I am one who is averse to change...yet I seem to encounter it at every turn. Obviously, life can never be static and the natural changes which occur have to be accepted and assimilated. I tend to be one of those people who affects change uneasily, but looks back to what went before. I love nostalgia and wallow in the past-I am sure I do this idealistically-I doubt that the past has the rosy glow I endow it with. In saying that, however, I do think there are elements that we could learn from-certainly, my childhood seemed simple and innocent-I think my first book echoes this, as the children in it have the freedoms which I so enjoyed...maybe more than 21st century kids experience. Childhood disappears so quickly, vital and exciting one moment and fading to a sunset memory the next.
I watched a neighbour's child playing in the street with her friends today. I felt a tear prickle the back of my eye as I recalled how recently my own daughter played in the same street with hers. She goes off to Leeds University soon and has long cast aside youthful games...but how quickly that seems to have happened! I know I should not mourn her growing up-especially as I am lucky to have a grandson to fill those childish footprint; but its hard not to...you blink and your own youth has vanished, sad but true! Perhaps that's why I have preserved childhood in my book so carefully..I can at least leaf back through the story and replay it all.
Business is moving forward-we are picking up lots of Teaching Assistant students and should be very busy indeed. New Horizons Education Ltd are establishing well at the moment-I am looking forward to getting down to some work next week.
News on the Furness Abbey Fellowship front-our account has £120 plus and we have some extremely exciting plans ahead. We had an entirely successful meeting with Clea Warner from English Heritage last week and I am excited about the future prospects.
On the book front-Guy the Grumpy Gargoyle is progressing well-lots of people buying it and asking about it. Raven's Hoard is due on 1 November and I have approved the lovely book cover. Final proof reading is complete-hopefully no errors have slipped through this time! Just a matter of publicity and marketing now! I find this problematic as I feel its such a huge job and I am not sure how successful I am at it. I hope I can get a bit done in the next weeks and reach a wider audience. I still need more reviews and Facebook page likes...and retweets. A couple of famous recommendations wouldn't go amiss either! Any suggestions or assistance would be welcomed! And then...on with next book-Cistercian conspiracy!
Showing posts with label LeedsTrinity University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LeedsTrinity University. Show all posts
Friday, 7 September 2012
Thursday, 23 August 2012
The abbot's treasure returns...
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/rare-medieval-treasures-back-at-furness-abbey/
Very busy at the moment...can't decide whether to stick or twist! So pleased that English Heritage are returning the abbey treasure for another weekend visit. Maybe we will gain full custody instead of access visits soon-we can only hope..and insist! Furness Abbey Fellowship is almost there! We have well and truly launched now-we have set up the constitution, opened and account and done press releases...was on BBC Radio Cumbria-which you can catch on iplayer, and today we all had photos at the abbey -so it will be in the Evening Mail this week! Then we turn our attention to fund raising! Two Halloween ventures we will have a presence at are Abbey House Hotel on 28 October and Abbey Mill Cafe on 31st October...we hope to raise some coins and put these towards projects for the abbey and its regeneration! This has been a big piece of work and most time consuming...but very pleased that we have moved forward.
Second big task this summer-book signings. Don't know if its the recession but the sales have been less than last year and there don't seem to be as many people out and about. Also this silly weather has affected the shows and some have been cancelled! Yet the two local ones were great! Must work on the marketing! However, when you look at author royalties after deductions for some of the larger booksellers (you know who you are) I wonder why I bother with a price tag! I certainly won't be retiring any time soon! But then I love writing and sharing my work...so onward and upward!
Last but definitely not least the new venture. New Horizons Education Ltd-we have really made headway and will be in the new premises soon. Working on Moodle and setting up course work has been brilliant and we will be working tomorrow preparing for our new intake of students in September. Exciting times!
Talking of students...my youngest will be off to Leeds Trinity University soon-another big change...inevitable but painful nevertheless!I will adjust I expect but its another milestone I suppose that I can hardly believe I have passed! Tempus fugit!
Very busy at the moment...can't decide whether to stick or twist! So pleased that English Heritage are returning the abbey treasure for another weekend visit. Maybe we will gain full custody instead of access visits soon-we can only hope..and insist! Furness Abbey Fellowship is almost there! We have well and truly launched now-we have set up the constitution, opened and account and done press releases...was on BBC Radio Cumbria-which you can catch on iplayer, and today we all had photos at the abbey -so it will be in the Evening Mail this week! Then we turn our attention to fund raising! Two Halloween ventures we will have a presence at are Abbey House Hotel on 28 October and Abbey Mill Cafe on 31st October...we hope to raise some coins and put these towards projects for the abbey and its regeneration! This has been a big piece of work and most time consuming...but very pleased that we have moved forward.
Second big task this summer-book signings. Don't know if its the recession but the sales have been less than last year and there don't seem to be as many people out and about. Also this silly weather has affected the shows and some have been cancelled! Yet the two local ones were great! Must work on the marketing! However, when you look at author royalties after deductions for some of the larger booksellers (you know who you are) I wonder why I bother with a price tag! I certainly won't be retiring any time soon! But then I love writing and sharing my work...so onward and upward!
Last but definitely not least the new venture. New Horizons Education Ltd-we have really made headway and will be in the new premises soon. Working on Moodle and setting up course work has been brilliant and we will be working tomorrow preparing for our new intake of students in September. Exciting times!
Talking of students...my youngest will be off to Leeds Trinity University soon-another big change...inevitable but painful nevertheless!I will adjust I expect but its another milestone I suppose that I can hardly believe I have passed! Tempus fugit!
Saturday, 25 February 2012
All our educational eggs in one basket
Great day at St Paul's CE Junior School yesterday. I was privileged to be invited as a judge for the annual poetry competition and I have to say it was a hard task. The standard was very high and each pupil had done a fantastic job of learning their poem. They all used amazing expression and showed great maturity in standing up in front of an audience and reciting-in some case quite hard and long poems. I really enjoyed myself and I thought the children were brilliant. Take a look on the link to see the prizewinners.
http://www.st-pauls.cumbria.sch.uk/
Today we visited Leeds Trinity University to take a look at the journalism course. It was very impressive and I wouldn't mind going myself. It looks very modern, professional and a fantastic opportunity to get a good grounding in the skills required to be a journalist. Naturally, the cost implication is quite significant and it made me reflect on my own university education...which because I went in 1975...was free! In fact many of the politicians who insisted upon student loans, fees and the rest, also received a free education. To say that cost will not prevent young people from accessing uni is a fallacy -the conversation I had with my daughter and boyfriend was discussing how much debt she would exit uni with after 3 years. The consensus was that the idea of a large debt was not attractive-however, to enable her to enter the highly competitive arena of journalism, a degree and NCTJ Diploma would give her an advantage. We talked it through and I believe that while debt is never a good option, in this case it needs to be regarded as an investment in a career. Hopefully, it will pay off -and as the politicians declare-will ensure a higher salary. However, it does not always work out that way...my eldest son-a journalist is still paying off a student loan from 8 years ago-he is fully employed, but on appraisal could be earning a similar wage had he become a manager in a supermarket or similar, without going to uni. My second son who had dreamed of becoming an archaeologist from 9 years old, lived the dream for a time, but earned less than an office worker without 3 years study-he has now gone into industry and is earning double his previous salary. So all this leaves me rather confused and ambivalent. I earned well as a teacher and could see progression in my career and I had trained, gone to University and even progressed to Masters level-yet it did not prevent me from being made redundant last year and has proved very problematic to acquire anything like the remuneration I previously had.
I believe strongly in education and think anyone with the ability should be able to access this. But I do not believe it is for everyone and it is not always the golden key to riches and security as we are led to believe. Choice is important, but so are options and believe that other training options and apprenticeships are often undersold and regarded as second best! Yet surely these are the areas we should be building on-lets not put all our educational eggs in the same basket and let's begin to value skills as well as academic performance-we need the craftsmen, engineers, tradesmen and innovators to stimulate our economy-we should be trying to recoup the losses made over the years and become a creative and productive society again. We led the industrial revolution-particularly in this town-Barrow-in-Furness-purpose built by industrialists and innovators; lets do it again and learn from our past mistakes-we have the expertise and the people needing work...or are we all destined to offer our services free of charge on part time work experience schemes? I hope not!
http://www.st-pauls.cumbria.sch.uk/
Today we visited Leeds Trinity University to take a look at the journalism course. It was very impressive and I wouldn't mind going myself. It looks very modern, professional and a fantastic opportunity to get a good grounding in the skills required to be a journalist. Naturally, the cost implication is quite significant and it made me reflect on my own university education...which because I went in 1975...was free! In fact many of the politicians who insisted upon student loans, fees and the rest, also received a free education. To say that cost will not prevent young people from accessing uni is a fallacy -the conversation I had with my daughter and boyfriend was discussing how much debt she would exit uni with after 3 years. The consensus was that the idea of a large debt was not attractive-however, to enable her to enter the highly competitive arena of journalism, a degree and NCTJ Diploma would give her an advantage. We talked it through and I believe that while debt is never a good option, in this case it needs to be regarded as an investment in a career. Hopefully, it will pay off -and as the politicians declare-will ensure a higher salary. However, it does not always work out that way...my eldest son-a journalist is still paying off a student loan from 8 years ago-he is fully employed, but on appraisal could be earning a similar wage had he become a manager in a supermarket or similar, without going to uni. My second son who had dreamed of becoming an archaeologist from 9 years old, lived the dream for a time, but earned less than an office worker without 3 years study-he has now gone into industry and is earning double his previous salary. So all this leaves me rather confused and ambivalent. I earned well as a teacher and could see progression in my career and I had trained, gone to University and even progressed to Masters level-yet it did not prevent me from being made redundant last year and has proved very problematic to acquire anything like the remuneration I previously had.
I believe strongly in education and think anyone with the ability should be able to access this. But I do not believe it is for everyone and it is not always the golden key to riches and security as we are led to believe. Choice is important, but so are options and believe that other training options and apprenticeships are often undersold and regarded as second best! Yet surely these are the areas we should be building on-lets not put all our educational eggs in the same basket and let's begin to value skills as well as academic performance-we need the craftsmen, engineers, tradesmen and innovators to stimulate our economy-we should be trying to recoup the losses made over the years and become a creative and productive society again. We led the industrial revolution-particularly in this town-Barrow-in-Furness-purpose built by industrialists and innovators; lets do it again and learn from our past mistakes-we have the expertise and the people needing work...or are we all destined to offer our services free of charge on part time work experience schemes? I hope not!
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