When I left the UK in September 2001 I never thought I would land so nicely on my feet. My partner had been offered a job in Thailand and we both jumped at the chance to live abroad. The only thing worrying me was that I thought I would not be able to find a job working with children there. Well, I was very wrong - I soon found out that Phuket has many expatriates living on the island and local people wanting their children to be educated under the British curriculum.
After a month or two I sent off my CV to Dulwich International College to work in the nursery, Little Ducks. My timing was perfect, as they were looking for a new nursery manager to replace the person who was currently running the nursery, who was moving on.
At first the nursery was very quiet, with ten or 12 children per day. But during my first year there, numbers more than doubled to 25 children per day. I have three Thai assistants, and recently another English nursery nurse has started working with me. The children are aged from 18 months to three years, and they move up into kindergarten in the September after they turn three years old.
During each day we have free play time, circle time, snack and lunch time, activity time and sleep time.
All the things that are normal routines in the UK are done just the same out here.
The nursery is a lovely place to work. It is bright and bouncy and the children are so full of joy and excitement all of the time.
I found some of the cultural differences hard to understand at first, but after some time I have become used to them. One strange difference was that parents wanted their Thai nannies to come in for sleep time, as they always sleep with the children at home. With gentle persuasion, the parents agreed that this, and many other Thai customs, are not needed in school.
Another difference that I noticed straight away was the way that the children play. Role play is the same but with obvious differences. Rather than cooking sausages in the home corner, they would be cooking noodles and rice, and when pretending to go on an aeroplane, they were off to Bangkok or Singapore rather than Euro Disney.
There are also hazards to watch out for. Animals such as snakes and spiders do appear now and then, and I am still shocked every time I see one.
The nursery offers full-day or half-day sessions. The half days are until 12:15 and the children are picked up after lunch, while a full day is until 3pm. For a full day the children stay for a nap and a short afternoon session. We follow the early learning goals for the over threes, and offer the same activities as you would in the UK - cooking, painting, clay work, movement and so on. We also use the same resources that are used in England, except that it takes a lot longer for them to arrive.
The children come from very different backgrounds. Some are Thai, some have one Thai parent and one western parent, and some are from abroad, including Russia, Hong Kong and France. So many languages and cultures come together in this one nursery. However, children are the same the world over, and as long as their needs are met, then the rest is easy. The children enjoy so many wonderful experiences at Little Ducks Nursery, and the languages and different cultures only broaden their horizons.
Living in Thailand is also a great experience. The local people are friendly, the food is wonderful, the sun shines most of the time and I am enjoying the culture and the country for as long as I will be out here. The experience and the fantastic times that I have had at Little Ducks Nursery and in Phuket will stay with me for a long time to come.
From September 2003 I started working as a kindergarten teacher in one of the kindergarten 1 classes, so I have many new challenges and experiences to look forward to.
