Emerging from the festive period to a media diet of fires, floods and yet another flashpoint in the Middle East doesn’t do much for the Monday morning mood. And that’s before grappling with the more mundane issues of overpriced, overcrowded trains and any snow in the forecast simply being a sludgy inconvenience rather than a seasonal sprinkling. So, what is there to look forward to? Here are my top five silver linings.
As the Chancellor was setting out his spending plans for the year ahead this week, including his pledge to ‘level up’ investment in the north of England, I and many others were hearing about the hopes, fears and expectations of people living in the north at the People’s Powerhouse convention.
If there are any positives to be found in the current situation it’s that many of us will never take the work of teachers for granted again. Keeping young and enquiring minds busy while juggling the rest of your day’s work – and remember teachers also have plenty of ‘work’ to do besides running lessons – can be physically and mentally draining.
For some families it’s Home Alone, for others The Polar Express. For me you still can’t beat A Christmas Carol as the film that turns the sofa into a place to sink into the season. Odd really given Dickens’ original intent was to produce a tract excoriating the capitalist system for its maltreatment of children, a polemic against ignorance and want wrapped in a tale about personal responsibility and redemption. Not that you’d know that from watching the Muppets’ version.
As a parent and a governor, and contrary to some national press opinion, I’ve nothing but admiration for the way teachers have kept schools running and pupils learning since September – coping with an endless stream of last minute government guidance changes and meeting the welfare and wellbeing needs of children in the most trying of circumstances.