GBBO v the snow

After a disrupted week, I am guessing the weekend will be particularly welcome. It’s been cold, goodness me it’s been cold, but the wintery landscape, our fields and yards, have looked very bright and clean. When the sun is shining, even when we have snow and ice, things do look that bit more exciting and exhilarating. Thank you all for managing the conditions and how our children and young people have presented this week.

It’s that time of year when the shopping marketing and advertising starts to ramp up; with Black Friday almost upon us and Christmas just around the corner. Those events, from a commercial perspective, will excite some of us, and some of us will hide from the hype. I’d like to rename next Friday – Bright Friday. We have our Trust’s Professional Learning Day to look forward to and it will be far more exciting than a shopping trip to Meadowhall. I want to say a thank you to all of you who have offered to lead a workshop, run a stall at the marketplace or who have been involved in the organisation and pre-PLD management. And thank you to all of our colleagues at Winterhill School for accommodating and making us all feel so welcome. And a very special and public thank you to our key leaders who have done so much work in imagining this event and pulling it together for us all; thank you to Nicola (SJS), Mandy (TRC), Sam (OHS) and Charlotte (WHS) – we couldn’t have done any of it without you!

And a quick Steelers update. Unfortunately, they lost the second leg of the last 16 game on Tuesday evening, in Berlin. Reports suggest it was an incredible performance and all the Steelers fans can be very proud of what their team has achieved this season.

And whilst we are on this season, we are close to the final of the Great British Bake Off. There are a few things that I would regularly watch but, as many of you will know having read my musings over the years, bake off is one of those super TV programmes which keeps me going through the cold autumnal months. There are a whole host of reasons why I enjoy it. Firstly, especially with the week that we’ve had, it’s filmed in summer and so it brings a little bit of summer warmth into our autumnal evenings. And, more importantly, it often shows us a Britain that many of us know and are comfortable with. It always offers us a real mixed bag of characters who reflect more truly our communities, than maybe some other media outlets might do. Sometimes, especially through newspapers, we get a view of the country which isn’t quite realistic or true. Bake off represents all that is wonderful about this country. It’s clear that one’s country of birth, family heritage, sexual orientation or age are not considered when looking at who might be the contestants. It’s down to one thing, and one thing only: can you bake?

This year’s finalists are truly brilliant. I think it’s too close to call between the consistency and flavours of Christiaan (what sort of accent is that? – it’s all over the place!) the imagination and the amazing designs of Georgie (just believe!) and the incredible brilliance of Dillon (hoovering up Hollywood handshakes). What a treat we’ve got to look forward to this coming week. And not a soggy bottom in sight.

And finally, I just like to reference that Wednesday was International Men’s Day. I know that on the whole, we shouldn’t be offering men much more, they seem to have had more than their fair share of attention over millennia, but we do need to be realistic; some of our young men are lost and if we aren’t careful we will lose them to others, with malevolent intent – they will become ‘cannon fodder’ in the fights of others.

As was discussed at TRC this week…

“Today, we join the global celebration of International Men’s Day. Let’s take this opportunity to encourage open conversations about the challenges men face and how we can support each other in building an inclusive, compassionate environment for everyone.”