'Slow-moving and losing its identity' - I became intrigued by this phrase while listening to the Shipping Forecast, and I felt that it had to have a wider implication.
In 1971, I began what proved to be a long career in education. Three and a half decades on, I now feel somewhat 'slow-moving and losing my identity'.
Changes, I've seen a few. Although initially I taught in a hut in the school yard, the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages. I was on my own, rarely visited and able to establish my own vision and ethos. The environment reflected the nearby infant school even though 'my' children were seven- to nine-year- olds. The parents brought the children into the cloakroom every morning, and we had lots of conversations about the problems they faced on a daily basis.
Real parental involvement became very clear to me. We shared the successes and failures. I talked to parents about switching the children on to books and how they could develop a love of mathematics. They saw the children's enthusiasm and motivation grow through access to sand, water and paint and role play. Many a morning the mothers talked of setting up a tea urn in our hut and solving the problems of the pit village where they lived.
The 'little' class of 27 'remedial' children grew through a curriculum which matched their developing needs. Their self-esteem blossomed through a nurturing environment, and a high proportion of them found themselves able to cope in mainstream mixed-ability classes alongside their peers. I still have the farewell card from Lynne, 'who laughs at spots', Lesley 'four fingers', and Elizabeth, 'who learned to love books'.
So, where are Lynne, Lesley and Elizabeth now? Are they parents or grandparents in a community like my school, Clare- mont, with its newly established children's centre?
Have they retained their individual identities? Or, like me, do they feel an ever-creeping bureaucratic mediocrity which threatens to overwhelm the passions we grew and developed in those unregulated days?
For the first time in years, the desire to pause and reflect is overwhelming. Space to do so should restore my identity and help me come back fighting ever-increasing centralisation... at gale force.
Pat Wills is head teacher at Claremont Community Primary School and Centre of Excellence, Blackpool