Windy Windsor

We went on our school trip to Windsor Castle today. It was 11 degrees at 11am......

I woke up with a virus. A banging headache and a temperature.....

In spite of this, it was actually not a bad day ;-) 

One little boy in my class looked yellow/grey he was so ill. He had been off sick for a couple of days at the end of last week, and in our haste to get out the door on time this morning, neither of us really noticed just how unwell he was. 

When we got there it was plain for all to see. We went through the security part, and did the first en-masse toilet run. They are below a set of concrete stairs, so whilst we toiletted everybody, I made him sit down on the steps. He didn't feel sick but just said "my head hurts" and held his head in his hands. 

We decided straight away that he just wasn't well enough to be here, so before we moved on, I called the school and asked them to ask his dad to come get him. His dad was quite worried and left straight away.

We had a talk at 11:30am so we had time to go and watch the changing of the guard ceremony. It was so cold, but they were really good and stood patiently whilst not a lot happened. We saw them parade, and it was nice, but we were early for the talk and situated rather conveniently at the exit which was where we needed to be as we waited for A's dad. 

We hung around a long time, and asked one of the escorts for help so that S could come out and straight back in again without having to go all the way back through security. All the while A just stood there and S said by the time she took him out, he just couldn't hold his own legs up, and she carried him. 

It made me a bit sad, as you really worry about them, especially when they're not well. Luckily his dad was right outside and took him straight home. 

Once we had done that were back on track and headed off the the talk where we were glad to warm up.

The rest of the day was spent lunching and then wandering around the state apartments and the dolls house. It wasn't too busy which was good for us, maybe the coolness in temperature put the tourists off ;-) 

I bumped into a friend from dancing whilst we were walking through the state apartments, and we had a quick chat. She was visiting with her school.

We were back at school by 3pm, and the rest of the day passed uneventfully. I usually hate school trips, but this one I actually enjoyed, despite feeling under the weather myself. It's just the right distance for travelling with small people, and it is just a really nice place to go and visit. 

But the part I liked the most was just talking to them and chatting about what we could see. We don't get to do nearly enough of that, the learning that seems to take priority is that that gets recorded in books, as if that's the be all and end all of everything.

There was no writing, no sticking in utterly pointless "LO's" (learning objectives), meeting "success criteria" etc.... you get the idea....

They were so well behaved, and so different to the only-just-five-year-olds we took to London Zoo back in September! How far we have come ;-) 

We had a quick cup of tea after school and then went straight home. I sank into a hot bath and shivered my way through the evening. I definitely have a virus of some sort, and my head banged but fingers crossed it passes quickly.