From the President

Many will probably think that as I work in Wales, and continue to be very committed to Wales, that I was born in Wales. Actually, I was born in North Lincolnshire, almost as far away from Wales as you can travel! My passion for making things began at an early stage in primary school and to some extent was constrained by a grammar school education. We didn’t get the opportunities that pupils have today. However I was in the Scouts and enjoyed collecting badges, especially those that included making things. On leaving school, I went to Loughborough and on to teach in Cheshire, and in 1988 joined their advisory service working alongside Omry Bailey. I know you will be thinking that that explains a lot; however, Omry and I had three very successful years working together before I got the adviser post in Clwyd in North East Wales.

Now I suspect that many of you do not know that Clwyd is an acronym for Come Live With Your Dreams and I hope to share some of the beauty and dreams with you when you come to Llandudno next April. (17 – 19 April).

Conference planning is moving along quite well and I am ahead of schedule. I find this pleasing as it is demanding when you have a full time post that totally revolves around design and technology. I am one of the few fortunate ones that doesn’t get involved with anything else. However, I am still collecting badges. I was reflecting with someone the other day that not only am I serving as your President, but I am also Chairman of the Welsh D&T Advisers, External Examiner to the three year ITT course in D&T at Bangor University, convener of the F1Challenge for North Wales, as well as full committee member for the AQA. So, I do get around a bit.

Anyway, back to the Conference. I am still working with Omry to make the Friday of Conference slightly different and we have a further planning meeting this Friday (28 September). As I indicated in the last Newsletter, the Friday will be held at Venue Cymru, which is a 5 minute walk along the promenade. Let us hope the weather is kind to us as well as being bracing.

Naturally, I will be at the D&T exhibition at the NEC for the full three days in November and hopefully most of you will be able to attend. So, I look forward to perhaps meeting you there, but if not, I will have to wait until next April!

Can I remind colleagues that some LAs will be on their Easter break at the time of the Conference, so as a reminder I am copying one element from the last Newsletter.

"I am aware that this has a potential impact for some colleagues on the Easter holiday structure, so careful planning might be necessary for some. But herein lies an opportunity. North Wales is a wonderful place for the tourist; we have the mountains, the lakes and the sea, as well as many castles. So there is plenty to do and see and you may wish to take advantage of this."

And in addition you can always make the case to the boss that you are not taking anything out of term time!