sick 30 minutes into the trip for the next 3 ½ hours; we were not sick thank goodness as we had learned our lesson form last time). We also went on a day trip to the Blue Mountains and did some beautiful walks, went to Star City, saw 2 short 3D films at the IMAX cinema (the largest screen in the world), saw some AFL and NRL (rugby league) games, comedy nights, watched Oz defeat S Africa at the Telstra Dome in the Tri Nations (unfortunately). We checked out all the markets, sunbathed and swum at Bondi beach and walked to Coogee beach, went to Manly and the Northern beaches (Freshwater and Curl Curl), Palm Beach (where they film Home and Away), went to Sydney aquarium and saw the Kaiser Chiefs play in concert for our third year wedding anniversary. We think our favourite place was probably Darling Harbour, we went there many times for a drink (Boost Juice, YUM!) and to sit and relax, looking at the water and boats; it’s so clean and pretty. We have also done loads of reading, which has been great; we usually don’t get that much time in the UK. Lins is now a Potterholic (having not succumbed to the pressure of reading the first 5 books, silly mistake), and is desperately trying to find out the ending before someone spoils it for her!

Watching sport over here is not what we were expecting at all. They do not seem to be as passionate as the UK. From our experience it seems more like a social thing to do rather than watch your team play. At the Oz v S Africa game, the crowd was so quiet, it was almost ghost like. The only time any noise was made was when the Aussie's booed the SA's when they were going forward or taking a penalty kick. They also do very little singing and chanting, and the songs that they do know are unoriginal to say the least. We have been supporting the Roosters in the NRL and the Swans in AFL. AFL is a bizarre sport, it goes on for about 2 ½ hours including all the breaks, never starts on time (but what does over here?!) and has really annoying referee’s. Every game of sport we have watched over here, live or on the TV, has had some type of brawl, whether it be full on punches or handbags.

It was great living in the city and being able to get to things whenever we wanted. We were 2 minutes walk from the supermarket (surprisingly expensive over here), gym, restaurants, bars, train station etc. We were members of Fitness First whilst living in Sydney. There were amazing views of the Sydney harbour bridge and the opera house whilst we were working out! We also had the best Thai restaurant round the corner from us; the food was divine and the portions were big enough that Lins could make two meals out of it (Dave could not), and it was really cheap. We have also seen quite a few films in our spare time; we had a really cheap DVD hire shop round the corner from us and a Greater Union cinema, which had a cheap movie deal on.

For our first two weeks in Sydney there was heavy rain and flooding. We were not expecting it to get that wet and cold in Australia and it was a bit of a shock at first. After that we had a mixture of cold and hot days but it was nearly always a sunny day. The average was about 17 – 19 degrees, not bad for winter. For the last two weeks the weather has been markedly better, reaching 26 degrees on a couple of occasions! Dave actually got burnt one day, which he is quite impressed about considering the season.

We have both loved our time in Sydney and it will be sad to leave, however we are looking forward to getting back in the sun again. We begin heading up the coast as far as Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation tomorrow. Can't wait to get back to some proper sun and relaxation!