Celebrations in the rain. Cycling in the fog. Some thoughts on school summer holidays.

Yesterday we went to York to watch Granddaughter Number Two graduate. Granddaughter Number One, who is very nifty at craftwork, crocheted her a celebratory bunch of flowers!

We knew that rain was forecast. So we were expecting a bit of a damper on proceedings. We didn’t really expect the torrential downpour that fell from the heavens. 

The whole business involved a lot of waiting around: queueing to collect tickets to watch the ceremony, queueing to collect her gown and mortar board (for which she had to promise that under no circumstances would she indulge in throwing mortarboards into the air in celebration!), queueing to get into the hall where the presentations would take place. Fortunately we found a place under shelter to wait for ages to get into that hall. We may have waited longer than some of those who joined the interminable queue after us but at least we got decent seats once inside. 

And so we watched her walk across the stage and doff her hat to the chancellor of the university.

And that was that. She is officially a BA, with a certificate to prove it.

We didn’t get to stroll around the campus looking for picturesque photo opportunities as the biblical downpour continued. Instead we took photos indoors or under shelters. 

And we set off for home. Organising en route for others to join us for a celebratory meal in one of our local hostelries. We thought briefly that we might not make it as some joker sent us photos of a flooded Delph village centre. However, it turned out to be an AI hoax! We still had damp feet from traipsing around University of York campus in the rain and through the puddles but all was well. 

Later we watched the latest summary of the day’s events in the Tour de France. They didn’t have torrential rain in biblical proportions but it seems they had fog. The hot and sunny days were just a memory. One of my favourites, Remco Evenpoel, having had a bad couple of days withdrew from the race. That’s how things turn out: one day you are in second place in the general classification and then you “don’t have the legs” any more. Maybe next year. Instead we saw a Dutchman I’ve never heard of, Thymen Arensman, celebrate as he crossed the finish line to win stage 14.

The fine weather has broken in time for the start of the long school holidays. Nowadays it’s no longer acceptable to kick the children lit at the start of the day with the instruction to be back in time for tea. So parents get in a tizz about what to do with them and there are frequent calls for shortening the summer break. Here’s an article by someone who has experienced the even longer summer holidays in France as well as our six weeks here in the UK. She sees both sides of the question and makes the point that teachers need that break, despite the arguments about disruption to education. From my experience as a teacher in secondary and tertiary education I would argue for keeping the longish break. As the writer of the article says, it’s a kind of rite of passage: progress from one stage to another. 

I was always amazed at the transformation that took place over the summer break in sixth form students in particular. The 16-17 year olds who started their sixth form courses, sometimes over-confident with their clutch of GCSE passes, sometimes rather shy and overwhelmed, somehow turned into sensible young adults, ready to make their way to the next stage after A-Level. Maybe I was just very fortunate to deal mainly with A-Level Modern Languages students but I saw the same with my more mixed tutorial groups. That’s my take on the matter anyway.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!