For all my teacher friends, whether finishing their first year in the classroom or their thirty-first… Have a wonderful summer holiday. I Didn’t Know I didn’t know that years of school and a university degree would be of little consolation when facing a room full of bright little eyes on the first day of school….
From when I was fourteen until I took my ‘A’ levels before leaving school, I was taught English by a teacher named Peter Despres. He was assiduous, inspirational and had the highest of aspirations for every one of his pupils. He got me to love Shakespeare (not hard), Jane Austen (even easier a task), Wordsworth…
The UK Scout Association (The Scouts) has announced a new strategy today. And, along with the strategy, it’s announced a new corporate visual identity. The old ‘swoosh’ has gone, to be replaced by what I think is a more contemporary treatment of the iconic arrowhead / fleur-de-lis. I’m always sorry to say goodbye to an…
People often say to me that I must have one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. They’re right. Today I began work by explaining how young people around the world are helping to deliver the UN’s sustainable development goals through the support of organisations like my own. This was in a breakfast meeting…
Tonight I was chuffed to bits to have been able to welcome the latest intake of young international Scout volunteers to their staff induction training, being held in beautiful, but very chilly, Oxfordshire. They’ve funded their own travel and expensive visa applications; they’re putting their normal lives on hold for between nine months and a…
Looking at the news, I think it could safely be said that 2017 has been a troubled year globally. Trump. Terrorist attacks. The global refugee crisis. Plans (or lack of them) for Brexit. The growth of violent extremism. The threat of the use of nuclear weapons. Yet, my Facebook feed throughout the year has been…
A humbling experience, meeting young people at Wiltja Anangu Secondary College in Adelaide, South Australia, many of whom are Award participants. The Wiltja Secondary College is an initiative of the Anangu (Pitkantjatjara word for “people”) whose country is the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands in the far north-west of South Australia. In the 1970s, a group of…
Day 5 – Gilsland to Brampton A very gentle walk today to finish the week. The landscape became more and more gentle as I walked into Cumbria – farmland that has been cultivated for generations, rather than the barren moorland of the previous days. I hadn’t planned on visiting the ruined Lanercost Priory, but I’m…
Day 4 – Twice Brewed to Gilsland Today was the day when, 33 years ago, one of the wheels fell off the cart. One of the team, Shep, had to drop out because he was “wimping about looking unfit”. (I clearly wasn’t quite as caring as I should have been.) I continued in my log…
Humshaugh to Twice Brewed I started the day with a bit of a detour, thanks to my longstanding friend and co-mischief maker, Gwyn Mckenzie. Gwyn is the ADC General Duties for Hadrian District (though I can’t think of her as anything other than National Akela to the UK’s Cub Scouts back in the nineties.). She…
