High Expectations For Week 2 (from the kids!)

Last week I found that it was all a bit hectic to set up in time, but managed it ok! This week however, I thought I'd be more prepared and set up further in advance. However, this meant I didn't check everything properly, probably through over confidence. More on that later!

Class 3 were the first to arrive and, pleasingly, they instantly recognised the equipment. They knew what was coming! This was, of course, terribly exciting and the anticipation grew as the numbers in the hall increased. It was clear that the bulk of the children clearly remembered the previous week and had obviously enjoyed it. This, I thought, would be an excellent session.

Our head teacher arrived to see what the session involved, intrigued, I imagine, by the glowing reports of the previous week. I joked that this would mean everything would go wrong...

At 1.40 I dialled Gearies and nothing! After several attempts I realised that in my casual preparation so far ahead of time, I hadn't plugged the network cable in! So as I scrambled to reroute the cable from the hall computer to the VC equipment, Jan, the teacher leading the singing, wisely began to sing "Hello" to keep the children occupied. They had waited a long time and this is not a strong point for many of our children. They were clearly restless and growing increasingly impatient. The song distracted them somewhat, but it took me a little longer to reset the equipment and redial Gearies. At last, they appeared on our screen.

We sang "Hello" to them and, finally, began our session. While I don't recall who chose first or which songs were sung, (It is all a bit of a blur!) I do remember when one of our children chose the song "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow". I'm really pleased that Gearies' Pupils enjoyed this song and I'm not surprised they enjoyed watching us, as many of our children like to lie on the floor and jump as the scarecrow does in the song. It's normally quite raucous, but during this session, with the added excitement of the VC and the long wait beforehand, it must have looked like a riot!

The children did eventually settle and the session continued much as it had the previous week. The children still thoroughly enjoyed the meet up and like before, several children stayed settled throughout the session, where as they would normally struggle. This is an extra achievement, given the levels of noise and activity this week.

Staff were a little more worn out after this session than previously, so well done them! But everyone did still enjoy it and we're all looking forward to sharing some Animal work next week. I must also thank Jan, who led the singing this week.