Interesting Times!: TEAM PARKLANDS!

Wednesday 1 December 2010

TEAM PARKLANDS!

My colleague Cath Hindmarch, headteacher at Parklands Primary School sent me this e-mail...

"Morning Chris! I wonder what is on your list for a snowy and icy morning? Sensible shoes?? No-sensible boots. Red wine-too dodgey for slippy pavements. On mine is the great team I work with and some chocolate about half 10. We've had a very challenging week but Team Parklands does its stuff. 2 people need special mention-our marvellous and fab Christine who has done open up and lock up in the absence of a caretaker since October and many times before that over the last 3 years. She stayed in school all day yesterday so that there was access for workmen. The other person is her daughter Chloe. Chloe left us last Summer to go to the DYCA. She took a call from me very early on Monday morning and told me that her mum had already set off for work to open up. Without prompting, Chloe offered to go out into the snow and walk up to school to pass my message on. She did this and saved the day. When I listen to people moaning about young people, I always feel quite angry. We all know the most fantastic young people and they really do deserve more credit. Have a good day! Cath."

It's funny, I know what I won't miss after Christmas but, I will miss people like Cath and her brilliant team at Parklands Primary School. They and an army of colleagues in outstanding schools across Leeds constantly remind me why I stayed here for the last ten years and why I am here today sitting at the top of Merrion House watching the snow falling on the city. Our children and young people are blessed to have people like Cath and her colleagues to care for them and to help them be happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... whatever it takes! Chris

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Brilliant Quotes!

“I must accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.”
Margaret Lee Runbeck

“Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.”
John B. Sheerin

“Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline.”
William L Shirer

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: If you pursue happiness you'll never find it.”
C.P. Snow

“Doubly rich is the man still boyish enough to play, laugh and sing as he carries and emanates sunshine along a friendly road.”
Charles R. Wiers

"Faith is not a shelter against difficulties, but belief in the face of all contradictions."
Paul Tournier

"Convictions are the mainsprings of action, the driving powers of life. What a man lives are his convictions."
Francis C. Kelley

"To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger; but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can."
Sydney Smith

"It is often just as sacred to laugh as it is to pray"
Charles R. Swindoll

"Things never go so well that one should have no fear; and never so ill that one should have no hope"
Turkish proverb

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself"
Chinese proverb

"Don't bother to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
William Faulkner

"In times of change, learners will inherit the earth,while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists"
Eric Hoffer

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
John Lennon

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."
Robert F. Kennedy

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
Mahatma Gandhi

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."
Abraham Lincoln

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"There is nothing in life so difficult that it cannot be overcome. This faith can move mountains. It can change people. It can change the world."
Norman Vincent Peale

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

"Life isn't measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments that take our breath away."
Anonymous

"Patience and perseverence have a magical affect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
John Quincy Adams

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and woman to win them."
Ralph Waldo Emerson