Throwing a pot!

Moving to high school brought its own changes some of which I'll write about later on  but one was the subjects we did could be different.

 For instance while we had done arts and crafts at Junior school which I loved, in terms of resources we were limited apart from the limitations of having a cutting edge open plan school  where there's no separate fully enclosed teaching areas so much as "Home Bays" for your year and for anything outside of math or english we'd traipse to parts of building shared with other years.
High school as different for having not just individual rooms but dedicated areas for science and craftwark with specialized equipment fitted that included a fully functional kiln so we got to do quite a bit of pottery making.
We learned to throw the clay, shaping it before finishing it off ready to go into the kiln to set.
The next challenge, especially if like me you're not well co-ordinated between hands and eyes was to decorate it with various glazes remembering the colour it comes out in isn't the same as what you put on.
Although I wasn't much good at this-certainly not to the standard one would take a college or industry course in pottery- I enjoyed it because at hearty I love making things as hard as it is for me with my disabilities to do so.

Picking yourself back up again

It can be hard enough growing up but when like me you have a physical disability things can happen to you in the most everyday situations such as you find yourself running short on energy because you tend to use more just getting by.
I struggled to get about, for a period using a wheelchair so I might get 'trapped' if I went to turn and couldn't pull myself out easy or I'd trip up just walking from row of desks in the classroom to another.
I wasn't as a rule exempted from games even if I may need to sit out of actually playing by having to change to my soccer or pe kit , pick a team help set everything up and be the mascot for it cheering them on.
When I did play it wasn't uncommon for me on fall over on the grass trying to tackle another player to gain ball possession or just loose my sense of balance having very poor co-ordination so I literally had to learn to pick myself from the ground, dust myself off and get on with it.
It was hard but my teachers and especially head teacher believed I needed to learn resilience to cope with the unfairness life can throw at you when you're disabled, picking yourself back up rather than wrapping me in cotton wool, becoming a softie.
I'm glad they were hard on me like this because it was what this boy needed to get by and learn to gain the respect of other boys for showing boy spirit in the face of adversity.

Junior Art for Boys

There is so much here that takes me back Junior school such as the hooks with two hanging bits to take your school bag or satchel and another for to fasten your coat or for some blazer on although my school a co-ed State Junior didn't have blazers so we had typically rain proof anoraks in spring/summer and thick duffle coats with wooden toggle fastenings and hoods.
One of things I loved about that time was the arts and craft sessions where we'd make things from a big selection of bits and bods our teacher had and as here sometimes we'd start by drawing on paper (or card) what it is we wanted to make and then gluing various bits on to it  before signing..
We'd use wool, felt cut into shapes, stars, crape paper practically anything that would stick on to it plus pain or felt tip pens.
Once everyone had finished we handed our work  to our teacher who graded and displayed it either in the classroom or on the reception corridors.

Recalling the summer outdoor play

Summer is almost over and this week is when traditionally the one where after the eight week Summer Holidays, we return to our schools or transfer to a Junior or high school seeing or making new friends talking about ourselves and what we have done. Indeed we've been asked to write an account of our activities during this period before now.
For me the Summer was a time of being more out of doors aided by the sunny warm weather for hours on end sometimes on your own exploring new places or learning about new things and at other times with other boys.
Typically I was put into t shirts and shorts usually easy to wash soccer or pe ones cos for one things it's kind of warm, for another so long as I'm responsible and put my suncream on exposure to fresh air and the sun is good for my well-being and development keeping me strong and for another when your busy you soon get warm.
Physical play isn't just fun it's a natural biological need and interests of boys as you learn to develop and use your physical strength constructively even if with my disabilities I need help from other boys to do this be it climbing trees, scaling ropes or whatever.
It's a great bond builder too so like it's a good all around thing for me and countless other boys.

Catching up

It's a fresh month and what a month it has been since this blog has been established because I only ever had one before briefly in 2005/6 in the halcyon days of Friends Reunited which was a site originally centred on catching up with your school and college mates that shut a few years back.
It's also the first week in the month schools re-open so whilst in town I saw folks dashing round doing last minute uniform buying, checking off stationery too from the local McColls and W H Smiths and naturally the uniform shops for both high schools here are super busy.
One thing I like to do is walk about so apart from getting some shopping done myself, I walked around the centre of the old town which goes back to Saxon times with many sixteenth and seventeenth century buildings still surviving.
Apart from being interesting as someone who loved their schoolboy history classes, it is also helping me recover some of my fitness after a period unwell.