Thursday 25 February
I took a brief and unexpected walk outside today. Just around the grounds of our school, a student joined me. He was having a tough time concentrating and staying in the room he should have been in. This was a problem because we need our young people to remain in their set rooms to stick to our risk assessment. As I explained to him “I appreciate that things are changing, but they haven’t changed.”
So, we went outside and although it wasn’t sunny, it was mild enough and the grass areas had dried out enough to allow us to walk across them. We spotted different birds feathers in the clumpy grass and tried to work out what they were from and why they were there.
We also went to the vegetable patch and did a bit of tidying up before walking to the small area of slightly longer grass. Once we were both walking on it I explained that we had left this space free to wild over before we planted a small wooded area.
Then we headed back inside and headed back to his class room to allow him to get back on with his learning. And it struck me that he possibly learnt more, was more interested and engaged, and would undoubtedly like to do more of that again, than if he had stayed inside.
Today we learnt that teachers would be ‘trusted’ to provide the grades for all GCSE and A’Level courses this summer. Also a little more detail on the mass testing programme we will be incorporating into our first fortnight of post-lockdown schooling on March 8th.
And that scientists have discovered a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) which is the movement that produces the Gulfstream which brings mild air to us from across the Atlantic Ocean. However, this change could result in more storms battering the UK, and more intense winters and an increase in damaging heatwaves and droughts across Europe.
And seventy-eight years ago tonight, right now in fact, the orchard opposite would be animated by flickering light from a burning Halifax bomber. Flashing shadows here and there through the trees.
The Bald Birder 