LA Blog

A Day in Media Resources

My day is interrupted at 5am. That’s the time my wife decides to start baking bread, but that’s a different story.

My working day starts at 8am and ends at 4pm, my colleague Emad starts at 10 today and finishes at 6pm. First job put the kettle on and make a coffee. (Note to self. Buy some coffee) OK so no coffee this morning. I then fill the machines up with paper. My email in box is already full with last minute printing requests from the usual suspects.

It doesn’t take long before the room starts to fill with teachers preparing for the days lessons. ‘Is my printing ready to collect’ I am asked. ‘Which printing would that be?’ I enquire. ‘The one I just sent you 5 minutes ago’. You just know it’s going to be one of those days.

It all quietens down at around 9am as most of the teachers have gone to their lessons. Time to start going through my in box. Oh there goes the phone, another request on its way I am informed, no rush it’s not wanted until break time. Time to send some work to the copier, too late it’s in use. Another request for some posters and tickets arrives in my in box. We don’t just photocopy for staff here at Lambeth Academy, we also provide a design service as well, from posters and invitations to planners and prospectus. Every day varies; tomorrow I am taking photos of our Chinese visitors, looking forward to that. Phone rings again.

No one’s using the copier, time to get some printing done at last. More mock exam papers. Note to self, order more A3 paper. Another email just arrived, this time it’s a vacancy to be added to the website. Yes we do that here in Media Resources as well. I keep the website updated with photographs, news and events and vacancies. Just check it’s not my job they are advertising.

Coming up to lunch time now, hang on what happened to break. I am expecting another full house this lunch time in Media Resources, more exam printing requests come in and a student calls in to ask if I sell tissues and then the phone rings again, and again.

And here they come; in first place it’s Mr Hogarth closely followed by Mr Brown with Ms Williams on the outside. It’s neck and neck as they head towards the copiers, and Mr Hogarth gets there first. My in tray slowly starts to fill up again with printing and design requests as staff slowly start to come in. Hang on, the phones ringing again.

Another busy afternoon in store. It’s all go in Media Resources, no time to stop. Well I am now, going for lunch.

The jobs are always varied. I could be putting my design hat on one minute and then my printing hat on the next. Now I have to put my photographer’s hat on, student ID photos. (I don’t really have a hat).

It’s been another busy day in Media Resources. If you’re ever walking past, please call in and bring some coffee, I need some caffeine.

Andy Rowland
Media Resources Manager

I love autumn. The trees in Brockwell Park look russet and gorgeous in a rather haunted way and the local woods are thick with carpets of fallen leaves. And this autumn has added an extra dimension to this delight as my wife and I have finally capitulated to the insistent desire of our children to have a family dog. So we are now a family of 6 with the addition of Frankie, a 4 month old border terrier.

The whole family has fallen in love with her and, best of all, my children now trip over themselves to get out to the local park or woods to take her for walks. The X-Box sits whining in the corner begging for attention as a blur of fur and wellie boots disappear out of the front door again.

Also, Frankie has provided the most wonderful family therapy. Anyone feeling a bit grumpy (mainly me!) can walk her round the block and grumble for 20 minutes and come back restored to cheerfulness. And any squabble in the house seems to be impossible to sustain with a little creature licking your face.

I remember, when I was a young teacher, hearing about a nearby school in Mitcham which had a school dog. This struck me then as a crazy idea. However, I do get it now. A therapeutic school dog to calm the jangled nerves of upset youngsters, a dog to take care of and be responsible for and a friendly wagging tail in the corridors might have a transformative effect on the atmosphere of the place. On the other hand, it is hard enough to manage three voices begging to be allowed to feed Frankie. The idea of 1000 young people all smuggling cans of Pedigree Chum into school hidden under their geography homework so that they can all feed the dog might attract the attention of the National Obesity Council (Dog Division) rather promptly.

So I don’t think that I am going to present this proposal to Ms Shadick as one of her first top-level strategic decisions! However, there are plans afoot for school chickens so watch this space……….

Mr Henderson

GUEST BLOG

Charlie Thomas, from year 12.

Towards the end of the GCSE Summer of 2011, some LA students were looking forward to a new school, a change of scenery. After a late phone call from Graveney, it became apparent I was now also ‘some students’ – I was ready to move away from Lambeth Academy to join a bigger school and turn over a new leaf.

I enjoyed my first week immensely at Graveney, getting to know new faces and discovering the joyful slots of emptiness in the day known as ‘free periods’ (only later discovering that the spare time was intended to do work in). This was my honeymoon period with the school, where there was only a never-ending list of pros to a larger Sixth Form, and no cons.

But pretty soon my view on Graveney began to change – I came to the realisation that I was one of too many, and teachers began lessons by asking “ Put your hands up if you came to Graveney from Year seven” (cue private jokes here). For many new students, working without help from the teachers and motivating themselves to do work in their free periods was easy. Unfortunately I was not, and never will be, one of those students.

Which is when it dawned on me that I needed to go back to Lambeth Academy – I realised that a small environment of teachers and students whom I knew well would be the ideal working environment for me, as they knew what to do to help me succeed and get the grades in my A-Levels which I am aiming for. So I am back at Lambeth, and I want to say to Year 11’s keep an open mind when looking where to go for Sixth Form, because where you are could be the perfect place for you.

Charlie Thomas

As you can imagine, our GCSE and A-level results this summer have delighted us and it has been a source of enormous pleasure for me to be able to talk to staff, students and our families with such a sense of celebration. I have always felt that achieving the sort of GCSE and A-level results that we all felt were coming would have a transformative effect. I can now confirm that this is true. Our students seem to wear their uniforms with a pride and fondness that was not perhaps as evident last year. I often see our students as I cycle into work in the morning and it does feel as if they now want to let the whole of South London know that the are part of one of the most improved schools in London and probably in the country. We will find out the latter when the performance tables come out in January.

I have been spending a lot of time over the last two weeks going into our local primary schools, sharing my pride and delight in our achievements with staff, parents and students there. I am always struck by what happy, dedicated and creative places our local primaries are. I first moved to Lambeth in 1984 and, even though I did not then have children, I was aware that many of its schools were struggling to earn the trust of the local community. Now, with almost every other secondary school also performing so well this summer, I am thrilled that Lambeth schools now significantly outstrip the national averages. London schools can be and now often are the most vibrant and forward-thinking schools in the country.

On another note, it has been very exciting hearing about the early weeks at University for our foundation year students and for the children of some of my friends. I am hoping that in 2012 some of our ex-alumni will come back and tell us tales of their lives at university to inspire the next set of sixth-formers.

Finally, to let you know that I have confirmed that I have a readership of at least two now. My mother has discovered this blog and saw the mention of my French teacher, John Arthur in the May entry. Such are the detective and social networking skills of mothers that she was able to track down an address for him in France where he has now retired and wrote to him (please note, youngsters, that this was all done without the help of Facebook, Twitter or email) to tell him of his namecheck. He has now written back to her, saying that he has read the blog and had very happy memories of teaching me and my classmates.

Any other long-lost contacts out there who have discovered this blog, please feel free to let me know you are there on jim.henderson@lambeth-academy.org

Perhaps next month I will reminisce on my days at Cambridge University and see whether I can flush out a few tutors or ex-undergraduate pals.

PS For those of you for whom I have become the Lambeth Academy Travel and Literary Correspondent, please enjoy the following reviews:-

Calella de Palafrugall: A really delightful old Catalonian fishing village turned unspoilt holiday resort. A safe, sandy beach with cliffs and rocks for great snorkelling and plunging Acapulco-style from 5m up into the clear, blue waters. Lovely coastal walks. Easy journey to Figueres, home of the Salvador Dali museum which, whatever you think of his art, is a fantastic shrine to the surreal and absurd.

Barcelona: We did 24 hours and the whole family wants more. Both for Gaudi’s architecture and for me and Tom to see a match at the Nou Camp which was pretty overwhelming even as an empty stadium. The way that the history of FC Barcelona is so tied up with the politics of Spain and Catalonia is fascinating. Who says sports and politics shouldn’t mix.

Skippy Dies: Fun in a darkly humorous way but I did not care enough about or identify with any of the characters (even the rich, corpulent computer and physics genius, Ruprecht, amazingly!) to care about what happened in the end.

Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zout: Absolutely fantastic. Probably features in my top ten books of all time. A poor Dutch clerk goes to Najima, a trading island just off Japan, in 1700 to earn his prospective father-in-law’s respect. The characters are compelling and fully-drawn and the historical themes of the corruption of trade and Japanese conflicting desire for trading relationships but cultural isolation were fascinating. I am now working my way through the rest of David Mitchell’s novels but this one is the best so far.

Homage to Catalonia: Really extraordinary insight to the madness and life-as-normal nature of civil war. I was hooked not only by hearing of the extraordinary and barbaric events that took place in parts of Barcelona that now seem so stable and self-confident. But also it gave me a way of thinking about Libya with a fight to the death going on in places where many people are also living normal, though disrupted, lives.

Mr Henderson

After the frenzy of activity this year during which so many staff, students and families have expended such effort to ensure that 2010-11 is a transformational year for the academy, there has been a fantastic sense of relief and celebration this month. Year 11 and 13 students have come out of exam after exam with broad smiles on their faces. There is no feeling in this job so sweet as seeing an exam paper that you know you have prepared the students well for. The two student post-exam comments that are our profession’s gleeful equivalent of a banker’s £500k bonus and new Ferrari are: “All the topics that you told me to revise came up. Thank you!” and “I really felt confident in there. It was great to write down all I had learnt.”

And now, we can start to celebrate and look forward to the results in August. It is so exciting to anticipate our year 11s joining the sixth-form and our year 13s heading off to university. In the meantime our sights turn to our year 10 and 12 students, starting to prepare them for the challenge and excitement of their exam year.

But most significantly, we teachers have the chance to spend a bit of time planning our summers. Believe me, for my wife and I, the planning of the summer is more of a challenge than planning a year 11 lesson on “Fusion processes and energy generation in the life cycle of giant stars”. There is the destination (Palafrugall, north of Barcelona), the transport (Easy Jet, buses, trains and car hire), the sights (Salvador Dali, Sagrada Familia and beautiful hidden coves as well as recommendations from Mrs Jones who knows the area and will be back from maternity next year to swap notes) and what to read (a long list provided by Ms Blunn whom I saw recently and who returns from her secondment in September. Highlights are “Skippy Dies” by Paul Murray and “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zout” by David Mitchell. I also plan to read George Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” as I am fascinated by the Spanish Civil War. What I read of the Catalonians’ energy and creativity, strength in the face of Franco’s tyranny and their embracing of other populations moving into the region makes me excited to discover what might be a model for European diversity and community.)

But mainly, I will be lying on a beach, eating tapas, drinking Rioja and letting my brain melt.

Editor’s note: This blog has been awarded a European Literacy Support Grant for over-extended bracket passages. The next blog will be proof-read by a year 10 student to strip out this schoolboy syntactical sloppiness (and over-zealous alliteration perhaps....)

Mr Henderson

GUEST BLOG

Phoebe Ellis-Rees

Lambeth Academy Foundation Year Students

When I think back to my first days at Lambeth Academy, it seems hard to believe it was seven years ago. It’s even harder to believe that my friends and I won’t be coming back in September. Over the years we’ve seen teachers and a few students come and go, but the school itself has remained close in our hearts, which is why we chose to stay for Sixth Form. Having teachers that have already taught you for a number of years was key for my development during this period, and I knew this was something only Lambeth Academy could offer me.

I’ve been on trips abroad to Berlin, Austria and Moscow, and my friends have been to Paris, Auschwitz and Portugal. We’ve attended conferences, lectures, competitions and the Mock European Union among countless other opportunities which have been offered to us over the years. But these aren’t the only benefits of having been in the foundation year. Above all, we developed a close relationship as a year group, which became most noticeable in Year 11, when we said goodbye for the first time. Everyone was in tears, and you could see over the next few days people became closer with people they hadn’t been close with before. We went out with a bang with the first (and best) prom yet, and we’ll do the same this year.

I will never forget my time at Lambeth Academy, and it seems strange to look back at the small girl in orange that I once was. I know that without this school, I would not be half the person I am today. I have a good relationship with all my teachers, they are people I can relate to; and who have helped me no end with my university applications. I know they would do (and have done) the same for everybody. That individual attention that cannot be faulted, their care and consideration, their passion for their subject, it’s what’s made these last few years brilliant for me. In our small classes it feels almost as if we are at university already!

There’s no doubt that tomorrow I’ll be crying, and I’m sure other people will be too. But it’s not just the teachers who’ve made this school, it’s Mr Potter’s care and attention, it’s the friendliness of all the non-teaching staff, and above all; it’s the unity of the students. I hope I find friends as good as I’ve made here at university, and I hope everyone else does, but I can tell you now, it will be no mean feat. So whilst we say goodbye, I would also like to say thank-you. Thank-you for everything.

Phoebe Ellis-Rees

They say that one’s school days are the happiest days of one’s life. And it is true that I have spent 41 of my 50 years in a very happy place first as a pupil and then as a teacher.
I was reminded of the happiness and significance of my school days last weekend when I spent a fantastic weekend in Deal with six school friends whom I have known since I was 14. All of us are turning 50 this year so we thought we should have a reunion to mark this ascent into maturity. Thank you Andy, John, Mark, Mike, Richard and Tim who promised that they would read this blog if I name-checked them.

A lot of the weekend was spent reminiscing about school days. In particular, we talked about the teachers that had inspired us (and those that hadn’t); words of advice and encouragement that we had received; teachers such as John Arthur who not only inspired in me a love of French language and literature at A-level but who also persuaded me as a painfully shy 16 year old to lose my inhibitions through acting. The confidence and new friends that this gave me live on to this day.

Many of our Foundation Year cohort will be leaving Lambeth Academy this summer, many to go into university; others into employment. They will carry with them a vast archive of memories and experiences on which they will draw throughout their lives. We are putting together a short film to capture some of their memories and I hope that this film will be shown in 2104 at the Centenary celebrations.

We are also hosting a party in early July to which we hope all of the students who were part of the Foundation Year cohort will come to reminisce, to establish an ex-alumni group and to fix the memories and friendships that will contribute to their happiness and success in their lives ahead.

If you were a student in the Foundation Year cohort of 2004 and you would like to attend this event, please contact Jackie or Sarah at jackie.ofarrell@lambeth-academy.org or on 020 7819 1363 for an invitation.

Mr Henderson

GUEST BLOG

A Day in a Life of “JUST” the School Receptionist!

My day usually starts off at about 5.40am when the alarm goes off (that’s when the fun begins!) I get up, set a bath, switch the kettle on, and prepare my lunch. These days I’m into flash swanky salads so I get working, preparing that too!

After a cup of tea, I am ready to face the rest of my morning regime, bath, dress and do my hair. After all this beautifying I’m ready to hit the road at 7.10am!

I take a stroll (well it’s normally a very fast pace!) through the park, where I normally meet my arch rival aka ‘’Fast Walker lady’’ to see who can get to the station first. There’s an unspoken word between us, but we know we’re thinking the same thing. (Who will triumphant at the end of our battle of the ‘’walk’’)

I’m usually met by a handful of LA Pupils on the bus, so I guess you can say my working day starts on the 155 bus! I arrive at work and take my last gulp of air at 7.55 where I am normally inundated with enquiries etc, I finally exhale again about 9.00am when all is semi-quiet and the students are in lessons! The next gulp of air I take is just before break time when it’s manic, students running outside as they finally get that break they have been waiting for, screaming and general chit-chat bounce off the walls and though I may moan and groan, it is truly a nice place to be. Then I breathe again when period 4 starts, Silence, lovely!

Working on the reception at the academy is so interesting, you meet so many people from different walks of life and professions, and it’s the best place to get to know the pupils and their parents and to form relationships and trust with all the students. It’s also the noisiest place to work at Lambeth Academy!

Break times and lunch times are the craziest, with students wanting lunch-slips because they’ve forgotten their lunch passes, students talking about how their lessons were and what they did the night before. Booking in guests to the academy, taking their picture for their passes is always entertaining, because everyone always hates having their picture taken. But this is a necessity that has to be done as safe guarding our children is our number one priority. Receiving in deliveries, post and taking in flowers for teachers, unfortunately none for me……poor me.

I think it’s probably the best place in the building, even though it’s the loudest place to be but it’s the place where all the students want to be, whether I like it or not!

Signing off for now,
So as you can see I am not “JUST” a receptionist.

Annamay Price

I spent a glorious Easter break in Italy. The occasion was a family gathering to coincide with my sister and her family coming over from their home in Australia. As in London, an early wave of great weather had hit Rome and meant that the campsite swimming pool was opened two weeks early. My children and their Aussie cousins loved it. I spent most of my time trembling pathetically on the edge of the pool aware that, the Specific Heat Capacity of water being what it is (4200 J/kg⁰C in case you forgot), two weeks sunshine would not have lifted its winter temperature by more than a few degrees. Also, I had only just dried out from Red Nose Day (see below).

Rome is a stunning city, easy to explore in a week. My favourite parts are the Piazza Navona where I remember hanging out with beer, ice-cream and guitars in my back-packing days and the Pantheon, an all-the-gods temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa nearly 2000 years ago. It is a dome-vaulted building with a circular oculus in the roof which acts as an internal sundial and also provides natural convectional ventilation. For those that do not know this building, follow the hyperlink for a taste of its glory.
My family then travelled on to Pompeii for more Roman architectural brilliance and a few petrified bodies (that was mainly us as we tried to cross the roads!). We also climbed Vesuvius to see what had caused all the trouble. The volcano crater looked dormant enough though the rather flimsy fence holding back hundreds of school-trip European teenagers from tumbling to their doom did suggest that Northern Europe’s obsession with Health and Safety regulations is travelling on a very slow train south.

Mr Henderson

GUEST BLOG

What a busy month! It has been so great to see the development of a school project I have been involved in and to witness first hand the impact it has had on the school.

During recent inspections over the past two years, Lambeth Academy has been asked to help students in becoming independent learners and thinkers. To help us achieve this, over module 4, along with some other staff, I have been running The Creative Capable Learner project to help students develop important life and learning attributes. By the final week I am really pleased to say 89% of students involved felt that they had helped other people to become better capable learners.

From the outset, it was important to me that the project was student-owned and therefore for each stage student input was crucial. The Academy has a recently formed House and Student Council so this was used in conjunction with the PLTS (Personal Learning and Thinking Skills) Ambassadors as the group of students that would work with artists to define, experience and become capable learners before sharing this learning with the rest of the school.

This Capable Learner group then spent two weeks working with artists and staff to “define” what a capable learner meant to them. After these crucial two weeks the group then chose an away day based on their capable learner needs to “experience” what it feels like to have some of these capable learner skills, such as risk taking and team work. All this work was building towards students then designing and delivering their very own tutor session in the last week of term to help the rest of the school develop their skills. The three trips we ran were to a theatre, a circus and the Olympic site. I would have loved any of those trips and was very jealous of the staff that got to go on them – Miss Agrotis is now our juggling expert judging by the wonderful photos!

It was very exciting for me and others to watch these fantastic students rise to this considerable challenge and deliver these tutor sessions and exhibit so many capable learner skills. Planning and delivering a good tutor session can be tricky for adults, so to see students doing it so successfully was wonderful.

Having students come to share their positive experiences with me across the week and show off their positive post-its and feedback that they received made all the hard work worthwhile. I look forward to continuing to work with these amazing capable learners to help the Academy produce better and better learners!

Libby Hills

Standing in the stocks having wet sponges thrown at me by energetic and friendly (I hoped!) year 11 students was not a situation in which I anticipated having thoughts about values and ethos. However, it is because I believe that the purpose of a good school is to transmit strong messages about behaviour and values that I was so delighted to be getting a good soaking (actually, in truth, I was dry as a bone. I don’t know what they are teaching year 11 in PE but “being an accurate shot” is not part of it).
The occasion was Red Nose Day and, along with the rest of the staff and students, I was doing “Something (that other people were finding) Funny for Money”.
Talking to our students it had become clear that, in the words of Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message”. While the day purported to be filled with fun, it was clear that many students were reflecting on notions of compassion, service, “love thy neighbour” and were developing their own moral and ethical views about what it means to be a global citizen.

I was just in the process of swelling with pride at the selfless hard work and community spirit being shown by so many of our students when James Adesanya hit me square in the face with a soaking one and suddenly my compassionate nature vanished!

Mr Henderson

GUEST BLOG

A Day in the Kitchen at Lambeth Academy

Our day starts at 7.00 (the restaurant opens at 7.30am) My day starts at 4.30 when I get up to have a cup of tea and an hour to myself. I leave home at 6 to get the train to Balham and then walk up the hill to school.
The first job is Breakfast which starts at 7.30, and to check if there is any hospitality for the day. Breakfast is going really well and usually we’re quite busy.
Then we have to get morning break and lunch started . We cook for approximately 700 students and 100 teachers and staff per day in our two restaurants (I’ve always hated the word canteen)
Today is Jerk Chicken (a particular favourite of the students). Here’s the recipe if you want to try it at home:

6 Chicken Legs (legs and Drumsticks)
For the Paste
225g/8oz onions, quartered
1-1½ scotch bonnet or other chillies according to taste, halved and seeded
50g/2oz root ginger, peeled and chopped roughly
½ tsp ground allspice
small bunch fresh thyme, leaves only
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
120ml/4fl oz white wine vinegar
120ml/4fl oz dark soy sauce
To serve: boiled rice, 1 lime cut in wedges.

Method

Put all the ingredients for the Jerk Sauce in a food processor and whiz until smooth.
Place the chicken in a large shallow dish, pour over the sauce, cover and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight.
In the oven cook the chicken for 35-45 minutes, basting now and then with the leftover sauce. As it cooks, the thick sauce will go quite black in places, but don’t worry, as it falls off it will leave behind a really well flavoured, crisp skin, with lovely moist tender meat underneath.
Serve the jerk chicken with wedges of lime on the side.

Watch out for some really exciting new menus coming up after Easter, with new branding and a new better health magazine for the students.

The day for us ends at 3.00. And another walk, this time down the hill to Balham station to catch the train and then off to the gym when I get home in my attempt to get fit and lose some weight (I’m doing a sponsored weight loss – come and find me in the Restaurant if you want to sponsor me!)

Then bed for me at 9pm

Gordon
Catering Manager

Despite my advancing years I am still naïve enough to believe that the next week must be less busy than the last! We have had an extremely exhausting but ultimately satisfying time over the last two weeks showing a variety of visitors what is going on. I am always very proud to display the variety of life at the academy and am in awe of our teachers and LSAs who cope with the pressures and demands of being observed so nobly. It is a real privilege to be allowed into lessons and to see the range of activities that we ask our students to perform and how creative and hard-working our staff are in the classrooms.

However, by last weekend I was utterly drained of energy and delighted by the prospect of going down to spend the weekend in Kent on my own, catching up on some work and walking across the rather desolate estuary marshlands near Faversham. As I stood on an exposed promontory gazing at the long vistas and the abundant wildlife I suddenly realized that I was doing something very rare. My senses were hoovering up the smells, sights and sounds of this bleak and unpopulated landscape and my brain was chewing on these experiences. I was thinking for pleasure. About the geography of the terrain, about the physics of the movement of the water in the wind and about the history of the people who had sculpted and tamed this land. And I was reminded of why I have stayed teaching for so many years. Not because of OFSTED or the English Baccalaureate. But because the opportunity to introduce young people to new ideas and see their brains enjoy the sheer delight of thinking new thoughts unique to them is to pass on the greatest joy of being human.

I returned to work on Monday refreshed by that reminder. And despite all the pressures of the day-to-day running of the academy I managed to spend my happiest times this week with my year 11 class listening to their passionate debate about the ethics of genetic modification, discussing why those of them with type AB blood were best-placed to have an arm severed and explaining how genetic fingerprinting might be able to confirm whether or not James was responsible for stealing Mr Potter’s wig!

All this fun and half-term round the next bend!

Mr Henderson

Back to work and an inset day which, as usual, contained real variety and includes sessions led by many of our staff reminding me what enthusiasm and self-confidence we have here, even from colleagues not long in the profession. There was a real buzz around the building as people shared thoughts on the session they had just attended and encouraged others to visit. A vibrancy of what we call “learning conversations”. The other buzz was about the holidays. Overheard many times was, “That’s done me a power of good”; “I’m really looking forward to seeing the students tomorrow” and “I saw David Cameron, Michael Gove, Helena Bonham-Carter and Tim Burton on New Year’s Day”. OK, the last one was just me (and the one before too?).

It has been lovely seeing staff and students back again. The atmosphere has been very calm and friendly. It almost feels like proper family after the weird relative combinations of the festive period.

Having missed the last day of term, through illness, I returned to find my desk awash with cards and even a few gifts from colleagues. This helped to stretch Christmas out a little bit. I even got my first gift from a student in years. It was a lovely wash bag, complete with cleaning products. I was very touched by this although the paranoid part of me does wonder whether there is a subliminal message here. As part of our push on polite and courteous behaviour in this module, I was very diligent in writing a thank-you letter to him. My mum would be proud if it weren’t for the fact that I haven’t got round to writing a letter to her thanking her for the socks and new box of chalks.

Mr Henderson

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