Speak nicely to the officer

Living in North Wales means being more aware than most of the risks we run every time we take the car out on the roads. Up here, 30 miles an hour means 30 miles an hour and not 31. Stick to it or you risk being confronted by officers of the law leaping out of a cunningly disguised horsebox and forcing you to an abrupt halt. That being the case, this seems a natural progression in their remit.
If anyone is worried by this and feels they need help in brushing up their accent, grammar and general command of the English language, I shall, of course, be happy to help, on payment of an exorbitant fee naturally.

Austin Seven on the roof

I heard this item of news on the radio this morning and wondered about the role of the two female students who were drafted in to provide a diversion from what was going on on the roof and I wondered what the 2008 equivalent would be. You have to admit raising one's skirt two inches would not even be noticed these days, so what would those girls have to do to get noticed? Answers in comments box, please.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

Yesterday Keith was floating round on the internet when he came across a really interesting group. They seem to have a very unusual take on music and apparently tour all round the world, although we had never heard of them before. See what you think.

You don't bring me flowers
He said he had found the link on a locksmithing website.
Yes, I can quite see the connection...

Mason Lewis A

This is the young man upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility of carrying on Keith's family name. It was Mason's naming day yesterday (apparently a non-religious alternative to a christening) and at nearly six months old, he proved himself a very well-behaved star of the proceedings.

His older sister, however, 19 month old Ella decided that all this was old hat and she was off to explore, which, in her case, meant becoming akin to a non-stop whirling dervish, hence the difficulty in managing to get any photos of her!

Sports day cancelled

Oh dear, here we go again. Health and Safety rears its ugly head again, this time at a school in West Sussex, where it was decided that the field is too uneven for sports day next month. It would, of course, be too awful if anyone were to fall over whilst running or, horror of horrors, taking part in the three legged race. I defy anyone to have ever experienced a sports day where no-one fell over. At one school where I taught, we had races for mums and dads and the great challenge there was for the dads especially to stop at the finishing line rather than allow their enthusiasm to propel them into the brick wall which was a couple of feet further on. They usually managed it.
What really amazes me though, is the mother who professed to be so inconsolable at the cancellation of her daughter's first sports day. Does she not remember her own? Sports days are boring, coated with boring and with lashes more boring on top!
That's my memory of them anyway. You are all most welcome to disagree. :)

Cycling city

The government want us all to get on our bikes and get healthy, cut greenhouse emissions, save on fuel etc (Such a lot of responsibility!) and is planning to invest lots of money into encouraging this. To begin with, Bristol is getting the extra dough to improve the cycling experience around that fair citiy. Well, they've already carved up the roads to make it as difficult as possible to drive a car round there so what have they got to lose?
However, I would really like them to have awarded the money to Wrexham, not just to create extra cycle paths but to flatten all the existing roads in and around the area so that I can get on my bike and ride. You see, my problem is that I don't 'do' hills, in fact, I don't do 'little slopes' either, and instead of dismounting gracefully, I have an unfortunate tendency to fall off, having inexplicably caught my foot somewhere in the process - I haven't quite worked that one out yet, but whatever the reason, I then find myself on the ground, all dignity gone. Luckily, to avoid the possibility of being seen by anyone, I only venture out on the bike at six o'clock on a Sunday morning.
Maybe skateboarding would be the way to go...

Maths champions

A new report out today highlights the need for more maths specialists in primary schools and wants 13,000 existing teachers trained as such over the next ten years. The Primary Numeracy Strategy, introduced about ten years ago, is generally accepted to have improved maths teaching and learning in primary schools and I would say that it emphasises the importance of mental maths and also of engaging in and assimilating a wide range of strategies. Having spent most of my school years as a maths phobic, I always enjoyed teaching the Numeracy Strategy and it certainly played a part in improving children's understanding and confidence. It seems, though, that the proposed training will then rely on the new maths champions 'cascading' their knowledge and expertise within their schools to colleagues, which has long been found to be a relatively inefficient method of training.
However, the recognition of the need for greater expertise in maths teaching will, hopefully, also help to focus on the largely unrecognised problem of Year 6 (top junior) teachers being expected to have a level of expertise and knowledge commensurate with teacher of lower secondary classes, but across the whole curriculum, rather than just in their own specialism, as is the case for secondary teachers.