Half marathons, teacher training days and a school reunion - the pot pourri that is Passing Shots!

ONE of the downsides of social media is that it rubs in your face those occasions and events which you can't attend.

This morning, flicking through Facebook, there are loads of postings about the Swindon and the Royal Parks half marathons - at least one of which I was hoping to run this morning. That was until my blessed hamstring decided to give me so much jip.

I'm doing the exercises twice daily and have got another physio session tomorrow evening with "Mad Mark". Patience is the name of the game, but it's not easy when you read how everyone is gearing up for their runs this morning.

It's moments like this which make you value the good things in your life, and make you more determined to get back to fitness as soon as possible.


WE had a teacher training day this week at college. Initially told my boss that I wasn't keen to attend since my focus had to be on the students, particularly those on the 20-week journalism course.

In the end, we agreed a compromise and I turned up for half a day's training, and rotated the timetable with extra shorthand lessons so the students didn't miss out.

The first session was about understanding disability, particularly autism, a subject where I learnt absolutely nothing new. It would have been interesting to have understood strategies which might be employed for dealing with various disabilities in class, but that didn't happen.

The second session featured a speaker from Hampshire Police talking about the vulnerability of young students to be radicalised by religion. His presentation style was a little unusual, and at times flippant and patronising, but the subject matter was interesting.

In 2013, a student from Highbury College was among five Portsmouth men who made the trip to Syria, and one of them, Ifthekar Jaman, was killed almost a year ago while fighting with Islamic State in Iraq. He's not the guy in the picture, by the way!

During the teacher training, it was fascinating to hear what police are doing to counter this radicalisation, especially in universities and colleges. One of the ways is to challenge the views of these youngsters. It's an interesting theory.

As for the teacher training day, I still wonder why we have them in the middle of term.

These are the old-style Baker Days, born from the Conservative Government of Kenneth Baker. There is no doubt that these training days are extremely valuable. In business, training is an integral part of an employee's development, and so it should be for teaching.

Before I was a teacher, I questioned why these teacher training days were thrown in the middle of term, causing enormous disruption to pupils and their families. Now as a teacher, I still subscribe to that view.

I get 40 days' holiday a year, plus eight Bank Holidays. Surely it is feasible to organise training days just before the start of a new term - the Monday after the pupils break-up for holidays, or even the Friday before term resumes.


I'M looking forward to a week's time when we have a school reunion in Middlesex.

It was 40 years ago that I began secondary school education at the Mr Chips-like St Nicholas Grammar School in Northwood Hills. That seems a lifetime away.

I was one of the last of the 11-plus brigade and remember cycling the four miles from home in South Ruislip to school every day.

School was not easy. I wasn't gifted academically like some of the other students, and preferred sport to lessons, but I got by.

Anyway, it's going to be fun to catch up with some old school friends, some of whom I haven't seen for almost 35 years when we meet in a pub near Harefield next Saturday evening.

It will be a time to compare grey hairs and waist lines!

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