What is your favourite London teaching story? 

There are so many! Most of the time I tried to have some fun with the students and really utilise my time I had with him. Although there was set work to be completed, I tried my best to incorporate some enthusiasm into the classroom. There are several favourite stories that stand out to me, but I’ll briefly discuss two of them.

  • An amusing memory was when I went into a school one morning and  I wrote my name “Miss Fischer” on the whiteboard. A couple of hours later I returned to the classroom to discover a student had written underneath my name “loves kangaroos!” Which everyone found hilarious; they legitimately believe we ride kangaroos to work in Aus!
  • On the other hand, I had some really heart-warming experiences. I taught a low literacy year 7 English class where one young Bangladeshi boy had extreme difficulty with comprehension. He would become frustrated and often portrayed signs of learned-helplessness. After working with him for a couple of weeks (for at least an hour per day) we began tackling more complex stories where he could successfully synthesise and demonstrate his knowledge. By slowly implementing reading strategies and reinforcing these skills daily, he really started to understand what was required of him and what he needed to do to understand given information. On our last lesson together he cried at the end and gave me a great big hug and said one day he is going to fly over to Australia to say hello. It was a really rewarding experience.

What is your top tip or recommendation for life in London?

Use your time wisely! As I only spent four months in London, I got caught up and found myself going out most nights and all weekend. It was extremely fun, however, by the end of my time in London I realised I didn’t really explore other parts of the city or travel outside of London or around England. Looking back, i wish I used my weekends to my advantage and travelled/ went on adventures.
Another tip would be to interact with others. Communication is key in London and when you’re there by yourself it’s imperative to chat to others and socialise. Once you begin making friends, your entire experience becomes so much richer (and more fun!)

Favourite travel destination and why? 

I find this question extremely difficult to answer. I fell in love with so many countries and cities that I travelled to. Paris was beautiful – the city centre is extraordinary. There were so many things to do and see. It was incredibly exciting seeing the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Tuileries Garden – it was mind blowing. Especially because Paris has always been portrayed at the ‘city of romance’ and would always appear in TV shows it was just amazing experiencing it for myself. I also LOVED Budapest. It was such a cool city to explore that had such an eclectic vibe, the thermal baths were beautiful. The night life was something I had never experienced before. Bars were created from old building ruins and were transformed into an insane party culture. I remember all of the lights and colours and feeling genuinely excited to be there.

What has been the best part of your experience so far? 

As I have mentioned above – I cannot pinpoint one experience. Each day was different. Teaching over in the UK was confronting, unpredictable, challenging and yet exciting. Whilst being a supply teacher, I spent my time at different schools across London, meeting new people from different cultural backgrounds – many ESL (English as a Second Language). I loved the freedom. I gained a lot of independence. And it really put things into perspective for me. I was nervous about packing up my things and heading over to the UK alone as a graduate teacher. But the nerves turned into excitement with the support and encouragement I had from the team at anzuk. Once you sign up with anzuk, you feel as though you have joined a family. I felt extremely comfortable and lucky to have anzuk as my teaching agency and absolutely recommend them to anybody thinking of heading over to London. And to prove how successful my experience was overseas – I was offered a teaching job back in Melbourne before I even landed back in Australia!