I’ve got a bee in my bonnet
I’ve got a bee in my bonnet this month, and it’s nothing to do with becoming an apiarist....(of which more later) It’s down to another of my passions – education. So my blood boiled when I learned of the plight of a local child who’s a national hero, and yet who is struggling to find a place at a school, because his needs are too complex. He’s ten-year-old Jack Harley Walsh, from Ascot, and in his few years on earth, he has mastered its highest and trickiest challenges, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and trekking the length of Hadrian’s Wall, all for charity. However, because he suffers from dyslexia and dyscalculia (to oversimplify: words and number blindness) he has apparently been rejected by 24 schools. His mum, Sue, has done a sterling job thus far, encouraging her son to monumental aspiration and achievement. He has risen to the challenges life has already dealt him. So has his Mum. Now it’s the turn of our education system. Should we really accept that all our schools, private and public, within Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Hampshire are too darn ordinary to take on this extraordinary kid and groom him to his full potential? Talking of amazing people, a couple of weeks ago I presented the Basingstoke: Place To Be Proud of Awards, where the spirit of community was well rewarded with stories of truly stand-out people. I’ve never had dinner in the middle of a shopping centre before! (Festival Place) but there I was hobnobbing with the Mayor and Mayoress and making a date for a big symphonic event coming up in the autumn – a visit from the Houston Symphony Orchestra to The Anvil concert hall. They’re playing The Planets to an AV display of NASA pictures – a perfect combination of my two loves, space and music! Finally, I’m spearheading our region’s “Bee Part Of It” campaign, a joint initiative between the National Trust and the BBC to raise awareness of our declining bee population. So I’ve become a bit of a beekeeper in the last few weeks. Only a bit, though. Because the little blighters sting, and I was stung twice on the backside when I met “my” bees at Basildon Park, the glorious Palladian stately home near Pangbourne in Berkshire. Next time I visit them, I’m wearing a thick wetsuit underneath several layers of clothing, topped off with a full apiarist’s smock, thick leather gloves and wellies. That way the longest sting shouldn’t get through. I’ve come to the conclusion you cannot be an ambassador for bees and look glamorous. This Article was written for Berkshire & Buckinghamshire Life - www.berksandbucks.greatbritishlife.co.uk
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