A new winter coat

My parents are both dead.  I loved them both and they were good parents; I was lucky in my relationships.  My mum, in particular, had an ability to accept mortality and this was a great gift to my brother and me, helping us when we faced bereavement. Indeed, when dad and, later, mum died, my feelings included not only acceptance but even relief, alongside loss and sadness, Continue reading

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ResearchEd again, naturally

researchEd2015I am off to the national ResearchEd conference for the third time. Last year I said I wouldn’t do this: the date clashes with my local agricultural show, a major community event, and I am no longer an Education student. My MA is finished.
But here I am on the train at an unseasonably early hour again. Continue reading

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Farewell, my dear

We are three quarters of the way through our Roger Rees memorial viewing of Nicholas Nickleby. For those unfamiliar with the work, this means 6 hours down, 2 to go.

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Ebacc pigs

You don't fatten a pig by weighing itI see they have started making “Gove – the sequel”. It happens. A character has such impact that the producers cannot resist reviving him. Often the villain or monster, he wreaks such devastation in the original, that repetition of the storyline in a whole new setting is, apparently, irresistible. Watch out for the franchise and pity the lawyers.

Meanwhile, to my extreme discomfort, I find I may agree with Michael Gove about something. Continue reading

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A birthday thank you letter

ShakespeareOn this, his 450th birthday, I would like to say thank you to William Shakespeare. As a suggestion of what Shakespeare has given us all, I do not think Bernard Levin can be bettered:  Shakespeare’s language permeates and shapes our thought. But I am not trying to express a generalised academic or cultural judgement: I want to give a personal thank you.
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Inspiration

SRB LearLast year, my theatre-going declined, for a number of reasons I won’t go into here. The gap was, to some extent, bridged by the NT Live re-broadcasts and our autumn was spent revisiting the past: A Habit of Art, Frankenstein, Hamlet.  But it is not the same. When the performance is of the highest quality, nothing, absolutely nothing, matches the intensity, the fullfilment, the full engagement of live theatre. The immediate impact is immense and etches itself so deeply in the mind that it remains powerful, able to revive and catch the breath. Continue reading

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I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that*

A week since ResearchEd and a plethora of blogs already.  This is appropriate as ResearchEd evolved from, and remains part of, an ongoing  conversation.  Continue reading

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it happened on Twitter

6.39am and it is not a school day, though my feelings are strangely akin to those felt by our new Year 7s earlier this week. I’m about to start my journey to Dulwich (no, I didn’t know either but it made me think of Margaret Thatcher) for researched 2013.

In the half light this morning, I couldn’t actually see why the whole thing might not be an elaborate scam. Why were those tweets and website any more convincing than the emails one receives about revalidating bank security details or vague acquaintances marooned in south America suddenly needing to borrow a fiver? Why don’t I stay at home and go to my local agricultural show, fundraising for the scouts and looking at very big cows with the rest of my family?

But it is worth trying..because (clap your hands if you believe in Twitter) this could be for real, and it is rather unusual. A ‘wiki-sourced‘ event which I doubt any one is attending because it is part of their formal CPD or because their Head told them to. For a start, we are all going in our own time (take that Mr Gove with your snide allusions to teachers finishing work at 3.30) and secondly the price was affordable for individuals to pay themselves. Heck, I am not even a teacher .. But I am going to believe that the qualifications for attending are interest and enthusiasm and that these might be my people, emerging from the twittersphere. Right, just going to find my copy of Ben Goldacre’s education paper for a re-read on the train, and I am off.

To be continued

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Know the meaning of enough

Last week we listened to Chris Wood, a wonderful folk singer/songwriter who, through his performance style, takes unassuming to an art form. Continue reading

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Good deeds in a naughty world

Recently I took my daughter’s watch into Timpsons in the hope of repair. It’s a much loved,10-year old Harry Potter-themed watch, whose plastic buckle had become insecure. We knew it was easy to replace the whole strap but this is embroidered with the Hogwarts house crests, Continue reading

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