Day 6...

Good afternoon Year 12,

Get some snacks ready...this is a long post - but one I think you should enjoy.

How are you keeping? If you were hoping for a Covid 19 update - you've come to the wrong place. I mentioned in the last blog post that you should limit your current affairs to a couple of updates per day from trusted sources - avoid the tabloid press (it will only convince you that either everything is absolutely fine or that we are facing Armageddon...the truth is almost always somewhere in the, often less exciting, middle. The last thing you need is for me to pile on any misery here. Just keep following the clear instruction from the medical experts: stay home, wash your hands, don't go out unless absolutely necessary.

I would love to see more of your creativity - please send me things you have been up to to make you a better person. This week I'll set a challenge. If you take a photograph with the brief: 'finding beauty in unlikely places' [keep it clean] - I'll guarantee you: a shout-out on the blog, a virtual pineapple, and even a positive phone call home (yes I still have remote access to hunt you down!).



Good News

Let's start with some positive news: above are two pineapples for very deserving young ladies. Lara C-M and Sasha K...well done you! Your emails made my day when they popped in to the inbox and gave me a genuine lift. Sasha has been walking the dog (a safe distance from others), cooking meals for her family and making some top-notch revision flash cards:

Lara has been painting some memes - this is so much more creative than just forwarding endless Covid memes (you know who you are). She has also been learning German through Duolingo - a fantastic languages app and a brilliant idea to replace enrichment from Wednesday afternoons.

Gut gemacht, Lara. Ich bin sehr beeindruckt! Ausgezeichnetes Kunstwerk.

The Latest from Chateaux Matthews

I've tried to follow my own advice to you - to avoid being accused of hypocrisy. With this in mind, I'm trying to achieve all of the following based on the advice I have given you: 

1. 'Keep being a student' - To keep being a teacher, I have been marking some Year 10 assessments (the poor students had exam week before school was closed, so it only seems fair to mark their work first!) 

To keep being a Head of Year, I'll be contacting parents and checking in with some of you this week and next (before what would have been the Easter holidays). I've got a list of students who haven't logged in to ShowMyHomeWork...I'm coming for you first. 

2. 'Read' - I finished Maus, which I really enjoyed. I've also signed up to the Scribd app...which is giving free audio books for a month or so. If you enjoy books - but have been out of the habit of reading them for a while (like my literature classes!) - I would massively recommend it.

I'd also recommend the School of Life Youtube channel for 10 minute videos on a whole range of subjects. Many are quite clever and thought-provoking. 

3. 'Find a project' - I recommended finding a project which kept your mind and/or body active and engaged throughout the school closure. Mine was the garden. I always thought DIY was horribly tedious - but something about becoming a dad has changed my view on a few things: you suddenly find bird-watching an exciting thing to do, you seem to care deeply about the ordering of cutlery in the dishwasher, you organise your recycling bins like a maniac and get very touchy whenever someone interferes with 'your system', and you start thinking that socks and deck-shoes are an acceptable pairing. Yesterday, I made the most of a baby-nap and the afternoon sun to do the border of the plants - washing and placing bricks was (weirdly) therapeutic. Next stop is painting the shed and fences and buying some festoon lights (Mrs Matthews claims they are 'important to create the right ambience). Spot the difference below:

 

Mrs M, meanwhile, absolutely smashed the window cleaning...

4. 'Have fun' - When the news is so bleak and sobering, it is important to have some fun too. Some friends of ours have been quite creative. We used the Zoom app to have a virtual pub quiz. A number of couples paid a modest entry fee - with the winning pair taking away a Deliveroo voucher for about £30. We came joint second...which was mildly devastating. I am nothing if not hideously competitive. The best part was that it relied on trust in everyone not just secretly Googling the correct answers...I have some intense suspicions about the winning couple - but this might be founded in jealousy of the KFC they had delivered an hour after winning...

We have also invested in a Portal - quite expensive - but it has enabled us to stay in video contact with family who are either miles away or separated from us by Government instruction. Here is Mrs M showing off how much our Alice has grown to her parents (Alice's grandparents). From 200 miles away, it's almost as if they're in the room:

Looking to the Future

Remember, in times like these it's important to think to the future - which for you remains very bright. As promised, I interviewed Chris, my brother in law, who is a chemical engineer at Sellafield plant in Cumbria. I asked him about: his A-level - career journey, his university experience, his recommendations to people considering engineering, and his 'social-distancing enrichment.' If you have any questions for Chris, or me, please email me/ comment on the blog and I will do my best to have them answered. If you find this interesting - please email me with some thanks to Chris which I can pass on (this would be very polite and might put you in the mix for a pineapple).

I studied Chemistry, Maths and Business Management at A-level (and General Studies) before applying to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham. I took lots of care and time and research to make sure it was the right university for me. I wanted to study somewhere that had excellent career opportunities, good facilities and a campus university close to a city. Birmingham had all of these, and I really enjoyed it there.

 I wanted to do a ChemEng degree that had a couple of extra options which appealed to me. I wanted to have the chance to have a year-in-industry (for me this was at EDF's Heysham Nuclear Power Plant). I also wanted the option of an 'integrated Masters.' This is an extra qualification which was available to students who achieved a certain grade after their second year. It makes you more employable when you leave university and allows you to specialise in an area you are really interested in. My year in industry at Heysham convinced me that I wanted to work in nuclear energy - so I applied to be a process design engineer at Sellafield in the Autumn of my final year at university. I wanted to work there because it specialises in nuclear decommissioning and reprocessing - essentially managing how nuclear material is stored. I was attracted to Sellafield because it is world-leading in this field. I really enjoy my work. It's varied as there is a really well-established graduate stream (where new-graduates are able to rotate between teams in different departments) so that you can develop new skills and learn different aspects of the job before specialising. 

If I had one piece of advice, it would be to research courses very carefully before making your UCAS applications. If you choose carefully, you could be making your adult, working life much more fulfilling. I'd recommend Chemical Engineering to anyone who is good at and interested in both chemistry and maths. Someone who likes problem solving and applying their learning in practical environments would also really enjoy it. We are also in high demand - so there are good career prospects for all chemical engineering graduates in a wide range of industries, from food and drink, to technology and energy.  

'What have you been up to during this period of 'lock-down'?

Well, I was due to get married in May - which we have had to postpone sadly. We have re-booked it for the winter, however, so my wife-to-be and I have had some time to organise this and start to plan for the new date we have set. I've also done some reading and photography - but I'm running out of material in my own garden so I'm getting a bit frustrated. I am also applying to 'chartership' - which is another level of engineering qualification - and means I have to write a report and prepare for an interview. 

THANKS CHRIS!

Guys, remember, any questions for me/Chris on this or anything else on the blog, don't hesitate to drop me an email. As I said before, the Change 4 me account is still covered by the pastoral teams at school - so do not suffer in silence if you are anxious about anything.

Take care, good health to you and your families,

Mr M

Saint John Bosco...

Day 3...

Good evening, Year 12. How strange was today? Getting up and ready for a working day and not putting a suit on and driving to Chertsey felt very, very weird. I'm sure it did for you too - not jumping on the train as usual. My blog - much like the virus - seems to be very contagious. No sooner had I shared some pearls of wisdom with you than Mrs Clarke, Miss Moore and Mrs Taylor had all followed suit and set one up to keep in touch with years 13, 9 and 7 respectively.  

The weekend was a strange one; it was the first time for many years that neither me nor Mrs M saw our mums for Mother's Day. Whilst this is, obviously, gutting - we have been using a couple of apps to keep in virtual contact. I'm sure you are infinitely better placed to advise on apps and social media platforms - but I've found HouseParty and Zoom to be pretty good video calling options for seeing family and friends remotely. 

I deliberately kept busy today - and I'd welcome any suggestions via email from you guys as to what to read/ what to do/ how to cope with 'social distanced' living. I did say, in our first ever assembly, that you would look back on your school days (when you leave) and deeply miss it. It seems you will get the opportunity to miss school this year - before falling in love with it all over again when we (eventually) return. If you can peel yourself away from TikTok for 5 minutes,,,

I'd love you to show off and email me any of the following for the chance to win a (VR) pineapple and a shout out on the blog: Excellent independent revision notes, cakes you've baked, good deeds you've done, ways you have innovated to keep being a student, examples of you working hard and being kind.

Coping with Anxiety

Below is a really good little video - by Stephen Fry - with some excellent tips on dealing with isolation. He is an ambassador for Mind (an excellent mental health charity) and his ideas really ring true. There are a couple of valuable take-aways from his reflections which I have already started acting on. I'll drop them below the link and explain why they have helped me.

Stephen Fry - coping with isolation

1. Avoiding the news: I'm forever telling you to catch up with current affairs and keep your finger on the proverbial pulse. However, when the news is so bleak - it can just drag you down. He (and I) suggests checking at set times and avoiding the news outside these windows. 9AM and 6PM would work really well and always from a trusted source!

2. Read: I have been reading for work and pleasure in the same text. I picked up Maus (by Art Spiegleman). It's a graphic novel about the Holocaust in which the Jews are represented by mice and the Nazis as cats. I know this sounds quite bleak - but what better time to read something creative and different about something horrific? I should add (before you call social services) that I didn't read this one to the twins - that wouldn't have been sensible. I recommend it for everyone - but especially those studying History and Literature - for obvious reasons. 

3. Find a project: It's easy when you are not at school to be dragged in to unhealthy habits. Just because you aren't in your smart clothes - you can soon find yourself eating nothing but Cadbury's mini-rolls and watching repeats of Judge Rinder in your pants at 2 in the afternoon on ITV. Be careful to avoid this. In the Matthews household, we wanted to sort our house and garden out. This will become an ongoing project - Rome wasn't built in a day after all. See below some pics of Mrs Matthews attacking the smeared sash window, and me having a go at gardening under George's watchful eye. For the record, I am quite abysmal at DIY and gardening - so this will take time. Time is something we will all have a lot of, so find yourself a project. This should be something that you would not ordinarily have the time or space to do- becoming more proficient at Fortnite does not count as a project... cyber-bullying Mr Matthews is also not a project.  Consider doing something that improves your surroundings or your own spiritual development. For me, having an outside space where we can enjoy a coffee and watch the twins play is really important.  It's not something that will be completed all at once, and it will take some perseverance but hopefully the outcome will be worth it! 

I'll keep you posted on the gardening!

The other thing keeping me busy are the littluns - today was a momentous day (we managed to get a photo of them smiling at the same time as each other). Next step: to get them both to look at the camera. #babysteps

UCAS - and next blog...

I mentioned in the first blog that I would be conducting some interviews with people in various professions to get you thinking about university and other post-18 options. Mrs Matthews' brother (my brother-in-law), Chris, has agreed to go first. He is a chemical engineer who works in nuclear energy.  Tune in on Thursday to read the next instalment!

If you have any particular requests for interviews with people in certain professions...email me - I will see what I can do.

In the meantime, take care, look after you and yours, 

Mr M

Saint John Bosco... 

Day 1...

Year 12,

Your new reality will not have sunk in quite yet; it may not sink in for some weeks. I wanted to start a blog not only to keep in touch with you during this time, but to share some advice on how to cope with life-without-Salesian. I’m planning on keeping you informed throughout the school closure in a number of ways: sharing some wider reading, keeping your UCAS application alive and on the ‘back-burner,’ reminding you all to ‘work hard; be kind,’ conducting some interviews with friends in various professions, and giving you some updates from the Matthews household. When you have very young children, you get quite used to ‘social distancing.’ This is a lesson I have learned in the last 3 months.

Remember, I used to only have 170 children - so life with 172 is very different! 

Today, seeing that it was sunny, and sticking to the advice from the medics, Mrs Matthews and I took the twins for a little walk around the block - a safe distance from others. It’s very good for the soul to get some fresh air; remember to build some time in to every day where you can do some exercise and burn off some of the frustration that you will begin to feel this week and in future. 

Something I’m reading
Today I started some very intellectual reading 🤥
Here is Alice and George completely ignoring their first book: The Farm
As you can see, Alice is asleep and George is only interested in the camera...so it wasn’t exactly a total success. I’m sure they will be on to Macbeth in no time though!
UCAS Thoughts...

When Mrs Baumgart and I took some students to Oxford University last week (photo below), we learned something about their admissions tutor’s view of personal statements. She said that they wanted 80% of the statement to be very subject specific - with lots of ‘super-curricular’ evidence. This is different to ‘extra-curricular.’ Your ‘extra-curricular’ activities are things like: sport, Duke of Edinburgh, work experience (where possible). Super-curricular is reading that you have done to explore your subject in more depth than an A-Level would require. Each week, in the blog, I’m going to imagine that I am in your shoes, applying to different courses and hoping to prove how passionate I am about it without saying ‘I’m really passionate...’

Today is the 21st March, some of you would have seen the Government announcement yesterday that revealed some economic relief for people whose jobs have been threatened by this pandemic. I am going to imagine that I am applying to study Economics and that I have done some additional reading of The Economist magazine - to help my application. Below, in purple, is a section of my imaginary personal statement.

As a budding Economist with a particular interest in public sector, macro-economics, I followed the Government response to the Coronavirus outbreak in 2020 with particular interest by using my subscription to The Economist publication. In the March 2020 issue in particular, the reaction of the markets to school closures was stark. The editor considered the impact of staff availability in small to medium-sized businesses. For the first time since World War II, according to the magazine, the Government seriously considered shutting down the markets and preventing trading. In terms of Government intervention in the private sector, this was a particularly alarming step. Typically, the state and the private sector exist side-by-side, rarely mixing. Experiencing this time was equally challenging (as an individual) and rewarding (as a student of economics). The relationship between public sector decision making and the stock market became symbiotic - perhaps more so than ever before. The decision of the government to pay private-sector wages was influential in protecting the value of the Pound...blah blah blah.

Apparently, this kind of thing is infinitely better to include in a personal statement than: 

‘I once played netball for the school in year 8’ 

‘I joined the cubs at the age of 7,’

or ‘I really like superhero films.’

Take care, good health to you and your families, 
Work hard; be kind,
Mr Matthews