The whole month feels like it’s been on fast forward doesn’t it– how is it nearly September already? But I’m pleased we’ve got a Bank Holiday weekend coming up – just hope that doesn’t fly by too quickly.
In the meantime, I’ve been following in fellow SLT and BMT’s footsteps this week – attending two half day Carbon Literacy Training sessions which were brilliantly presented by John Mackintosh and Lottie Fandrejewski. Piers included more details about this in his Blog of 4th August, so I won’t repeat that, but I thoroughly recommend this training which will be offered to other members of staff in due course. We were given some homework before attending the sessions– including watching this 1 hour long BBC documentary BBC iPlayer – Climate Change – The Facts which highlights key issues and data surrounding climate change and the challenges we face. This was first aired in 2019 and it embarrasses me to admit that I did not watch it at the time. But, despite it being challenging viewing, I am so pleased that I have seen it now. Whilst a lot of the content will be familiar, it really made me think about what else I can do and I am now looking at the pledges I can make on behalf of MVDC, such as lobbying central government to reconsider the benefits of virtual decision making meetings (these were permitted during the pandemic, but the emergency regulations introduced then expired in May 2021.)
As Lottie and John said during the course, we can all act as “levers” in some way. We may be at different places in this journey, but our collective action is heading in one direction. And there is hope…. In this video, taken from the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Sir David Attenborough, in those wonderful dulcet tones of his, concludes that “we are the greatest problem solvers on earth.”
In my last blog, I mentioned the training I was hoping to run on the Code of Conduct for Parish Councillors. When I first arranged this session back in June, I only had one taker (I tried not to take it personally!) I ended up running the training session last week and 15 Parish Councillors were able to attend. I knew this training was never going to draw a massive audience, but it was great to meet with those who could make it. They asked me lots of thoughtful questions and when we ran through some mini scenarios, I could tell they had been listening!
As well as the fast-forward “timey-wimey” thing (sorry, I just can’t help making these Doctor Who references) the past two weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster ride too. My daughter got her A Level results last Thursday and I felt so nervous for her (I think I actually felt worse than I did when I was waiting for my own A Levels all those years ago.) And I had a complete flash back to those same feelings this Thursday when the GCSE results came out. I’ve been very much thinking of colleagues who had young people waiting for their results this week and I hope everything has gone well for them.
Enjoy the Bank Holiday everyone and I hope you can hit the pause button and relax along the way.