professional life

This page just about my 'professional' life, so I will try to rein in my natural impulse towards sarcasm, absurdist remarks and frivolousness

and try to be a grown - up!

It's all about stuff I've done, things I've achieved in my educational career, and life,to date..

This part, about Primary School, is quite short, as I don't remember much, except for a) when a light bulb fell out of the light and smashed on my desk, and b) I got punched in the face by a boy called Gordon. I was also milk- monitor, 2nd degree - I was allowed to put the straws in the bottles. Such responsibility for one so young....

I did pretty well at school though, in the end; I passed my 11+ (even though I didn't know I was taking it, and I wasn't 11!) therefore got a free pass to

I also won this:

I have absolutely no idea why! It was presented to me in assembly one day....

I then went off to Newquay Grammar School, aged 11, in 1967. Two years later it shut down! It suddenly became 'Newquay Comprehensive'

We Grammar school kids were all automatically put in the 'A' stream' for everything; as a professional teacher for 24 years, I look back and see what a ridiculous thing that was to do. Anyway, I plummeted downwards rapidly in several subjects, maintaining my 'A stream-ness' for all things Creative - I was particularly good at English; in fact, I took my O Level (remember them?!) a year early - but didn't fly quite so high in anything that had numbers in. Set 3 for Physics and Chemistry, Set 4 (bottom, as it was so encouragingly called!) for Maths, where I remained for my whole Secondary School career. I got a stunning 28% for my Maths C.S.E. I got an A for both my English Lit. and English Lang. O Levels. Nuff said!! (My problem with Maths was - and still is, actually - I simply couldn't understand the mysteries of Algebra....how can you do sums if you haven't got any numbers? It was utterly incomprehensible to me. )

Upper 6th was much better. I dumped all the stuff I hated (read: was hopeless at!) and concentrated on things esoteric. I was by this time, a leading light in the drama classes and was going to Drama Club and Guitar Club as well. I was also the first boy in Cornwall to take Cookery A level. I had some notion about being a chef, so I hedged my bets and did English and D.S. A Levels. (My best mate Liz had the dubious distinction of being the first girl to do Woodwork - she was taught by Woody Green who only had three fingers, so it didn't bode too well, really - but her maverick choice seemed to garner more positive peer- approval than mine did, somehow- she was Kool, I was just a Poof). She and I also looked after the gerbils and other mangy livestock in the Animal House together; best friends. In fact, thanks to Friends Reunited, she coming to France in a couple of weeks to stay - 30 years on....thinks: "I wonder if she still likes Hawkwind's 'Silver Machine'.....lol UPDATE: She came, it was FAB, drunken and nostalgic, and no, 'Silver Machine' didn't come up ( or rather,it did, but we decided not to Freak Out, due to limited head mobility and little hair to shake). Have also been to London to see her - Big Up for Friends Reunited, I say...

Well, what happened was....my exam question was to cook a 3 course meal for my parents Silver Wedding Anniversary. (amazing how things that really hurt stick so clearly in one's memory). I remember EXACTLY what happened! The 1st course was a cold pasta starter. It was OK, but I put SO much garlic in, it was inedible. The 2nd course was a steak and kidney pie. An hour and thirty minutes after I had placed it lovingly in the oven, it was time to serve 'my parents' (the A Level examiners) , it was raw, because I hadn't actually switched the oven ON. The desert was OK, but when I poured the coffee, it was just hot water because I'd forgotten to put any coffee in the machine. I had a feeling it hadn't gone too well; out of the 3 papers ( 2 theory papers and the practical ) I got 2 fives and a 6. I didn't actually get 'F' for the practical - big up respeck musta been given to the excellent crimping on me pie crust and the artfully wrought pastry '25' on the pie. Maybe they just felt sorry for me.

I was a pretty good swimmer, gymnast and trampolinist. I represented the school as a swimmer, and I became school trampoline champion - this was actually quite prestigious and helped to offset my horrendous contribution to any football team I might have got picked for (always last - that gets pretty hard to deal with when it happens EVERY time). The only thing I remember about football was the ball once suddenly arriving at my feet, while I stood yawning and shivering on the touch line...I sprang into action, and dribbled, unopposed, towards the goal, and BLAM! kicked the ball as hard as I could. I SCORED!! I turned for the longed - for approval of my team and then realised it was our goal. First and last game - "forgot my kit" after that. So, the trampoline saved me, really, and the record for the school's fastest 100m front crawl.

During this time, I joined the A.T.C. - I have no idea why, but it was near home and I liked clubs. We did some exciting things actually - I flew a glider, flew IN a fighter jet, and I represented Cornwall in a National Diving competition. I came second, to a boy called Graham Strawberry (see? Funny what you remember) I was doing well, but on my 3rd dive, I was supposed to do a front pike, but I thought it was a plain header, realised half way through and changed it in mid-air, and hit the water all folded up. Null points!

I left though, because I got fed up with them shouting at me all the time. I just didn't see the need for it,- how RUDE!, so I didn't go back.

I put the chef idea on hold, saw my 'Careers Advisor' who said I should be a teacher, and "Do Drama". Well, my A Levels weren't good enough for Uni. so I headed off to Hertford College of Education to do my Cert. Ed.

Most of what I did at Balls Park is on the other page. It was a wonderful 3 years; I did OK. I was very good with the kids I worked with on all the Teaching Practices, did OK with the theory, and, of course, had plenty of opportunity to indulge my passion for theatre. I came away with my Cert. Ed. with Credits in both disciplines.

I spent the next 12 years teaching in around London. I got 'promoted' to teach Traveller's children, on a purpose built site in Newham ( SO Right On!). It was great for a term then they all went off hop-picking in Kent, and never came back! So, there I am, with another teacher in a purpose built unit, all the equipment a teacher could want - and 3 three -year olds and their granny. I was 'relocated' to Hell, otherwise known as Canning Town. It was HORRENDOUS. I left. Got a job as a security guard, narrowly avoiding getting murdered at Belsize Park Tube, because I was late for work that day and they sent someone else out on my round. (I would have given him the bag, so maybe I would have been OK), then (having left there fairly quickly after that) went back into teaching on a Supply basis. Managed to do some excellent dance with some children in one school where I was for a term; they employed me then full time.

in 1988 I moved back home to Cornwall, to a post in a big school in St. Austell. There, I spent many happy years, doing well with the kids, putting on large scale drama productions with KS2 children, usually musicals. I battled, as we all did, all over the country, with the National Curriculum and all it meant - for me, it meant loss of freedom to teach what I believed I should - creative Arts; extremely difficult under the ever - increasing statutes coming from Central Government.

As well as running my classroom, I was developing my 'Portfolio of Responsibility' ,I had been appointed Deputy Head, my Head was giving me 'lots of career development opportunities' - by the time I left there, in 2001, this is what I had responsibility for:

I saw an advert in the 'Times Ed' one day, which said" Have you ever considered teaching in Eastern Europe? If interested, ring this number." To cut a long story short, I did ring, met the man, had another interview, resigned in May, and was on the plane to Budapest on August 1st, with my colleagues' "YOU'RE BLOODY MAD!!!" ringing in my ears - but me knowing, absolutely, that I wasn't.

I taught there for the next year. During the three months previous, whilst still teaching, I embarked upon an intensive TEFL course -I thought it might be handy! - which I completed whilst there, in post.

Hungary was an AMAZING experience, and one that still, seven years on, is very clear in my mind. It was SO unusual, SO unlike anything I had experienced. Wonderful. I was 'Head of English, at the University of Kecskemét' - a title not quite as grand as it sounds, but very satisfying, nonetheless. I was teaching trainee Primary Teachers, so they were able to speak and teach English in their schools. Loved it, loved it, loved it! This isn't the place to elaborate on the wonders of 'Magyarorsag'; maybe, one day I will, on another site....

It was a year's contract. I then got a job in Bremen, Northern Germany, at a Language School, specialising in Business English; a great place, good job, more experience to add to my burgeoning C.V.! It was a fascinating year, but all too soon, the contract came to be renewed, but I decided to return to the UK - I thought I should return to Education in the UK, and the longer I was away, the harder it would be - the pace of change is so fast in Education, I would be left behind.

During the last year at school, and also during the time in Hungary, I was also completing my National Qualification for Headship (NPQH) - this is a degree - level qualification, the passing of which states that the holder has reached the standard of, and is capable of Headship. When I took mine, it was voluntary - I think now it is mandatory if an applicant is going for Headship. Again, like so many years earlier, I hedged my bets (- though had I realised what hard hard work it would be ) on top all the other day - to - day jobs AND teaching my class of 37 year 5s, I probably wouldn't have done it. There were 4 dissertations to be done, the final of which was 20,000 words:

I passed. I got the degree I never got because I had turned down the offer of a Cambridge place all those years ago, I got a lovely certificate, signed by that nice Tessa Jowell (who was Minister of Education that week); but, although it was nice to have my work recognised and added to annals of Educational literature, in actual fact, it was a waste of time - I have never used it, and it seems pretty likely now, that I never will.

Back in the UK, I applied for several Dep. Head jobs, had a couple of interviews, but was unsuccessful, I think the panels knew that at some level, I couldn't actually give a toss! I was becoming more and more conscious of the reasons I left 2 years previously - what the hell was I thinking of?

I did have the enormous good fortune to be teaching the children of an old acquaintance of mine, and he invited me to join his new initiative of Story Telling in schools, in effort to raise the profile of telling and writing stories by young children. He was (and still is, no doubt!) a wonderful man - ex-Kneehigh Theatre, a Cornish speaker and bagpipe player and a Bard, no less! We had a wonderful time touring Infant schools around the county - have a look at www.bravetales.com . A great few months, back where I do well, WITH kids 'n having a good time!

Sooooo - another huge leap out my comfort zone (which was pretty much in shreds by now, and not really capable of keeping me inside it!) - I decided to retrain as a web designer. I enrolled on a City and Guilds course locally, and much to my enormous satisfaction, passed, with a "very good Credit". I could have done without knowing that "If I had just added THAT element, it would have been a Distinction", but still, very pleased with my self. I got several Distinctions in the component parts of the course:

So. There you have it. All I have done with my professional life. Some good, some great - I remember the teachers who made me what I am: my mad, gay Drama teacher, my FIERCE English teacher who instilled me with my love of Shakespeare, and who spoke Chaucer in Old English; my lecturers at College who trusted me and gave me chances, and who allowed me to fail in safety; my Colleagues in the Primary School where I taught for so long, and did some splendid work and great theatre, in Cornwall, some of whom have maintained close friendship through the years, and now across all the miles between us; my Colleagues who treated me with such respect in Hungary....all of this adds up to the sum of its parts. It has made it possible for me to live this life here in France, gently, using all these skills attained over quarter of a century (OMIGOD!!), and give back to people who now need me and with whom I can share my collective expertise. My thanks to all who have been involved in the making of this movie.

I also know that that the hundreds, possibly thousands, of children with whom I had a passing relationship will remember me too, and maybe one day, I will get a mention in their story.