Page 74 - She's One Crazy Lady!

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we shared a de“
that had never been attempted before, and covered all areas of the curriculum, bringing in a variety of professional, skilled people to work alongside the children. This was ‘real’ teaching! Taking children out of the classroom to witness at first-hand, the world of work was such an eye-opener. They were exposed to so many problem-solving scenarios, meetings with directors, bank managers, printers, designers and a host of other skilled workers. It was hard work. The finale was to put on a huge presentation to parents, Education officials and to everyone who had been involved and launch their products to sell. It included a special tea party to celebrate, which the children planned, costed, shopped, cooked and served. It was a huge success and I’m sure the children in my charge will always remember the fun we shared, and the lessons learned. For me, it was all about seeing every child experience the magical buzz of success..
Years later, after Dennis had retired, I was successful in securing another year’s secondment as an Advisory Teacher as part of the National Curriculum Team in Northamptonshire, with responsibility for Design and Technology. Based in Northampton, I worked with a great group of very knowledgeable and experienced Teachers and Inspectors and felt honoured to be included in this new initiative. Ian, who I had been
sk – we had so much fun! He had such a wicked sense of humour and brought much hilarity to the
at college with and was a very good friend, was now the advisor for Secondary Art and we shared a desk – we had so much fun! He had such a wicked sense of humour and brought much hilarity to the busy office. We are still in touch today and were to meet up when we both obtained our Master of Arts Degree in Professional Educational Studies in 1994 at Leicester University; a degree I chose to study for in my own time as I hoped it would help me to achieve my dream, one day, of becoming a Headteacher.
busy offi”
I had hoped the Advisory position would become permanent, but this wasn’t to be, so I had to return to Whitefriars. Under David Threadkill, the new Headteacher, I became his Acting Deputy Head to cover a maternity leave of absence. He was a little dubious at first about me taking on this role, possibly because he didn’t know me as I’d been out for a year doing the advisory work, but I simply got on with what had to be done and was so pleased, shortly before I left Whitefriars, when he told me that the six months or so, as his Deputy, were the best months of his career.
In that interim period, and still very keen to introduce different teaching methods and skills to children, I was approached by The Centre for Citizenship, the University of Leicester and Barclaycard to see if I would be interested in setting up a unique project with my class of top Juniors.
ce.