For Australian teachers looking to come to the UK, who would like an insight into what it’s really like teaching in the UK, read our regular diary features on fellow Aussies who have already made the plunge and are enjoying the overseas experience.

My First Few Weeks by Peta Cave

After spending so much time in the air, it’s wonderful to have a friendly face at the airport to meet and greet you. The coffee was especially gratifying and to have one bought for you when you don’t have the local currency made it even more special. Being not only guided, but accompanied through the London tubes, helped to reassure that turning up in a foreign country on my own was not only possible, the right decision to make. I had to allow myself time to catch up on jet lag and readjust to climate and culture but within a week I was up and running. It was reassuring to go into a situation that I felt comfortable with, both students and teachers being not only supportive but genuinely interested and inquisitive about my ‘aussieness’. There’s enough similarity in expectation of students’ work and behaviour to feel like you’re ‘putting on an old boot’ - all except the @ key and the ” key on the computer keyboard swapping places.  You’ll know what I mean when you try to send emails!!

One thing the poms do better than us is stagger their holidays. I know it was a shorter term than normal, being only 5 weeks, but I think normal is about 7 which is a cinch when you’re used to longer terms. Before you know it, you’re on half-term holidays and having a week to consider not riding off around the country but flying over to Europe or America on one of the many cheap fares that are available. A weekend in Paris? Yes please!! The support from justteachers doesn’t stop when they have you in their system. I have been regularly contacted by justteachers to make sure that I am settled and happy. They have gone out of their way to look for just the right placement and have taken all my suggestions of areas I’d like to experience into account.  It’s like having a friend, or friends when you add the rest of the helpful team based in Oz and England, that you haven’t met in person but feel that you have.

I have family and friends at home that I am probably keeping in more regular contact with now than when they were within cooees and am enjoying typing up conversations that are based on exploring the local area. justteachers supplied me with International Phone Cards to get me through missing my family and when you get sorted, there are mobile deals out there that make phone calls home very affordable. In a month I’ve already made a true blue quality mate who I hope will come and visit us in Australia, and this is only the beginning of my adventure.  I have the confidence builder of feeling like I’m out there and doing it on my own, the whole time knowing that justteachers is there to hold my hand when I need it.