As a nursery teacher, it is not actually easy to get out with your class.
By out, I don’t mean in the playground, but being able to actually leave the premises with the children.
The health and safety checks are to blame. The adult to child ratios are so high that we would leave the rest of the school understaffed!
So, instead, once a year, we arrange a trip to the seaside, to coincide with our Seaside topic. And we insist invite the parents, and extended family or siblings, to come. There is a little price for them to pay, but for the sake of a tenner, what a great way to spend quality time with your child, and their families!
Margate is our beach of choice. (And to prove it, click here for a post from a couple of years ago!)
Now, it’s not the most prosperous of places. There has been a revival of the local amusement park, Dreamland, which took a short while to dive bomb back into debt… and last year, I experienced my first real Brexit-fuelled racism there too! (If you want to read about that click here!)
But, seriously, Margate has the most stunning beaches!
Obligatory Beach Selfie!
The weather has been rather iffy the last week of so, but the God of Nursery visits was looking down on us as he always does, and we were blessed with a glorious day!
Check out that blue sky! Yes, that is in the UK!
When we alighted the train, the sign reminded us where we were.
And as we meandered in an 80-strong convoy, adult and child alike, laden down with bags stuffed with beachy things, there was some interesting graffiti on some of the closed down shop shutters.
You could see the ill-fated Dreamland tower too…
What a Dream!
There was a mini group of stones embedded in the pavement as we walked to the beach, with inscriptions carved on them.
Then came the beach.. and the view… now bear in mind these photos have not been edited…
Is that really in the UK?!
What a beautiful sight! And the weather was wonderful. A slight breeze to stop the children (and us) from overheating, but no wind to kick up a sand storm!
There were beach rules to adhere to, which were also announced on a tannoy every couple of hours.
The water was pretty warm too so we managed a little bit of paddling, my charge and I. (Some children are unable to come with parents because of work commitments, so they get one of the staff as a surrogate mum/grandmum for the day!)
Happy to eat seaweed.. not so happy to wade through it, but hey ho!
And you can’t come to the seaside without eating chips and ice cream! (Not together obviously!) I would say fish too but it was a Tuesday and we have a ‘thing’ in my in-law’s family about no meat/alcohol on a Tuesday.. don’t ask!)
And I can’t forget the seagulls who came to visit regularly, knowing food was in the offing… not by human choice obviously! They managed to eat a whole portion of someone’s chips!
It was a marvellous day out. The children loved the travel on the train with their friends, and on the journey back they were exhausted but happy. What more could I ask?
But I Smile Anyway... 