Bake o’clock

2nd October 2023

Another week passes and we move out of the very long month of September. 30 calendar days and 21 working days – I think we’ve actually been in school and college every single day in September that we could have possibly worked and, as always, the start of the year has brought challenges and wonderful opportunities. I know not everyone will be wired up in the same way as me, and that is a blessed relief, but I do very much look forward to the return to the academic year, knowing that there is a rhythm and routine as we move into the autumn months.

 

And as we move into the autumn months, some old familiar things have returned.  This week in particular I’ve been keen (and almost excited) to watch the first episode of this year’s Great British Bake Off. I thought that Alison Hammond did very well! I’ve mentioned Bake Off before. As I watched, earlier this week, yet again I saw anBritain that I felt I could be proud of, and I associate with.  Bake Off seems to say more about a Britain that we would all enjoy living in than other elements of the media. Quite literally, as always, there was a real mixed bag of people. Characters who we know, who we meet here and there, in our everyday lives, but they’re not often portrayed so positively through other media. A real slice (excuse the pun) through our community.

 

There are other TV programmes, community events, social events, and so on that do our country justice, and truly reflect who we are and what we believe in. Sadly, in these polemic days that positive view of our country  is often lost in the sound and the noise made by those shouting loudly from the ends of our political, cultural and social spectrum.

 

Bake Off runs right through until Christmas bringing us a warmth on a Tuesday evening,  No soggy bottom for me. Perfect.

 

We all work hard, within our schools and in the college to add something positive to our communities. That has been exemplified this week through the Macmillan coffee morning at Sitwell Junior School and the Open Evening at Oakwood High School. Two terrifically well attended events which allowed us to reach out into our communities – evidencing a positivity and a professionalism. Our communities value our work and value our reach.

 

And on the horizon; we’ll soon have the language classes re-starting at Thomas Rotherham College. We have almost 100 people from across our community signed up, we’ve got waiting lists and we’ve had to say no (due to being over-subscribed) to so many people. This is brilliant and allows us to bring the ‘outside in’

 

‘The way to get to like good food is by learning to cook, which is why I’m for ever banging on about children learning to cook’. Prue Leith

‘When I was 14, I had a job in a cake shop. I got caught by the boss, lying down eating cake, and was sacked on my first day’. Noel Fielding