I know of quite a few centres who have dropped the IB due to the expense of delivering it, and also the universities have stated to significantly up their offer requirements for those students studying the IB.

I am not a particular fan of the A level system, but Gove’s latest ploy is to make a levels two year terminal qualifications. He has also linked funding so that centres will not get funding if they make students take a fourth a level subject. So far from broadening students study, as happened with AS levels where pretty much everyone took four and focused during the second year onto three A2 subjects, everyone will just do three all the way through. Another thing he slipped through is that students who take on a third year of study, ie done level 2 in their first year, being successful and moved onto a two year level three funding, who’ll only get 5/6 funding for their third year of study. No reason for this except that he seems to want to punish those students who dare to take more than his prescribed, a levels should take two years approach!

One of my department teaches archaeology, and her prosaic way of describing it is;

If something you dig up makes no sense it is religious!

Cool, that’s saved me a load of cash 🙂

Far not fair!

I have found them friendly and helpful, if I do have a query they reply within a day, and have got stuff sorted out quickly!

I think pedalprogression are Bristol/Ashton court based. I haven’t used them myself yet, but my mate has and he rates them highly. I am trying to sort out a mornings coaching with them some time in the new year.

Excellent, online ordering here I come 🙂

Cool, best start saving those Xmas pennies

Hmm as always I am on the wrong side of a trend 🙂 got a cotic x large that I am thinking of selling.

It’s a lovely bike, but I never ride on the road, so I might as well just use my mountain bike, and given my skills levels I need all the tyre width and suspension I can get 🙂

I gave a few cross races a try, I just didn’t really enjoy myself! Had far more fun at the gorrick events I have done.

Fairly new 🙂 I give new meaning to the phrase fair weather cyclist 🙂

Excellent, many thanks

I thought it was great 🙂

Riding stuff I could actually see myself riding and enjoying, and getting weird towards the end was fun!

I quite like the burgers, and getting food that hits the spot fast in a clean environment sometimes has a lot going for it!

I am another 80’s child that sees mcdonalds as a viable birthday party venue 🙂

I am doing it, although not sure whether to go for the 30km route or the 45km.

They say it is a mix of bridle ways and trails etc, anyone know how technical it is likely to be, bearing in mind I am unfit and not very confident!

See you there bright and early on Sunday morning.

Fried egg on toasted muffin, and a big mug of tea.

Love my cotic X,

You know it is a great brand, when the mechanic in my lbs who don’t stock cotic, raves about it and complimented me on the bike when I took it in to get discs fitted!

Rally tempted with a rocket, but I think it may be beyond my budget 🙁

Head of Science at a large college,

Love teaching and could not imagine wanting to do any other job. I take all the comments about those than can do, and those that can’t etc on the chin, I put up with ofsted, because at the end of the day I love sharing knowledge and helping students achieve.

I get good holidays, although not full school holidays, reasonable pay, and I work with some amazing people.

Out of uni I did research for a few years, I am so glad I decided that teaching was what I wanted to do with my life.

I did the wessex league yesterday, first cross race in years and it was great fun. I think I was last male vet 🙂 but the way I look at it, I am the person with the most potential to improve!

Can’t wait for Oxford next week, we were too late for the u12’s race, but the commissar said that there is no lower age limit, and my lad on a balance bike would be welcome to have a go! Yay my first dad and son race day, he loves bike racing so he will be over the moon to actually do a race like daddy, although he will probably be faster than me already 🙂

Might have to look at buying some cow bells!

It is the first of these types of petitions that I have received that was just utter bollocks! Maybe I have just been shielded all this time 🙂

I’ll see you at Newbury next weekend, I will be at the back on a black cotic X

I have done a couple and handling training load and staying fit is the trick.

If you just want to finish then focus on run/walking the marathon, and treat the swim as a prolonged warm up. I always did some races throughout the year so I wasn’t just training for 9months for one race.

Your first race is about finishing, you really don’t know how you body will react to the distance until you do it, if you want to race it then you need to do a few to figure out what works best for you.

I had a very understanding wife and she accepted that when I pulled the trigger on my entry that was my focus for the year, and pretty much everything revolved around it.

With two small children there is no way I could commit the time, but before that I was comfortably getting by with 12/15hour training weeks and finishing the races.

Great music! Took my wife to a Billy Bragg gig, she liked sexuality but had no idea he was political 😎

Well done on your race, 11hrs is a very respectable time for your first race at that distance.

In our club the advice is that the aim for your first ironman race is simply to finish, after that you have gained the experience needed to begin to race the course. I took big chunks of time off my ironman time during my second race at the distance, knowing what’s coming and understanding how your body reacts to the distance is experience that I think you only get by doing a race.

I wouldn’t be too upset at 77th in age group, remember most of those people will be multiple ironman finishers.

Only adVice I would suggest is to work on your swim, I am in no way a fast swimmer and I did the swim in 1:10.

Chapeau for your first finish!

Don’t recall wall to wall news coverage when Peaty or the Athertons did something that is completely normal and unexceptional! Also they are not part of the inherited monarchy and therefore probably won’t be part of a structure that expects me to show additional respect to them because of it!

Had a discussions with my wife about this today, she was of the opinion that it is news worthy and it is our future monarch and therefore we should be excited. I however am of the opinion that neither the queen or any of the royals gave two sh*** when my children were born, I am entitled to return the favour!

Strangely as I get older I am becoming more and more of a republican! I thought I was supposed to get more royalist as I progressed in years!

Glad to hear you are ok PP,

good job on chasing it up with the police, hopefully the driver will think twice if they have a quiet word! (well one can hope i suppose!)

Saturday was spent at a village fete with my in laws, my son got his face painted, then spent the rest of the day cuddling nanny and getting paint allover her top (good lad :D)

Sunday I did my first mtb race in 5 years, ‘are you tough enough’ in Deepcut, it was hotter than hell, and I think I managed to come last in the male vet cat. But as i meandered around at the back I realised that I was happy being last in a race, as it meant that I wasn’t sat at home on the sofa getting any fatter, and my son thought I was a complete hero as i came across the finish line 😀

We thought long and hard about our childrens names, only because we are both teachers/lecturers and like it or not, we both associated certain names with nightmare students we had taught.

I am not sure but,

I know C is calculated as a ration between the size of two forces (I am sure it was Maxwell that did this) so it follows that in E=MC2 Eistein used Maxwells work to link these forces to mass and energy.

Again I might be completely wrong, and it was a long time since I did my natural Sciences degree!

I had this issue yesterday, uploaded a file but then it wouldn’t show. Quick email to their helpdesk and it was resolved in about an hour. I did attach the .fit file to my query.

Really impressed with the speed of the assistance, especially as I am a free user. Now much more likely to go premium!

Its a slippery slope I tell you!! one day its commuting to work and back, the next you will be in the shower shaving your legs, dreaming of the next chain gang when you can get some more strava KOM’s 😀

BTW I think you worked on my bike a while back (orange P7 that needed new brakes!) it is riding like a dream and its so much nicer being able to stop rather than pulling the levers and hoping (as i did with the Avids :D)

One other point, when you do your PGCE (post grad qual to become a teacher) you are given lectures on child protection law/guidelines and you are left in no doubt as to a) what is acceptable behavior b) the consequences if you break those laws/guidelines. Then when you get a job in a school there is mandatory child protection training on induction and this is repeated every few years.

The point I am trying to make is that whilst you could argue the case that a non teacher etc in a night club…….. as you have mentioned before, may not know that the person is under 16 and wouldn’t be aware enough to look for it.

This person knew exactly how old she was, knew exactly what the law states about this, had lectures on how it is an abuse of power, and also would have had lectures on the nature of the relationship dynamic between teenagers and adults in positions of responsibility. he took all of this, ignored it and groomed the child. He deserves every single day of his sentence!

He is over twice her age and she was under the age of consent! As far as I know teachers are not allowed to have a sexual relationship with anyone under the age of 18 (even though age of consent is 16), that is not just limited to those who they teach!

He was in a position of trust and he abused it!

I am a teacher, and thankfully my grey hair now precludes any crushes, but when I first entered the profession there were a couple of occasions when i thought a student might be developing a crush, I went straight to the tutor/head of year, reported my concerns and ensured I was never in a position which could be misconstrued by the student. At all times I knew that this was a child who had developed a crush towards an authority figure, who was an adult and my job was to make sure she came to realise the fact it was inappropriate as soon as possible!

I think most teachers have had to deal with student crushes at some point or another, and we deal with it in a caring, professional way, we don’t end up grooming an under age child into having sex!

Brian Moore at Trevose Golf club, we were both in the bar waiting for the dinner service to begin at the restaurant. I wanted to buy him a drink for all of his test matches against the french, but my wife decided I would come across as a sad middle aged star struck bloke!

I kept looking on the pairs board to see if he wanted a partner for a round of golf on the classic course… no such luck 🙁

Don’t be seduced that everything has to be brand new! We got loads of hand me downs from friends/family that had got through the baby stage and didn’t need it anymore. The only item we bought brand new were the car seats (something I insisted upon).

Freecycle is also a really good way to get toys etc, just give them a good clean and they are usually good to go. Once we had finished with our little boys small clothes (we now have a little girl) we freecycled his baby clothes so that other parents could enjoy the baby without having to spend a fortune.

As to when to get started, whenever your partner decides it’s time. I don’t know if its true but pregnant moms seem to have a nesting instinct that kicks in, and when it does EVERYTHING needs to be organised!

I think anagallis we used to work together (were you at Yateley?), and if you said that to who I think you did, I will definitely buy you a pint next time I am in reading. 😀

Whenever I need something new I shop there, but as I am usually skint (two small children) its not as often as I would like 😀

I might try asking for a discount, not down to the online price, I know they have additional bills to pay, bu some flexibility would help alot!

Great coverage, enjoyed watching that on a Sunday afternoon, far better than the snooze fest that is f1 😀

With the 5, 5-650b and 5-29er and the gyro I am going to be doing quite a few demo rides to work out which one is right for me.

I like the look of Oranges, they sort of remind a little of land rover defenders, very utilitarian looks, but great at what they do.

They are more expensive than other bikes I am looking at, but then again sometimes you buy things not just because of the job they do, but how they look/ make you feel when you use them. I could have an epiphone les Paul that would sound great through my little terror amp, but instead I bought a Gibson because at the end of the day, when I am playing badly to myself, the Gibson puts a smile on my face!

Brilliant 😀

My wife thinks hugs solve everything………I think an action plan is far more likely to succeed!