Friday, September 18, 2015

Outdoor Learning Part 2

Heads up - this is a bit of a long post. I really want to share with you the things I am learning. I really miss learning, and this stuff is good learning.

I spent the last 15 minutes of my day madly rushing around and typing furiously. I made the potentially dangerous decision to forgo marking the two classes of books I got in today. I even managed to make the same practical relevant across no less than six different classes, just so I could write it onto the one request sheet. All this, so I could go along to the second outdoor learning PD session.

I seriously considered blowing it off, as is the natural reaction to PD sessions really, but I really enjoyed the last one and wanted to go to this one. The topic for today was behaviour management for outdoor settings. Fellow teachers will know that behaviour management is almost top of the list of stress and anxiety inducing things we have to deal with; before, during, and after lessons. Any help I can get is always appreciated, and I'm always looking for different ways to tackle problems. Also, after realising that 'outdoor learning' is technically anything outside the normal classroom setting, I figured it would be useful even if we never went to the farm or forest.

Instead of heading up to Base Camp like we did last time, we walked through the farm (past the pigs who were happily munching on apples, and the goats who were being cared for by some students) to a shed they use when it's raining too hard to be outside. The inside walls of the shed are lined with hay bales, which, if you've never sat on one, are surprisingly comfortable.

We started off with a quick discussion about how outdoor learning is stressful. It's stressful for the teachers because we are outside our comfort zone (Get it? Get it?!). You start thinking about taking your class outside, and the list of complications grows longer and longer the more you think about it. It's also stressful for the students - it's not a normal lesson and often they don't know how to react to that. Their personalities will shift in all sorts of weird directions, some good and some bad, and they're trying to deal with their own changes along with their classmates and the very obvious setting change.

After our little intro we jumped right into an activity. Normally PD activities are so dry and contrived that you approach them with something bordering on scorn and sarcasm, but these ones feel different. I'm not sure why, it could literally be the setting, or the fact that they are presented in a completely non-patronising way. There is no feeling in these sessions of 'I know best because I saw it done or read the research or am being paid to say this' or 'you must change your whole way of teaching because it's wrong and this is better' or even 'you should do it exactly like this'. It feels more like sharing ideas with input and guidance from someone who experiences these things every day. It is very refreshing to be treated as the semi-experts that we are - we all teach, we're not learning this for the first time, and we do have a bit of our own experiences to draw on. Anyway.

Rather than wandering around in groups this time, we were divided into two groups and given a small whiteboard and marker. We were then given a question - what are teacher's concerns about outdoor learning, and what are things that could go wrong that teachers might not think about. Our group were given the latter question, which we actually found a bit difficult. Everyone was coming up with great ideas, but they all seemed like things that teachers would be concerned about (at least to me).

Our list included things like: allergic reactions, injuries, trespassers (the farm and forest are on the edge of the school property), weather, students starting fires, students injuring the animals, and students wandering off. Some might seem a bit ridiculous, but I feel like that was our aim - think of the unusual things that technically could happen (jokes about tornadoes started, which dissolved into sharknado and then shark attacks and sand storms - all highly unlikely, but technically possible).

The other group, who were discussing teacher concerns, had a long list as well: student reluctance, disturbing other classes, health and safety, equipment, resources, distractions, students wandering off, parent consent, and not producing something tangible to show at the end of the lesson to 'prove progress/learning'. We joked after the lists had been read that the stress of worrying over all of those things far outweighed any possible benefits, and we should all never go outside again. And for those watching at home who are not teachers, we do genuinely have to worry about every single thing in both of those lists.

After quickly discussing the two lists, we were divided further into pairs and more whiteboards with pens were handed around. Our job now was to take an issue that the other group had highlighted and come up with solutions for it. I found this an incredible idea - rather than sit there and be told how to do it, or be given a generic list of strategies, or worse just move on entirely, we were given the opportunity to use our own brains and experience to suggest solutions. Even better, we were given license to choose the issue we wanted to tackle. We chose to look at child reluctance - every teacher knows those students who are too reluctant to take part in anything outside the normal classroom experience. The reason they won't/can't let themselves participate can be literally anything, but as teachers we want to give them the fullest experiences possible. My partner and I came up with a few ways to tackle this one: encouragement and reassurance, making it seem like a lot of fun or like a privilege, making trips outside the classroom in small doses to begin with to build familiarity, buddy/group system to pair them with more confident students, and any number of ways of building confidence.

We then came back as a whole group and discussed our ideas, with interjections here and there by the HOD who was leading the session again. It was wonderful to be able to share everyone's experiences and expertise, and to discuss options for dealing with some of the issues listed. Some of the ideas that really stood out for me were:

Trespassers - staff can do a quick sweep of the area before letting the students in to make sure all is well and safe.

Equipment - have a little pack of outdoor learning equipment made up before the lesson. This could include things like clipboards, timers, whistles, small whiteboards, etc. If outdoor learning is something you start doing often enough, have it as a permanent set ready to go.
Using timers outside seems like such an obvious idea, one that I never would have thought of. We've all used them inside the classroom (you have 5 minutes to complete this activity), so why not outside? You literally give a timer to each group, give them a task (probably one involving them walking off for a bit, you are outside after all so there's no point sitting in rows and ignoring the setting), and give them a time that they have to return by. If they are not back by the set time [insert consequence here]. You would then position yourself in a set place and you don't leave that set place. It would be very tempting to go chasing after the students to make sure they're doing the right thing, but while you're off looking at one group, another group might be trying to find you to get help. And no, they don't have to stay within eye-sight. Give them a bit of trust. You can remove that trust if and when they break it.

Parent Consent - have a form sent out at the beginning of the year explaining that students will likely be working outdoors at least some of the time, but if the parents don't sign it then the students will miss out.

Weather - always have a backup plan. The obvious choice is to go back into the classroom, but you could instead go to the library, computer room, hall, or in our case the shed - the students are still getting the experience of learning outside their usual setting.

Students injuring animals - the farm lady is always there when you're working with the animals, so at least there are two sets of eyes. We also discussed how conversations about animal rights and safety come up often, even to the point of 'why do you think it's ok to kill that spider you just squished' - which apparently gets quite involved when you start discussing with the students about where to draw the line between ok-to-kill and not.

Distracting other classes - still using inside voices even if you are outside was a good suggestion, particularly for groups who are just too loud. Walking in silence to get there was another one, which HOD countered by suggesting you give them the Big Question Short Talk. Realistically they are going to talk anyway, so you may as well give them direction. It doesn't even need to be related to the topic of the day, but just something to guide their attention in a somewhat meaningful way.

Students wandering off - have a whistle handy, with severe consequences for anyone who doesn't return within 1 minute of it being blown.

Distractions - the main response to this one was the threat of not doing the activity again, to with the HOD immediately countered with an idea I'd never considered. Turn the distraction into a part of the lesson. If everyone is distracted by a tree, go and stand around it, for example. Or even better, ask the student why are they getting distracted, but not in an open way. If you ask in an open way they won't be able to give a reason. Instead, give them a choice. Are you getting distracted because the task is difficult or because you can't understand the content? Any number of choices can be given depending on the situation, but it gives the student something to grab on to for their reasoning. They may not have even considered that the reason they find the building next door so interested is really because they don't understand the content they're meant to be making a poster of. So give them the chance to overcome the distraction, or find out exactly why they are getting distracted, instead of just getting annoyed at them.

Not 'producing something tangible' - this lead to a big discussion about the forced need to 'have something to show'. To have 'proof' that something was taught and something was learnt. I won't go into too much detail about it here, but basically there's always a way around those questions from higher-ups about why 'nothing was written down today'. (e.g. today was the experience, tomorrow is the 'assessment of progress and learning').

Student reluctance - along with the ideas we put forward, we discussed the fact that some students just won't/can't participate because of some internal reason. HOD also suggested giving choices here, particularly the choice to sit back and watch and to come join in when they feel ready. Let the student decide when they're comfortable joining in, instead of having the long uncomfortable conversations trying to make them. They will join when they're ready, and they will learn by watching the others anyway.

As you can see, we covered a lot of ground. Many of the ideas seem like common sense when you talk about it, but they're not really things you think about on your own. Being able to bounce ideas around experienced practitioners in such an open, supportive environment is very invigorating. We have one more session next week, stay tuned!

Friday, September 11, 2015

Outdoor Learning

Today we had a very enjoyable PD session. Our school has a small farm, reptile room, rodent room, and forestry. There is a whole department dedicated to this, along with associated subjects and extra-curricula clubs and activities. We had the opportunity today to learn exactly what outdoor learning is and how it can benefit any and every subject/topic/etc.

We started off by meeting at the farm. It was a lot of fun to stand in a patch of sun and observe the pigs, goats and ducks while we waited for everyone to arrive. Once we were ready to go, we set off through the school towards the forestry - a section of the school grounds specifically kept for this purpose. We walked into the forest by a wooden sign, and after meandering for a short while we find ourselves at the 'base camp'. We all sat around a camp fire on purpose-built benches, eager to learn about stuff while being outside. Then it hit me - if a bunch of teachers are excited about learning about something outside (hell, we are giving up our planning/free time to do this!) then imagine how the students would feel!

The presenter, who is the head of that department, started off by describing the area around us. He then launched us straight into an activity, one I am keen to replicate with my students. He called it 'big question, short walk', and it is basically that. You ask the students a big question (ours was 'how is outdoor learning beneficial') then you either lead the students or let them walk off on their own for a short while. The point of the walk is to go slow and just discuss the question - going off on a tangent is completely normal apparently, and the vast majority of the time the tangent is actually extremely relevant to the question. At the end of the walk, which can be as short as a couple of minutes, you bring everyone back together and report on what you discussed. You can even specifically discuss the tangents everyone went off on, as they usually provide a deeper insight.

We walked around randomly through the forestry, some staying close to base camp and some seeing exactly how far away they could go before being called back. Our answers for our question ranged widely - it can be beneficial for students who don't have access to a garden, gives students who prefer movement-based learning a chance to do just that, sets a very real-world context for topics, and allows sensory learning. Our tangents largely included remembering our own times learning outdoors, something everyone seemed to remember with joy.

After this we had a bit of a discussion about the research around outdoor learning, which generally comes down to the fact that it's awesome and can benefit everyone. We also discussed how clinical classroom learning is, and how we usually remember things we've done more than things we've heard or seen or written down. This then moved on to a discussion about intrinsic and extrinsic motivators - extrinsic motivators (money for example) generally inhibit creativity, and intrinsic (fun, curiosity, etc) are much more powerful. If students think they'll have fun doing something, they are more likely to put in effort than if they are offered a reward for relatively boring work.

The second activity we did is called a 'literacy window'. You literally get a frame, or make one out of paper, and put it on the ground, or in a tree, or anywhere really. The students then have to confine their thinking to that space and, for example, describe using specific words what there is (animals, how it looks, etc). You can really make the purpose whatever needed to suit your topic - ecology is one that works nicely, and so is basic or specific literacy.

We then moved on to the important stuff - hot chocolates and roasted marshmallows. We were told that was the end of the session and we could basically do what we wanted at that stage, but we all hung around the fire roasting marshmallows and discussing what we'd learnt. I felt it was a very successful, informative, and yes even fun, PD session. We'll be doing two more of these over the next month, focussing on behaviour management and pedagogy, so stay tuned!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

First Week at School

Just like in Harry Potter, school starts here on September 1. The students, however, don't attend on this day as it is an Inset Day (staff only). We started the day with a lovely breakfast prepared by the kitchen staff, which gave everyone a chance to catch up with those they hadn't yet seen during the last week of holidays, when everyone came into school voluntarily to prepare for the new year. For us new starters, it was a chance to sit and observe the staff dynamics, and introduce ourselves to people at random.

Once everyone was fed, we had a very serious discussion about safeguarding. It was quite sobering to hear what we should be on the look out for during the year - self-harm, abuse from home and/or others, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and extremism/radicalisation. Back in Aus I had encountered self-harm, but the others are new to me. We were told what to look out for that could indicate any of the above, and how to refer it on to the right people. We were also shown the logos that paedophiles use online and in real life to signify their preferences. The fact that they are so organised as to have logos just sickens me, but I am happy I now know what they are so I can keep a lookout. Safeguarding here seems to be much more involved than in Aus - schools have multiple personnel who work on it full-time, as well as police liaison officers available for whatever may be needed.

After this sobering session, we had various meetings with various departments. I don't have a form class this year, so I was given a bit of extra time to organise myself while the year forms were meeting. This gave me a chance to settle into my room a bit more, realise that rows is actually the only way I can arrange the desks due to the room layout, work out how many students are in each class (17 to 32, but most have 30-ish) and therefore how many exercise books I would need (they are provided by the school for the students), and other general beginning-of-year tasks.

The following day some of the school returned, but by chance I had none of them on my timetable for that day. That gave me the opportunity to put together an introductory powerpoint about myself, which of course included kangaroos and koalas. I was surprised to realise almost none of the students could recognise an echidna ('yea but that's just a hedgehog miss'), or a wombat ('so it's basically a pig-rabbit?'). I was not prepared for almost every class asking about the spiders, but I have really enjoyed describing huntsmans for them, especially because I don't even have to exaggerate. The intro also includes class expectations, how to set out their books (which is a big one, as they and I are both assessed on their bookwork), and safety within the lab.

For a solid week now I have done nothing but that introductory lesson, and one content lesson for the year 10s. This is what comes from having 15 different classes. To be honest, I'm bored of talking about myself - bring on the content! Thankfully by the end of this week I will have seen every class at least once, so we can just get on with things.

Planning for lessons is quite different to back in Aus. There we had a very specific unit plan to follow, which I now miss terribly. Here we have a more vague unit plan, most of the time without suggested resources or lesson goals, so I'm finding it quite hard to work out what exactly I'm meant to be teaching them. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it quite quickly though. Planning lessons is also difficult when you will only see the class once per fortnight (except my year 10s and 11s, I see them four times a fortnight) - I really need to make sure the lesson is a stand-alone one, able to be fully completed during the lesson. By the time the next lesson rolls around, both the students and I will probably have forgotten what we did last time. This is something I've never experienced before, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

We only do one play ground duty a week here, and it's always during the shorter break time. I was pleased when students came up to say hi to me today, even if I couldn't remember their names (learning almost 400 of them is probably not going to happen, realistically).

Professional development is done in half hour to hour blocks after school - I've been to two so far, one about their behaviour logging system and one about safeguarding. I'm really looking forward to one I have tomorrow afternoon (I know! Actually looking forward to PD!). It's being run by the head of the outdoor learning - yup, we have a farm. We have pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, tortoises, turtles, rabbits, snakes, lizards, gerbils, hamsters, and a chinchilla. We also have a bit of a forestry area, and this is where the PD will be. We will be learning about outdoor learning while sitting around a camp fire with hot chocolate and marshmallows. I'm so keen. These sessions will be running every fortnight for the next couple of months, each session focusing on a different thing such as behaviour management outdoors, curriculum specific ways to use the farm etc. This is the type of PD I could get used to.

On a slight tangent, I mentioned in a previous post that I'll be running a Friday afternoon skills session. I have chosen to make it STEM based, with a different topic each week. This week we will be looking at sci-art, so a bit of a history lesson followed by more modern interpretations and then we spend a couple of hours making scientific art pieces. I chose this topic because it's one I love, and because I really feel they will benefit from recognising the interconnectedness of usually distinct high school subjects. My hope is that they will view the world around them with the thought in mind that art and science are everywhere and mixed together so strongly that often you can't differentiate between the two. We'll see how we go - it is probably more likely that they will just have fun drawing science-y stuff.

Overall, this first week has been hectic, boring, crazy, confusing, and interesting. Some days I've worked well into the evening, some days I've not had a lot to do. Some classes I'm really going to enjoy, others not so much. Such is the life of a teacher!

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Induction Day

Getting up at 6am on a the last Saturday of your school holidays for a full day of PD is never a kind thing. Lucky this PD was about how to do my job here well, and involved a free lunch and drinks and catching up with the people I met at iDay, so it was forgiveable.

The day started out with collecting our police check, which Engage Education had prepared for us. It is necessary for our schools to have a copy, basically to say we're ok people to have in a classroom full of children/teenagers. We had been told to get there early for this, and that tea and coffee would be ready and waiting. It was not. We were there for almost an hour before it was brought out - not a hugely successful start to a day, especially as our first activity was an ever-popular 'ice-breaker'.

We were split into predetermined groups and taken off into separate rooms. Each group was given a different activity - mine was getting into smaller groups and playing a game called Two Truths, One Lie. Basically, you tell the group two true things about yourself and make up one lie, and they have to guess which one is the lie. I find it extremely hard to lie in situations like that, so I went last out of our group. They thought I was lying about breaking my arm jumping off a trampoline, but were perfectly happy believing that some students set my lab on fire during a prac... not sure how I feel about that! As far as ice-breaker activities go, it was nice to not go around in a circle and tell everyone about yourself, and it did allow us to get to know some people, but realistically I didn't talk to any of them again anyway so it seemed a bit pointless.

After this fun time, we headed into a lecture hall for our welcome and first speaker. It felt so much like being back at university (including someone walking in late, very hung over), that we all felt simultaneously right at home and very uncomfortable. Especially when everyone took out their notebooks/laptops to take notes, and were asked to put away their mobiles.

Our first speaker was a principal at a school I had actually interviewed with. He is such a good presenter and personable person that it made the early start easy to deal with. He talked us through his career, highlights and lowlights and dealing with teaching in the UK. He also gave us invaluable tips on what to expect on our first few days at the school, such as finding out about the school's priorities and commitments, who the safeguarding person is, and what the parent involvement policy is. Seemingly obvious things that I definitely would not  have remembered to do. He also mentioned something I had never put into such eloquent words before, but try to explain to students all the time - A good report card will get you in the door, but other life skills will keep you in the room and ensure success. I think this is something that students, teachers and admin all forget a lot of the time. We do need that balance between academic success and general life well being (insert another rant about overcrowded curriculum here).

After this we had a talk about Engage Education's social calendar, which looks like it includes many activities I would actually go to! There was one semi-unfortunate one though - their Christmas party being scheduled for the night of my birthday. We will have to see about that one.

We then had some time to talk with our consultant. It was also almost lunch time, so like good Australians we hung around the entrance to the room where the food was being set up until it was ready to go, complaining the whole time about how hungry we were and how it looked like there wasn't enough food. Sure enough, there wasn't enough food. Extra food was brought in, but it was still very poor form on behalf of the organisers. We'd been there for 4 hours by this stage, with no breaks and having our brains filled with information - this makes people very hungry. In the end everyone was fed, but it was clear to see not everyone was full. It was going to be long afternoon.

After lunch, we were split into groups again to rotate between a few different speakers. Unfortunately, due to a little bit of poor organisation, our first speaker was reduced from 45 minutes to 15 minutes. In spite of this, he did an extraordinary job of getting across all the points he felt we needed, and we were all furiously taking notes the whole time. He told us about good lesson starters - what they should include and how to make them successful, and gave us a few good examples. Over here, specific lesson starters are a priority, not a fun thing to do to start the lesson while the teacher marks the role. He also talked a little bit about marking and feedback, which again is something that is very explicit and expected here. As mentioned in a previous post, I'll be doing specific marking on a three-week schedule for all of my 15 classes, so any and all tips were lapped up. He then finished by directing us to a brilliant resource website - theteachertoolkit.com - full of resources, pedagogy ideas, classroom management strategies etc. If you're a teacher, go check it out!

Our second presenter gave us the tip of changing seating plans every half term (6-8 weeks here), purely to keep it fresh for the students. He suggested that on the hard copy of the plan we should be including student ability level, any necessary medical information, etc, basically anything you may need to know at a glance about particular students. I like this idea, but only as long as that copy isn't up for display in the classroom, as I feel it would create unnecessary embarrassment for students. He then went on to explain, through the use of a walk-around-the-room activity, that differentiation (oh yes, that word) can be done through organisation, task, support, outcome, questioning and student expertise. I think most of these overlap and don't see why they need to be separate categories, but I can see how it would be useful to label activities as such so that if any of the higher-ups ever ask, you can explain it very quickly. We were told about what to expect from learning walks (where another teacher, HOD, etc, will visit the classroom to see how everyone is getting along), and to find a good plenary generator for quick and easy content-understanding checks. The top tip I took away from this talk was to question students until they actually have to think about the answer. There is little good in giving easy questions with easy answers, as it teaches the students to memorise information. If they are being asked a question they actually have to think about, it expands their learning in so many ways. I'm going to have to work hard at this one, but I want to become that really annoying teacher who makes their students think laterally about science, and the world, so I'll keep at it until I'm good enough!

Our last talk was from our payroll company. This was relatively boring in a sense, but incredibly useful as it told us how to get paid, basically. I won't bore you with the details here though!

After more talks from the Engage crew about social media and the social calender, it was off to Tiger Tiger in Leicester Square for drinks. We decided to head there straight away, as we weren't sure how long we wanted to stay out. Turns out we arrived as one of the first groups, which meant no cue at the bar for our free drink. We settled ourselves into a booth and chatted for a few hours with various people we knew and met. It was very entertaining to have the lights dimmed and the club music start pumping out loud at 5.30pm. In the end we scored a few free drinks, but no where near as many as some (who got up to 7!) - it worked by a token system, and it seemed like if you were friendly enough to the lady in charge of the tokens, you got more of them. Not fair, but that was that.

In the end we decided to head out for food (dinner was not provided), and found ourselves at the local Pizza Hut. The pizza was delicious, and put us all in the mood for sleep. Back home we headed for a well deserved rest - it had been an incredibly long day.

Fun story - we came across a fox in a garden on the way home! I was about 12 feet away from us, but ran away as we got closer. They're pretty cute!

Overall, a very informative day. If you'd like more details about any part of it, or about any of the specific information we were given, please let me know!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Borough Markets and The Tower of London

We decided one morning to skip breakfast and instead head in to the Borough Markets. For those who don't know, the Borough Markets include fresh produce, baked good, meat/fish, cheeses, juices, wine and cider, as well as a long list of food stalls who cook fresh to order. So yes, this is basically another post about food and some further exploration - getting sick of them yet?

This year the Borough Markets celebrate their 1000th birthday. Think about that. These markets have been running, in this one place, for a thousand years. For four times longer than Australia has been colonised by the British. They are older, even, then the Tower of London.

We started our journey there by catching a train to Elephant and Castle, the name of which amused Mr no end. It amused us both even more when, at the entrance to the station, a statue of an elephant with a chess castle on it's back stood proudly.


After walking a little bit, we came across the entrance to the market. These markets are mostly indoors, hidden away underneath a rail line - you could walk right past them without even knowing.

Upon entering, we  find ourselves in a food and produce wonderland. So many options! They have a general policy within the markets that photographs are not taken of the stalls without the express permission of the stall owners, so even though many tourists seem to have been ignoring or were unaware of this, we stuck fast to that rule in respect. We did, however, take pictures of almost all of the food we consumed while there. In retrospect, we ate a fair amount, but remember we had skipped breakfast!

We started off by sharing a venison burger from a man who was good friends with someone from the restaurant Bucci in Brisbane. I must say it was one of the most tasty burgers I've ever had, and being married to Mr, I've had a fair few! We paired this with fresh lemonade from the neighbouring stall, which we did not take a photo of. 


We then went back to a bakery we had spotted earlier to sample a pair of doughnuts that caught my eye. (As a good friend once told me, we simply don't have enough doughnuts in our lives!) I had a vanilla bean custard filled one, and Mr had a salted honeycomb and caramel crème filled one. After trying gourmet doughnuts from various vendors back home, I was surprised to find these were so much more tasty. They may look small, but they were more than satisfying.


We then wandered around some more, and found a whole separate section of the markets that was purely hot food stalls. Mr has a love affair with gyoza, so naturally we had to try some chicken and vegetable ones. They were so good we even forgot to take a picture! From here we admired the other stalls, but were too full to eat any more. Below, however, is a picture of a giant pile of giant cookies, each about the size of a large man's hand. Next to it is a pile of equally large meringues (we've discovered London loves meringues, which is good news for me! I may or may not have bought one to save for later...).

 

 At this point we decided we were quite thirsty. Mr remembered a cider stall we'd come across earlier that sold ciders fresh out of the barrels. On the way there, I spotted a wine seller who had pre-made peach and prosecco cocktails, so I picked up one of those. Prosecco seems incredibly popular over here, yet we'd hardly ever seen any back home! I did really enjoy this drink, and Mr mostly enjoyed his cider once he got used to the unusual out-of-the-barrel taste.


At this stage we figured we'd taken our fill of the markets and decided to head to the nearby Tower of London. It is a place that's on our bucket list, but I don't consider it marked off just yet, as we only had a short walk around before having to return home.

The walk from the markets to the Tower took us across London Bridge - much less impressive than thought. It did, however, give us good views of the river.


From here it was a short walk to the Tower, where we initially admired the outside and read the information stands. It was interesting to see images of what the tower used to look like, compared to now. There is no longer a moat, and many of the outer buildings don't exist any more.

We had discovered online that morning that you can buy year-long membership, which gives you free entry to the Tower of London, Kew Palace, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace and Banqueting House. As we knew we'd like to return to the Tower, and want to visit Kensington Palace, this was a good option for us. Buying membership at the ticket office was easy enough, and then into the Tower we went.

It was so incredible to walk through this historic structure and imagine life there throughout the ages. The various building have little plaques on them saying when they were built, so you can see how it has grown and expanded.

Mr commented that in a lot of fantasy books and stories they talk about bringing entire towns into the keep, and we could finally see how that was possible. There are so many buildings and large spaces. You could easily live out your whole life there without ever leaving, and I'm sure many people did.

I will write a proper post about it when we visit longer and go on the tours etc For now, here are a few photos of the places we explored while there this time.

 



After our quick explorations, we went for a walk across Tower Bridge. Never have I seen a more glamorous, beautiful bridge. It looks like it could be a fairy-tale castle in it's own right, though I'm not too fond of the blue metalwork.



From here it was back on the train home. I can't wait to go back and delve deeper into these incredible places!