I sit here, in my comfortable house in Scotland, where I am surrounded by what I would call ‘the norm’. However, it is all about to change as on Friday I go on an 8 week adventure to Slovenia!

The reason I am going to Slovenia for 8 weeks is through our course module at university called ‘Learning From Life’. This module allows us the opportunity to experience a different placement experience to a Scottish Primary School. When I first heard about the module, I was not very excited about it. I didn’t like the idea that, with doing a teaching course, I would be spending a full year of it not teaching at all. However, once I read up on the module, and heard from older peers’ experiences of the module, I quickly changed my views.

So why Slovenia? I had originally chosen to stay in Scotland, and either go to an ASN school or an outdoor education facility. I would say that I am someone who likes home comforts and prefers being around people that I am used to. The module leader, Susan, however, kept telling us to ‘go outside our comfort zones’. Upon reflecting on this, I realised I needed to get out of my own comfort zone and do something I would not normally do. Talking to some friends, I decided I quite liked the idea of going abroad, and so Ljubljana in Slovenia was where I chose to go.

I am very excited for this placement for many reasons. I am looking forward to staying in a different country and experiencing different cultures, food, people and life in general. It will be my first time away from home for a prolonged period of time as, although I live in Dundee for university, I often drive home every week to go home, so I am excited to grow in confidence and gain more independence.

I also look forward to the placement in Danila Kumar International School. I am excited to learn about a different school curriculum and experiencing an IB school. The school has pupils from over 50 nationalities, so I am very eager to see how they manage to accommodate and facilitate such a vast difference in cultures and nationalities.

I am working with grade 1 children in the school who are around 6 years of age. I am very excited to get to know the pupils and see how they learn. I find it very interesting that, although the school is an English spoken and taught environment, many of the children are from different countries and English will not be the first language.

I feel through this placement, I will get to develop a wide range of skills which include confidence, organisation, empathy and problem solving. I feel that, although the curriculum is different from CfE, I can still develop my SPR and can bring new or developed skills  back to Scotland and use at home in a Scottish school.

Overall, I am really excited for my next 8 weeks in Ljubljana exploring the country, meeting new people and all whilst doing my favourite thing- teaching!!!