It is part and parcel of the KEGS tradition that it isn’t done to be too grand or too self-righteous or to be unable to laugh at yourself.  They call it banter. Many of my thoughts and pronouncements via assemblies or newsletters come back to bite me via the KEGS Ambassador, student-led assemblies and numerous other channels.   Here are some of the greatest hits – the deep thoughts that keep on coming back to haunt me!

Lessons from Geese:  flying in formation to maximise efficiency, taking turns to lead, honking encouragement, etc – and the obvious implications for life! Honk honk….. I love this analogy, but it has spawned (geddit?!) various subsequent animal-related pseudo analogies.  I can take it!

How to get a straw through a potato:  the self-fulfilling outcome of assumed impossibility; the need for direct ‘can-do’ approaches to problems…. great metaphor and good physics too.  It works if you just stab it through in one go. No, really, it does!  Risky assembly……

I used to teach the Verve/Richard Ashcroft!  Really embarrassing attempt to get ‘down with the kids’.  Even if true.   I have tape of them playing aged 17; I recorded it myself…… but still, it’s a bitter sweet symphony etc….’How Mr Sherrington made the Verve what they are today’ …. never ends! Never…

All Education Jargon:   Dylan Wiliam, AfL, student-led learning – it is all fair game. Making drywipe markers a part of compulsory school equipment for using mini-white boards has pushed some over the edge.

The Outdoor Classroom; re-tractable seating…..   oddly, any recent developments on the school site are regarded with suspicion, even, as in the case of the outdoor classroom, it was a student’s idea! They don’t like the idea that money has been wasted or that these things are just vanity projects….. hard to please.

Litter:  I am rather obsessed with this to be fair…… but not THAT obsessed!

Banter itself:  After some pretty hideous episodes, a whole-school reprimand for any ‘sexist/racist banter from the 1970s’… has morphed into ‘banter is banned at KEGS’.   Frustrating……..I’ve managed to create an army of  ‘banter outlaws’!