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Feb: Delivered interactive evening presentation, 'Dealing with Conflict - the Integrated SocioPsychology Approach', for the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development West Yorkshire Branch at the Holiday Inn, Ossett.
Commentary:, CIPD's Jane Walton had attended a similar session I had done in January 2007 as part of theYorkshire Leadership Programme hosted by Wakefield College and used the ideas presented to help her tackle issues in her own work team. This convinced her to ask me to make the presentation. Feedback was enthusiastic.

Feb: Began working on a long(-ish term) counselling project with two Year 5 (10-year-old) boys.
Commentary: Both boys displayed significant behavioural problems, resulting from deep emotional traumas. My job was to help them recognise the traumas they had been through and acknowledge them while also coming to recognise the effect on others their acting out their problems was causing.

One of the boys was so severely affected by a combination of innate temperament and unfortunate experience that I felt I had no alternative other than to get him a referral to the local psychiatric services.

The second boy developed wonderfully under my guidance and was acknowledged by his parents, his teachers and a social worker involved to be making significant progress. Most heartening: the boy came to recognise his own needs and was effusive in his gratitude for the help he received.

April: Accepted into the Chartered Insitute of Personnel & Development with the grade of Affiliate.

August: All my tutees achieved or exceeded their target grades in the May-June A-Levels. Amongst the Psychology students at Rossett, there was a goodly portion of As, Bs and Cs. The small group of Sociology students I taught there garnered one A and the rest Bs.

Commentary:  While I was pleased with almost all the results, it was the Sociology ones I found the most gratifying. Prior to Rossett I had only ever taught ‘bits’ of Sociology here and there on supply. This was my first experience of teaching a full module on the subject.

Of course, no matter how good a teacher I am, in the end it is the student’s result, not mine! The results reflect their smarts, their grasp of the subject and the amount of hard work they’ve put into it.