The Adaptable Educator with Laura

Teaching in a new country comes with its fair share of challenges—but also incredible rewards. In this episode, UK-born educator Laura shares her inspiring journey from the classrooms of East London to an all-girls college in New Zealand, revealing how adaptability and an open mind shaped her career. 

Laura's path to teaching wasn’t a straight line. A sharp-eyed English teacher first spotted her knack for engaging others, setting her on a journey from training as a primary teacher to working in London’s vastly different schools—from low-decile Tower Hamlets to the well-resourced Holland Park. But it was the bold leap to New Zealand that truly tested her resilience and adaptability. 

The differences between the UK and NZ education systems are striking. Laura unpacks the intense, high-pressure Ofsted culture that governs British schools and contrasts it with New Zealand’s more holistic, student-centred approach. While the UK system dives deeper into academic content, she appreciates how Kiwi education focuses on growing well-rounded learners rather than just academic success. 

One of Laura’s biggest surprises? Teaching outside her comfort zone. Hired primarily as a PE teacher, she soon found herself leading drama and dance classes—subjects she’d never formally trained in. Instead of shying away, she embraced the challenge, discovering that stepping into the unknown led to some of her most rewarding moments in the classroom. 

For teachers considering a move abroad or stepping into unfamiliar teaching roles, Laura shares hard-earned wisdom about setting boundaries, finding support, and remembering the heart of teaching: "You literally see kids progressing in front of you every single day, and knowing you’ve played a part in that is just so incredibly rewarding." 

Tune in for an honest, uplifting conversation that proves the best professional growth often happens outside your comfort zone. 

Hosted by Debbie Ross
Find us on Instagram & Facebook: @nurturingeducators

For more information, guest recommendations, and sponsorship opportunities 
or to chat, please email: nurturingeducators@gmail.com or visit  www.nurturingeducators.co.nz

Thanks for listening! 

Transcript

Meet Laura: UK to NZ Teaching Journey

Debbie 0:15

Welcome to Nuturing Educators , the podcast that shares inspiring and insightful conversations with passionate teachers dedicated to education and wellbeing . I'm your host , Debbie Ross , and each episode we will explore the personal stories , challenges, and successes of educators from all walks of life . You'll hear practical tips and strategies to help them thrive both in the classroom and beyond .

Debbie 0:52

Hi everyone . Today we're chatting with Laura , a work friend , our organiser extraordinaire and just an all-round delightful person . She's fun , kind and always brings great energy to any situation . A great person to work with . Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the demands of teaching in a new country or switching to a different level of education ? It's a big challenge and one that many educators face at some point in their careers . I have found that teachers who navigate these changes successfully often have strong strategies for adaptation , and Laura is no exception . So let's dive in and hear her insights to making these transitions smoother and more manageable . Welcome , Laura .

Laura 1:35

Yay , hi .

Debbie 1:37

So just before we kick off , would you like to just tell us a little bit about yourself ?

Laura 1:41

Yeah , so I'm from England , from North Yorkshire . I moved to New Zealand two and a half years ago and originally I trained as a primary school teacher teaching in East London , in Tower Hamlets , for a year and a bit and then I transitioned to secondary school teaching as a secondary teacher in Holland Park , specialising in PE , and then moved over here and have been here ever since and absolutely love it .

Debbie 2:10

That's so cool , and what made you decide to become a teacher ?

Laura 2:15

Well , originally it was actually my secondary school English teacher that suggested that I looked into teaching . I just , I'd always rock up to English class and I'd have to tell a story about what on earth happened in the day or the weekend . So he said , Laura , have you ever considered becoming a teacher ? And I was like no , I haven't actually Told my mum . She gets the Excel spreadsheet out , she's looking at unis . And then I just I loved working with kids as well . I always had really really good relationships and I had a really good time in school myself as well . I loved my secondary school and then I went to university in Twickenham . Originally it was a teacher's college , so specialised in teaching .

Debbie 2:57

How many years was that ?

Laura 2:59

So it's different in the UK it's three years and you get something called a QTS afterwards , which is qualified teacher status , and that's the way that you become a primary teacher . But then , if you want to become a secondary teacher , you would do your undergrad in like whatever subject you want , and then you do a PGCE year . So you go back to uni and just do like one intense year of placement and like dissertation and whatnot , and then .

Laura 3:25

So there is four years , whereas primary teaching is three , and you come straight qualified out of out of uni, yeah .

Debbie 3:32

So obviously teaching in the UK is really different teaching in New Zealand .

Debbie 3:38

Do you mind telling us a little bit about what some of the challenges were that you faced in the schools in the UK ?

Laura 3:45

Yeah , I think the moment you say challenges in the UK , every single teacher in the UK immediately thinks of Ofsted . Now , ofsted are kind of like this regulation board that come in on the spur of the moment and they will maybe call at 8: 30 in the morning on a Monday and tell the head teacher they're coming in to school in about an hour's time and the school just goes into panic mode because it's you know , it's still a normal teaching day , but now you've got these , this regulation board that come in and they observe teachers .

Teaching Challenges in the UK

Laura 4:15

They deep dive into subjects as well .

Debbie 4:17

So they can do it anytime ?

Laura 4:18

Anytime that they want . It happens every four years , though , so for a lot of teachers applying for jobs , they'll actually go onto the school's website and see when was the school last graded by Ofsted , and if it was maybe three and a half years ago , they know that Ofsted is due to come to that school , so they'll be like no , I won't apply for that school simply because of Ofsted .

Laura 4:39

There's been some real sad scenarios that have happened in relation to Ofsted in the UK , so there's a lot of schools that are now boycotting it as much as they can . I mean it's still present , but it's just a real archaic company Ofsted that come in and they basically grade a school on one word as well . So they'll do a whole big report but they'll say you're either outstanding , good requires improvement and inadequate , or maybe it's vice versa . With those last two ones and it's a real stressful thing for a lot of departments because they also shred departments to pieces yeah it's real brutal .

Laura 5:18

Another challenge , I'd say , is the behavior . But I think behavior across the board , especially after covid and , you know , everywhere in the world , has really , you know , declined .

Debbie 5:27

Were you in the UK during COVID , so what was it like teaching then ?

Laura 5:32

Well , actually I left the primary school just before COVID happened because I was going through a transition stage where I was going to transition to secondary and I knew that I would have a bit of a disadvantage against my other colleagues in secondary . So I was going to transition to secondary and I knew that I would have a bit of a disadvantage against my other colleagues in secondary , so I was going to just going to do coaching courses . So I was actually not employed during I was doing relief teaching but I wasn't employed . But I know many of my school teachers back in that primary school they had to do online teaching to primary school kids and then also for the key worker children . They , the teachers , were in school and they do like a rotation system of which teachers taught in school and then which teachers you know did online learning . But the second wave of COVID I was at the secondary school and we were the same .

Laura 6:19

We had the PE staff were told to come in because we can't really do PE online . We had to film like little Joe Wicks kind of workout videos for the kids , but that was in our own time and then , when the kids were learning , we would actually go into school and do PE with the key worker children , which was actually quite cute but a tricky time for the kids . And their behaviour the moment they came back . It's like behaviour just went out the window . It was insane . So behaviour is pretty tricky right now in the UK I think across the board .

Debbie 6:53

But obviously still, the UK is like one of those places to go to do your OE , and teaching over there is a big drawcard as well . So what are some of the good things about teaching in the UK ? What did you enjoy ?

Laura 7:05

I think the quality of education is really high and it's really structured for teachers as well . So in our secondary schools we have two exam boards and each subject chooses between those two exam boards , and so everything is kind of there in place for the kids as well to revise . They just go to that exam board and they've got all the revision booklets , all the workbooks that go with it , and there's an amazing website , um bbc , bite size for students doing their gcses and it's so good .

Laura 7:35

It's really really good and it's like a little revision and then they get a quiz at the end .

Debbie 7:41

So that structure is quite helpful ?

Laura 7:42

Structured really , really structured and goes real deeper into the subject and the content , maybe a wee bit more so than New Zealand education . I think maybe the New Zealand education is maybe two academic years behind the kids in the UK are at .

Laura 8:01

But then the conflict is that I also think that the New Zealand education builds a holistic child and a well-rounded child , whereas in the UK it's very much based on the education . But it's good quality education and they're getting a good quality and you know we've got the top universities in the UK for a reason as a PE teacher I love . Well , I'm lucky enough to live out in the countryside as well , and so I love the land that they've got , the fields , the playing fields . You can have hectares and hectares of playing field . It's just really lovely to kind of have those facilities .

Laura 8:33

Different types of facilities . You know , here we've got swimming pools , outdoor swimming pools , and in the UK you've got your fields and I think I personally prefer the sports that we play as well .

Debbie 8:45

Back ,home ?

Laura 8:45

Yeah , I think I personally prefer the sports that we play as well , and that's just . I think that's also just because it's what I'm used to . So the touch rugby out here was a brand new sport for me . I'd never come across it . And ultimate frisbee and stuff like that I'd never done before . So I'd have to kind of learn that as I teach it . Whereas back in the UK rounders is a sport that we always play and it's like an iconic summer game , but we don't play it out here .

Debbie 9:07

It's so fun . Yeah , oh , that's awesome . So , going back to what you were talking about before , about the student behaviour , what were some of the techniques that you learnt over the years to be able to manage that behaviour ?

Laura 9:21

I think it's so important that the moment you start at any school you kind of set the relationship and the environment really early on . In England the headteachers kind of say don't smile until Christmas because we obviously start in September . But I never took that approach because I want the kids to come into class and to feel like that's their safe area .

Laura 9:42

I taught in quite a low-decile area in the UK in the primary school and for some of those kids that smile might be the only smile that they see all week . So I want them to come in and feel relaxed and feel happy and feel like they're in their safe zone . But I think there's a fine line of you know you've got to be firm but fair and I think if you kind of allow the students to come into school and they look forward to coming into school as well , but also they know that if you kind of not raise your voice , but if you're cross with them , they know that oops , I've mucked up here , I need to rein it back in again because Miss Mac never tells us off, then I think that's kind of the environment that you want to set with the kids straight away .

Debbie 10:23

Yeah that's really good .

Laura 10:25

Yeah , and I think something that I've learned here teaching in New Zealand , is to not really raise your voice .

Laura 10:32

I think a toxic trait that a few teachers had in the UK was raising their voice and shouting , just like that adolescence program that was on Netflix yeah , it like it really hit home and that genuinely was , or is what a lot of secondary schools are like in the UK , and sometimes people just forget all their behaviour management strategies and they just resort to yelling and yelling above the students . And these kids might come from a household where yelling is part of the normal daily life , so school needs to be that safe space for them .

Laura 11:05

And approaching things in a completely different manner and counting to 10 in your head as well the amount of times we need to just count to 10 in our head before we react and yeah .

Debbie 11:14

I just think such good strategies yeah and I mean all of us at some stage have done it , but so good to remember that we are the safe space we have to provide places for the students to be able to come and learn and not feel like they're threatened by anyone or anything .

Laura 11:31

If they do , then they're not going to open up and they're not going to learn and they're not going to open their minds to what they can achieve .

Laura 11:36

So they need to feel at home and at comfort here with you . But then at the same time you also need to make sure that you've set boundaries and

Behavior Management Strategies

Laura 11:46

you still have authority at the class so the kids don't walk all over you . It's a tricky one , but it's trial and error , total trial and error .

Debbie 11:52

Find what works for you ?

Laura 11:53

Yeah , totally .

Debbie 11:55

Do you reckon the students in the UK are similar to the students here in New Zealand , or quite different ?

Laura 12:01

It's so tricky because I think I've worked at some real different schools . So the primary school I was working at in East London it was in Tower Hamlets , which is one of the lowest decile areas , and the behavior management strategies and the overall child happiness at that school was so different than my second school where I was at Holland Park and I mean that's an incredibly affluent area in London . We're in Kensington , so you know we're two streets away from David Beckham's house and Adele lived opposite our school , but at the same time we were on the border of Livebrook Grove which is where that horrific Grenfell Tower fire happened . So you've got the two huge ends of the spectrum there and both ends have their own problems and own difficulties and challenges . And then you come here , which is an all-girls college in , again a very affluent area . They've got own challenges and own positives and negatives that they bring .

Laura 13:01

Overall I think the girls here are very polite . I think that they approach things in a in a really respectful way . But then again the wee children in the primary school . They came from awful , horrific backgrounds that you wouldn't even want to comprehend a child to be in . Yet they would come to school and they would learn and they would bring their recorder and they would bring their RE books and they would work so hard . So there's just a huge variety of different backgrounds .

Laura 13:32

It's always so wonderful to see the kids still coming in , regardless of what's going on at home you might not have a clue what's going on , whether it's happy or sad at home , but some of these kids that would just come in and they'd persevere and they'd come with a smile on their face , and these wee ones that would just hold so much emotion in , and then sometimes they would write it in an expressive way in their English or their RE books or whatever it is , but they've still got like a really beautiful heart as well .

Debbie 14:02

It's amazing that you've had the opportunity to experience different schools and help the students in different ways . Can you give us any advice for teachers heading over to the UK ?

Laura 14:15

I just , I think , be realistic with teaching . It is a challenging job . It's a job that isn't just a job as well , it's a career . You bring it home with you mentally and physically , sometimes after school and at weekends . It can sometimes , you know , become your life and your personality . You know when you're out with friends and you always end up talking about work and you talk about school and whatnot . But at the same time it's probably one of the most rewarding jobs . You can actually physically see children progress in front of your eyes every single day , and knowing that you've had something to do with that is just so insanely rewarding . And then the gratitude that the kids give back to you as well , whether it's verbally or physical gratitude , is just so wonderful and rewarding . So I personally wouldn't change it for the world . So you know the late nights that you're working and the early mornings that you're getting up with marking and parents' evening and parent-teacher nights and teacher meetings before school , during school and after school . It's totally worth it , but you need to just create your boundaries really early on .

Laura 15:18

It's something that I've taken on as a bit of a role this year is don't say yes to everything . I think we , as teachers feel like we need to say yes to so much and that can then start having negative effects to your own mental well-being . So , prioritising what you want to say yes to still being involved and still in , like being part of the community of the school , but also creating your own personal boundaries, you don't actually have to say yes to absolutely everything . Feels innate it's in it with us as teachers . You're like , oh yeah , sure we'll do everything .

Debbie 15:50

That's a good bit of advice .

Debbie 15:51

I think it's really important to be able to look after yourself and not be

Primary vs. Secondary Teaching

Debbie 15:55

pulled in a million directions . So you said before you started off in primary and then you switched over to high school teaching , what made you do that switch ?

Laura 16:05

PE . Okay , I just I loved being in sport always . At secondary school I was in every single sports team that could possibly be in . Whether it was a high grade or a low grade , it didn't matter , I just wanted to .

Debbie 16:17

What were your sports ?

Laura 16:19

Netball and hockey were my main ones , but I'd played in the girls football team , the girls cricket, rounders . Even in primary school I played in the boys teams .

Laura 16:28

They managed to find a way for me to play in any sport that I possibly could and I just I think I was marking 90 books one day after school in primary because they would get you to mark English maths and then either an RE or a history or geography book . So I was marking 90 books and I think it was midwinter and I just I didn't have that love for it anymore . Not that you can really have too much love for marking 90 books , but the love that I did have was kind of dwindling from it and I just wanted to be outside . I wanted to be active , I wanted to be teaching the kids how to hold a netball properly , and so , any time that I could , I actually created a netball club at the primary school and I went around all the classes promoting it and I actually I said you know I'm going to be hosting trials and I made it as official as I possibly could .

Laura 17:20

And some kids even came up and they were like what's netball ? And some of them thought it was basketball , some of them thought it was volleyball, hosted trials . I think I had the biggest turnout for any club at that primary school and we were strapped for money as well , so it was too expensive to paint netball lines on the floor . So once I'd selected my team , I could only have maybe about 10 kids in the netball club . We used sweet wrappers as lines for the D and for the like the the baselines and the back line , and then we managed to afford some netball hoops and netball balls , which was amazing, and that was the highlight of my week when I had that netball club .

Debbie 18:00

And theirs too , I'm sure they would have loved that !

Laura 18:03

They absolutely loved it and then I saw an event on to what go and watch some professional netball at the copper box arena in in East . On a Saturday morning me and the PE teacher took our ten kids over to watch some netball and they all got autographs . And just seeing these kids that had never been to an arena before , all of a sudden seeing netball a sport they didn't even know existed , I was like right , I need to change to PE . That's what I'm going to do .

Debbie 18:32

So what would be the bigger differences between primary and high school ?

Laura 18:37

I think , independence . Although the year sevens here are still very young , they are still way more receptive to instructions than primary school years and then when you progress into teaching to the older years it becomes a lot more independent . Primary there was a lot of organising that went on before and after the lessons and obviously had to do a lot of input during the lessons to support . You know , because you might not be lucky enough to have a assistant teacher in the classroom and you've got children with multiple needs , so being able to differentiate and then also guide and you know you might have to support a table that require support . But then how can you support the students that need progression as well at the other end of it , the huge vast of abilities and then making sure that you can support all of those children and their needs .

Laura 19:28

And what were the sizes in the primary schools ?

Laura 19:31

30 children and I taught year five , so they were at the upper end of the school as well . But you know , still you had kids in year five that couldn't write their own name , and then you had other kids that were basically ready to do their SATs early . And SATs is like an exam that you do in year six and year two secretly . The kids don't know it in year two , but in year six you , you do this exam . So so I think , yeah , and here in secondary , for my subjects , especially as PE and drama , there isn't as much energy or planning that requires before or after , but my time goes into teaching them during the lesson . So it's a bit different . It varies a wee bit . I have to be really energetic and proactive and engaging the students during the lesson , but I don't require as much . You know , I have no marking to do . I'm very lucky with that or very little marking and not as much planning that's required beforehand , maybe just getting equipment out and whatnot . But yeah , I'd say that was the main differences between the two .

Debbie 20:29

Were there any challenges that you faced between the two ?

Laura 20:34

For me , starting off , right at the beginning of secondary teaching , I was actually really scared to deal with the older students . The highest age I had was year six , and so what are they ? 11 olds , 10 , 11 year olds .

Debbie 20:47

So quite young .

Laura 20:47

So really young . And then when all of a sudden I'm put into a secondary school and I was quite a young teacher starting as well , so I wasn't too far off the age of this , the sixth form students , year 12 and 13 that was quite daunting and having to change the way that I spoke as well .

Laura 21:05

So in primary school you've got to change your voice . You've got to change not what you care about , but kind of what you care about a little bit . All of a sudden you've got children telling you about their grandma's goldfish and you're like , yes , that's correct , but in secondary school it's way more grown up , but they're still kids and you still forget that they're kids . So when I first started in West London I was nervous to how I was going to approach and deal with the older kids , and senior leadership told me that that's why they offered me an interview , because I was the only one as a primary teacher applying for secondary . And when I got the job he said we actually invited you in because we were really interested to see how a primary school teacher would approach secondary teaching and how they would communicate and they said said well , we liked you enough , so here's the job .

Laura 21:56

But it was . It was definitely that was probably the biggest challenge was how to approach these older students . Changing my voice , changing . You know , I didn't feel like I had to do as much of an acting show as primary , but I prefer secondary now for me definitely .

Debbie 22:13

How did you get them on your side ? Did you get them to like so ? For example , when I was PE teaching , I used to . If it was a sport that I didn't really know , I'd always get the students that actually knew that sport well to take over and be the lead .

Laura 22:28

Yeah , well . I've had to do that here because , like I said , the touch rugby was brand new to me , so watched all the videos , did all the practicing confining in my department and whatnot , and I think honesty sometimes is the best policy with the older ones . Don't try and act as if you know everything , because high chance they know more we can't be geniuses at everything .

Laura 22:51

So I was clear to the kids . I said

Teaching Outside Your Comfort Zone

Laura 22:55

there is a high likelihood some of you play this outside of school and you will probably know more than me , so it's really awesome if you can teach me as well and we can look into your leadership communication and change it for them because they probably already know the foundational skills .

Laura 23:10

So actually , how is this student good at the communicating and the leading and the organising of groups and the activities ? Can they kind of take a leadership role in a coaching role in the sport, and thereby I'm also secretly taking notes and be like oh cool , that's what that is .

Debbie 23:25

And that's a good way to get them on your side too , isn't it ?

Laura 23:28

That's it . Give them some element . I always think this as well with , especially with children with difficulties in behaviour . Give them a sense of leadership and you can kind of see the brain switch and go OK , well , I'm in a position of maybe authority here , so I need to act in a certain way , and then the people will look up into me and you know all of this sort of stuff . So it's been good to rely actually sometimes on the students to teach me certain stuff and you say , hey look , we're all learning . My favourite saying is every day is a school day .

Laura 24:01

Even outside of school you learn something new every single day whether you're a kid or you're an adult .

Debbie 24:07

Good advice , Laura . Are there subjects that you teach that you are not trained in ?

Laura 24:12

Drama .

Debbie 24:12

Yeah , tell me more

Laura 24:13

Well Subjects that you teach that you are not trained in Drama ?

Debbie 24:15

Yeah , tell me more .

Laura 24:15

Well , when I first went for the interview here , the job role said PE slash , dance and drama teacher . So I was really hoping the slash was a maybe if the timetabling works that way .

Laura 24:26

So even when I applied- I said here's my application for the PE role and I was really trying to emphasise it . And then when I came in for the interview , the head of performing arts was there and at first I thought , oh nightmare , this really is a subject I don't know . But it turns out it's been my absolute saving grace . I absolutely love drama and dance .

Laura 24:51

Not that I can dance very well , but the collegiality in that department is just next level and the support that you get and they're fully aware that you know there's maybe a drama teacher in that department that doesn't teach dance and there's maybe a dance teacher in that department that doesn't teach drama . But they all support each other and they all work together and that support and all the lesson plans are basically set up for anybody to teach .

Debbie 25:17

Amazing

Laura 25:18

And just to pick up and go and you know that if you have any questions , they're going to get answered and supported in that way .

Laura 25:24

And moving forward , I would . This is probably quite a big shout , but I would actually look for roles that if they had PE slash dance and drama , I'd be buzzed for it . I'd feel like I'd be properly qualified enough to do it now , maybe not in the older years , I'm still definitely more of a junior school dance and drama teacher , but I've absolutely loved every element of it . It's been really lovely

Debbie 25:47

Having the variety , too , in your teaching .

Laura 25:50

Spices things up a bit , things don't just become mundane and you're doing the same thing over and over again . At first I struggled a wee bit to switch my brain , so I might have been doing Shakespeare with my year 10s , period one , and then all of a sudden I'm doing tennis with my year 9s , period two .

Laura 26:09

So it's the switching of the communication levels , the equipment , the mindset , the location where I am . So I struggled with that a wee bit right at the beginning , but now I just feel like it's second nature . Yeah , I love it . I definitely consider it now as one of my subjects that I teach , even though I've got no qualifications in it .

Debbie 26:29

Have there been like resources or websites that you've gone to over the years to help you with developing your content ?

Laura 26:36

Yeah , I mean with drama , the lessons and everything is so ready and we also have a lot of department meetings where our head of faculty will get our opinions on things and ask do we want to change things ? What do we want to do here ? So it's very group orientated . We all have a bit of a say in things . That's nice . So I think for all of dance and drama element , everything is already there .

Laura 27:03

With PE , again , I feel like that's my subject , specialism so I already know a lot about PE and because I did teach a little bit of GCSE PE in the UK lot about PE and because I did teach a little bit of GCSE PE in the UK , the year 11s that I'm teaching now are kind of trickling into some of the GCSE content . But I did revert back to GCSE bite size the other day for my year 11s for some of their smart goals and whatnot . So I've been using quite a few UK based , but that's just because it's familiar to me . And again , just communicating with , with my department has been an absolute lifesaver and there's there's some great it's tedious .

Debbie 27:39

There's this , yeah , yeah , I've used that one quite a bit , that's quite helpful too and all subjects .

Laura 27:44

It's really really good .

Laura 27:47

Yes , I think the UK . I haven't explored too many of the New Zealand supports yet , but I think the , just because of what I'm used to , I still do to use the uk ones and I just tweak it and adapt it Still , ai is good as well

Debbie 28:01

Yeah , oh , totally no , you have to use it these days .

Laura 28:07

Yeah and actually good for teachers as well that might not understand certain things . Yeah , but rather than trolling through blogs and websites and whatnot , you can literally just ask the question and it will get to the point and it will be so specific to what you and tailored to what you want as your questions . So , yeah , you know it would then send you links and videos and whatnot that you can look at .

Debbie 28:29

Yeah it is such a helpful tool .

Laura 28:32

Yeah as long as you use it , I think , appropriately , it can be huge for teaching yeah

Debbie 28:38

Along with the other resources that are already established .

Laura 28:41

Established absolutely .

Debbie 28:42

Yeah , that's the way of the future .

Laura 28:44

It's exciting , exciting and scary sometimes I always say thank you to AI at the end .

Debbie 28:49

Oh same and please , you never know when it's going to turn on

Laura 28:52

please can you assist me . Thank you so much . Have a lovely day .

Debbie 28:56

Yeah . oh , that's awesome .

Debbie 28:57

Well , I think we probably can nearly wrap up . I was just thinking maybe one or two little bits of advice that you could give to teachers that end up in a school where they're possibly having to teach subjects that aren't their main core one . What would you give for that ?

Laura 29:16

Just to remember that teaching again is just the most rewarding job . It's going to have its challenges and try when you start at school to find that supportive network person for you supportive people and positive people . Surround yourself with people like that in departments and other departments . Get communicating and try and establish yourself well in the school and just always ask for support . Don't be shy to ask for support . I know sometimes you might think that you're being a bit of a hindrance but actually as long as you're showing that you're eager to know and to learn and

Advice for New Teachers

Laura 29:49

to adapt , then you know nobody can get angry or cross at you in any way . So you find those positive people and you find those supportive people , then you'll look forward to coming to work every day .

Debbie 30:00

So valuable , and it is . Teaching is yeah , you're in the classroom by yourself , but at the end of the day , you are a team , aren't you ? So if you've got a good support team , then you're going to do well , and if you don't , then you need to find those people that you can work with to help you .

Laura 30:17

What's the saying it takes a village . . .

Debbie 30:20

yes I love that .

Laura 30:21

A village to raise a child well that can be similar to yourself as well .

Laura 30:27

Yeah it takes a connection and a village of people to raise you as a person . So find your village

Debbie 30:32

Yes , love it on that note there's nothing else to say .

Debbie 30:36

I think it's a great way to end , so thank you so much for coming today and I really appreciate all this valuable insight . I think a lot of other teachers will really find some good things to take away , so appreciate it , thank you , take care , see ya .

Debbie 30:56

Thank you so much for listening . If you enjoyed today's episode , don't forget to hit the subscribe button , leave a review and share it with your fellow educators . Let's keep these important conversations going . For more information , follow us at Nutrient Educators on Facebook and Instagram . Until next time , take care .