July 8th 2014. Its been a hard decision to leave such a wonderful school - I changed my mind after handing in my notice –but good sense prevailed and I realised it must be time to move on when Mary’s 6th form uniform list said no jeggings – was it a dance?
My own school trips – from deepest industrial Birmingham - fired my love of geography –looking down from Great Gable to Wasdale Head, the view of Snowdonia towards Conway, – its been landscapes that does it for me, and I’ve wanted to share that. There have been too many fabulous Fieldwork trips from the fly infested bedrooms in Swanage to the Peak District when the driver lost his way and got stuck on the hairpin bend, but all of them plus D of E trips which I took on from Adele, have I hope fired students sense of curiosity, broadened their ideas beyond the digital world of tablet and mobile and given them independence of thought. And there’s still another to go - last one is tomorrow to Malvern.
Of late, we seem to have had a range of ‘incidents’ involving horses, mad men in car parks, hidden rabbit holes - but these have all involved adults, not the students who have been bright stars with their constant humour and good sense, honesty and enthusiasm. Their future is brighter than my own grammar school girlfriends of the 60s/ 70s Despite media horrors, life is better for them than it was for us, with our 6 hours of dictation a day.
I’d like to thank some of the people who have made my time here rewarding, Shelagh for her support, Sheila for her positivity, and admin staff such as Debbie and Tracy have been marvellous in their determination to get the impossible done. I’ve been fortunate to be in a Geography Department where there has been such a push to do things better – and this continues with Leah’s great energy and drive - I wish her every success. Who can forget Adele- we had a lot of fun and jokes in our liitle room (as Yvette next door could testify), where we nearly disappeared under the piles of ancient maps and slides, overhead projectors and film, atlases with Basutoland & Bechuanaland in. Now its my turn to turn pale when I see paper maps and books going the same way. Things can’t stand still, but I hope the quest for info-tainment doesn’t block the need for our students to analyse, & take time to think, which only deep reading, immersive reading, the kind of reading that makes you understand the point of reading, that makes you really, really think through your opinions, and literally change your mind, can give.
So apart from the constant logging on and the tyranny of email – I’ll miss all this.
I heard on Sunday that if you want to be happy and lucky, open yourself to chance events. So that’s what I’m doing. I love my home, children, and the Midlands and I’m leaving my comfort zone of friends, to go to Nanjing and learn 5 words of Chinese a day, manage without an oven, (go out) to fill the unforgiving minute with mentoring and writing. After that I am hoping for Fun, Fitness and Blogging, in that order. But being a victim of the Protestant work ethic it may not happen.
Once again, thank you all very much.
My own school trips – from deepest industrial Birmingham - fired my love of geography –looking down from Great Gable to Wasdale Head, the view of Snowdonia towards Conway, – its been landscapes that does it for me, and I’ve wanted to share that. There have been too many fabulous Fieldwork trips from the fly infested bedrooms in Swanage to the Peak District when the driver lost his way and got stuck on the hairpin bend, but all of them plus D of E trips which I took on from Adele, have I hope fired students sense of curiosity, broadened their ideas beyond the digital world of tablet and mobile and given them independence of thought. And there’s still another to go - last one is tomorrow to Malvern.
Of late, we seem to have had a range of ‘incidents’ involving horses, mad men in car parks, hidden rabbit holes - but these have all involved adults, not the students who have been bright stars with their constant humour and good sense, honesty and enthusiasm. Their future is brighter than my own grammar school girlfriends of the 60s/ 70s Despite media horrors, life is better for them than it was for us, with our 6 hours of dictation a day.
I’d like to thank some of the people who have made my time here rewarding, Shelagh for her support, Sheila for her positivity, and admin staff such as Debbie and Tracy have been marvellous in their determination to get the impossible done. I’ve been fortunate to be in a Geography Department where there has been such a push to do things better – and this continues with Leah’s great energy and drive - I wish her every success. Who can forget Adele- we had a lot of fun and jokes in our liitle room (as Yvette next door could testify), where we nearly disappeared under the piles of ancient maps and slides, overhead projectors and film, atlases with Basutoland & Bechuanaland in. Now its my turn to turn pale when I see paper maps and books going the same way. Things can’t stand still, but I hope the quest for info-tainment doesn’t block the need for our students to analyse, & take time to think, which only deep reading, immersive reading, the kind of reading that makes you understand the point of reading, that makes you really, really think through your opinions, and literally change your mind, can give.
So apart from the constant logging on and the tyranny of email – I’ll miss all this.
I heard on Sunday that if you want to be happy and lucky, open yourself to chance events. So that’s what I’m doing. I love my home, children, and the Midlands and I’m leaving my comfort zone of friends, to go to Nanjing and learn 5 words of Chinese a day, manage without an oven, (go out) to fill the unforgiving minute with mentoring and writing. After that I am hoping for Fun, Fitness and Blogging, in that order. But being a victim of the Protestant work ethic it may not happen.
Once again, thank you all very much.