Diary of a head And the winner is...


Stuart Mcleodwas thrilled when his school was nominated for an award. However, the ceremony did not quite live up to expectations


L


ast September saw the education press requesting awards nominations. I do not buy lottery tickets. It comes from


years of being a Newcastle United fan. But this time it was a real case of let us see what happens as I entered my higher level teaching assistant for a Teaching Award and our school council for a Community Education Award for Money Management. I rather expected the whole awards process


to be something akin to buying premium bonds; an initial flurry and never heard of again. Confirmations of both awards came and went but around March events began to take over. The Teaching Awards folk rang to confi rm that there would soon be a visitation of three wise ladies. Their job was to assess our nomination by talking to pupils, parents, staff and governors. We checked to see if there was a star above the bike shed and lo, there in the east, from the land of the traffi c cones in Weymouth, there appeared three sages. It was a superb day as the school community proved we have a great colleague whose commitment and passion for the school is unparalleled. The Magi left. Nothing else was heard until a


month later I received notifi cation that Dianne had won the South West Teaching Assistant Award. We held a special assembly to which everyone who had supported Di’s nomination


was invited, alongside her family. The Plato was presented, press releases were written and that was it, or so we thought. Soon after, Di was invited to the House of


Commons to meet Dame Shirley Williams in the company of all the other fi nalists. Di would also be invited to the fi nals in London on October 30 which would be televised later that day on BBC 2. A month before Di travelled to London, news


reached the school offi ce that we were fi nalists in the Police Community Clubs’ Community Education Awards. The Ceremony was going to be held in Chigwell on July 1. Tickets for the evening were £100 each but, as headteacher, I could get in half price. I set off that Friday morning full of


anticipation and Pringles (up all night preparing my acceptance speech). The blessed North Circular put paid to any


chance of arriving at the plush hotel in stately fashion. And the plush hotel wasn’t quite…er.. plush – £23 a night for B&B tells its own story. This was more like the stable the Magi had been looking for earlier that month. The sweet Eastern European receptionist


assured me that the 167 bus would take me straight to the door. So there I was, sat at the back of a bus, dressed up in a tuxedo and bow tie, looking like an extra from Happy Feet, at school closing time. Kids took one look and


thought better than to sit next to the nightclub doorman. We were all mixed up inside the hall. I was


placed at the front table with two charming governors from Yorkshire who were in for an eco-award for having a wind turbine in their school. That was some conversation! And to my right there were three lovely girls from Scotland who had done some dynamic work on anti-bullying. Esther Rantzen sat with us, as she was the


hostess for the evening, and I froze. All I could think of for polite conversation was one of Cyril Fletcher’s rather rude Odd Odes from That’s Life aeons ago. Didn’t go down too well. Mental note, do not repeat it in the acceptance speech. Our award was the fi rst of the night. All the


nominations were read and…we won! Esther struggled to get her teeth around “Southwell Supersavers” but the Rocky music started up and I was summoned to the podium. I was presented with an engraved glass plaque. I steeled myself for the opening lines I had been preparing for forty years: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, penguins, bouncers…” but no, the photo was taken and there would be no speeches. In fact no one else on the table won an award so at the end of the night they all cleared off and I was left like a fart in a spacesuit to dance on my own to Congratulations. Never had a 167 bus seemed so welcoming! So, good luck this year, may your wishes come true and your targets be met but be careful when you enter any awards. sbmcleod@sky.com


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