At last!

It seems that the weather is finally starting to improve. Starting, Wednesday - or so we’re told - a large high pressure system will establish itself over the UK, bringing us all stable weather, cold nights and sunny days. Well, it’s a bit late for the barbie, but it will give us a break from what seems like an attempt to enter the Guinness book of records under the ‘Biblical deluges’ section.

It’s really unsurprising that the main topic of conversation among the brits is weather; we have so much of it. It’s said that a day in Snowdonia can see all four seasons at once, and that’s not far from the truth. And, while blistering heat might not be to everyone’s liking, there’s no doubt that we probably all want some relief from the incessant precipitation that’s plagued us for the past couple of months. Now, where have we left the buckets and spades...



Today, the remaining schools return to work and to the longest term. Traditionally, Autumn term is the most fun; church schools celebrate Harvest, state schools occasionally mention Halloween, everyone debates November 5th and - of course - it’s now only 109 days to Christmas. The three big secondary schools in the area - Eirias, Bryn Elian and John Bright - are steadily working towards all sorts of dates. The new intakes are gently introduced to the new ways of doing things, the year 9 pupils are relentlessly pursued by the staff who want them (or not) to take their subjects in year 10, the year 11 students are ‘mentored’ and encouraged to achieve excellent grades in their GCSEs and the year 13 students face another year of life-changing tests, made markedly easier by the use of modular examinations.

But at what point did it all become so cosy? The year 6 children in Junior schools are ‘invited’ to spend a day at their new Secondary school, presumably so it won’t all come as a great shock to the system when they finally have to start doing homework. The year 9 children are all gently advised and guided to their option choices, the year 11 pupils individually mentored and - of course - the coursework elements of their final grades are all checked, changed, re-done and re-submitted endlessly until they’re incapable of failing.

There’s not really a lot of challenge left, is there? There are times, in fact, when it surprises us that Health and Safety haven’t closed Snowdon because there isn’t a safety net all round it. Gullible parents who didn’t bother to investigate the disingenuity behind the headlines stopped their kids from having the MMR and every week there’s yet another case of some parent, somewhere saying ‘It shouldn’t be allowed’ or ‘They should put a stop to it’ where ‘it’ may be any one of a plethora of issues, most of which the parent ought to have trained their child to deal with. Thank goodness we have organisations like the Scouts in this country, because - left to some parents - children would never escape the cocoon of over-protective parental insulation in which they’re mired. The parents' often risible reasoning for such a domestic policy frequently borders on the ludicrous, but usually distils to ‘You don’t know what might happen..’

No. Of course you don’t. That’s what the word ‘Adventure’ means. Kids need to be able to manage risk and manage life - because they’re part of the same equation. Then possibly - just possibly - we’ll have fewer depressing stories like this one.