Town Sports Day!

Today I attended the Town Sports Day where all the local kids ran in competition and their parents attended and cheered them on.  The reason that I attended was that my second granddaughter was running in a relay race.  Now I know, because I have attended a couple of her 'Sports Days' that the emphasis at this particular primary school is definitely non competitive!  The Headmistress likes music and so competitive young lads must sing with the girls! Yuck!

So we arrive at Loughborough University (what a lovely setting) and we discover that they are approximately one hour behind schedule. That may be fine for people who have nothing better to do but I am with parents who are both on nights!!

There is no PA announcing results. There is nobody updating the public on what is happening.  A couple of people wander in front of the crowd with boards (two numbers) telling you what event is happening.  Nobody is announcing which school is winning and nobody is announcing the winning pupils!  It is a typically abject performance from the education professionals.

I spy teachers taking their kids to the far side of the track and preparing them for the relay race. All of them are practicing but my granddaughter's teacher has disappeared.  The kids mill around leaderless. I asked her why they were not practicing and she tells me that their team does not have a baton! 

Eventually the race happens. The lead runner for my granddaughters's team gained a silver medal in the individual race and streaks off.  Suddenly at the first handover the second girl freezes and the advantage is lost because the poor girl does not know the rules.  She stands still and receives the baton without momentum.  The whole team is destroyed and there are tears.

That bloody so called PE teacher has a lot to answer for.  I am sorry but lazy, ignorant prats like him should never be in charge of kids. The day was an embarrassment for the teachers.  They have no idea how to run a sports day.  They were exposed as incompetents and talented children were let down by lazy teachers.

The only fee paying school slaughtered all the rest because their teachers are dedicated to their pupils. They wanted to win! The consequences of this afternoon could be long standing.  The poor girl who froze will never forget her embarrassment.  The other three athletes feel cheated. They are 10 years of age! Teachers need to be more aware that competitive sport is a fact of life. They have a duty to get involved.  It is no longer acceptable to be a wimp and to be incompetent! One half decent serviceman would have saved the day.

North Leicestershire ITEC

Way back in July I posted about the training organisation that I worked for in the ten years after I left the army. Yesterday evening a few of us met up again after almost twenty years. It was actually unbelievable because within minutes the years had rolled back and we were as we were.

The evening progressed and unfortunately I was 'under the weather'. I expected to last about an hour and make my excuses but suddenly everything took off and we had a great night. Heh nothing spectacular but it was comfortable, enjoyable and it made me think.

Why after 20 years do these people all feel almost like family? It took them minutes to adjust and then the banter began. Now remember we had only 15 people and their 'generations' spread over 10 years but they all trained under the same regime. They were taught discipline, respect, manners and above all team spirit. They were taught army values in a civilian environment.

They know that it was never an autocratic regime. Rules were set and were enforced but were maintained by the trainees. In those days all the lads wore ties and all the girls dressed decently... nobody wanted to argue because we all loved it. We were a family.

So now last night I met products of a production line that I (I hate to say this) put into action. I instigated a plan to assist the decent kids who were not university material...the kids who were not academic but needed an opportunity...the decent majority who just needed someone to bat for them.

Now here is the clincher that the politicians are useless. This scheme was sensationally successful in gaining employment for their trainees. It was closed down at the end of the nineties along with all the other county council training schemes. At one stage a local prominent Labour councillor called Mike Jones presented the prizes on a presentation evening (I have it on video) and it was blatantly obvious that this was a success story. When it was closed down he never raised a finger to save it!

 I was involved with these people for 10 years...at the end of the evening a guy who had been rejected for Information Technology by his school pulled me to one side and bought me a double Glenfiddich! His earnings are in the stratosphere "mortgage paid...Porsche in the garage".

As regular readers of this blog (if any) will remember I lost my beloved Iain (son) last year to an RTA but when one of the most successful of my trainees even links me as a 'parent' he will never know how proud I was. It is the ultimate accolade of any 'supervisor' and fictionally I would adopt him tomorrow (but I do like Glenfiddich!!).

North Leicestershire ITEC

I am deviating from my usual themes because a remarkable event is currently happened in my life and I must refer to it. For ten years, after I left the army, I was involved in an organisation called North Leicestershire Information Technology Centre. It was in effect a youth training scheme run by Leicestershire County Council.

I was actually referred to this local ITEC by the Job Centre because of my instructional experience in the army and it was the luckiest day of my life. The manager at that time was looking for a stooge because he had no interest in the trainees and only wanted to use the centre for his commercial ambitions.

Consequently he delegated the recruitment of trainees to this scheme to the one person who wanted the job.  Me! Now I had the power to recruit the people who would enhance the scheme and benefit from the community that I wanted to develop. So I encouraged, pushed and plotted to design a scheme which would enhance the development of young people who were not getting the support from mainstream education.

You must remember that in the early nineteen eighties/nineties the schools did not have  computers. We had 90 networked computers which the lads and lasses could experiment on. Every year I recruited people who for whatever reason had not impressed mainstream education. Generally they were guys and gals who needed some encouragement and advice.

They came in their droves! In the interview season I was faced by wonderful, eager, young people who wanted a chance... I was also faced with insecure youngsters who needed additional support. In those days in our ITEC they were not singled out. They were part of the community.

I will cut to the chase. I left these people in 1997 by which time I was by default the Manager of the scheme.  In 2011 an ex trainee (Kev) decided to form a Facebrook group of ex ITEC trainees. I never thought that the environment that I created would survive all these years. Today I am receiving messages from so many successful young people that I can hardly believe it! Not just successful young people but happy, well adjusted young people; people who contribute to society. I am so proud of the ITEC legacy.

The fact that so many ex trainees want to relive their teen years is testimony to my policy and to the efforts of people like Paula, Becky, Colin and .....Dipak! Your memories live on people.

I will now pass away really happy that so many people feel connected to the training model I designed. Am I out of order to suggest that the ITEC model should be brought into schools and colleges?  I know it is the right model and that is why the educationalists and the politicians will reject it. None of my boys and gals went to university we just cared for them... and I really cared for them!!