Who'd be a teacher?

As someone who has spent more time in school adminstration than teaching, I have the greatest admiration for those who carry on doing a good job in the classroom year after year. MGS produces a good number of teachers (and Heads), and I'm glad to see that John Witton (ex-MGS pupil) and son of Allan and Lesley (both ex-MGS teaching staff) is featured in one of the latest advertisements from the TDA, the Training and Development Agency for Schools:


http://www.harriscrystalpalace.org.uk/39/video/video/25/mr-wittons-tda-advert


One of MGS's great teachers of modern times was Ian Leverton, first Head of Russian and subsequently Head of Modern Foreign Languages, who died tragically young. He is said to have taught largely through the language and imagery of football, so the first Russian sentence a 13 year old learned might have been 'That's a thundering shot from outside the box'. One of the many MGS soccer teams he successfully coached, the lads of 1976 to 1983, presented a trophy in his memory this year to be awarded annually to the highest goal scorer of the season, and this was duly awarded by Rodger Alderson to Felix Shalom (U12, 29 goals) in Prizegiving this morning.


The 2009-2010 school year has now officially ended, but the Development Office staff will be in action for most of the summer break. I'm off for 2 weeks in Austria with the 'Old Trekkers' Trek' - a hut-to-hut walking tour at, hopefully, a leisurely pace, but will be around again from the end of the month.