A Year of Starts and Stops...

Year 13 Psychology student Avnish Chana points to a feature on one of this web site’s mind maps being projected onto a Rossett classroom screen, January 2009 [Lynda Lee/Rossett School]

Feb: For the first time, provided general tuition support to 2 students doing degrees in Psychology.

Commentary: One was the ‘heroine’ of the ‘Hooray for “Julie”!!’ Blog returning again while the other was an Open University student. Both found my explanations easier to understand than their respective university tutors!

Mar: In the results from the January Health & Social Care A-Level exam, most of the students had got their target grades while 2 had exceeded them.

Commentary: Considering how fraught the relationships had been at times, overall these were very pleasing results.

Mar: Asked by Spiral Dynamics co-developer Don Beck to be on a panel of experienced Spiral Dynamics practitioners - the panel closing out his one-day workshop, ‘Spiral Dynamics in Action: Dancing the Integral Vision’.

Commentary: I hadn’t seen Don since the 2000 Confab in Dallas; so it was a real pleasure to hook up with him again. - and to learn again from him. Plus, the panel was shared with (amongst others) Christopher  ‘Cookie’ Cooke whom I had worked with on the HemsMESH project. It was also good to put faces to names I had only e-mailed with previously, such as Jon Freeman and Eileen Conn.

June: Became a founding member of the Centre for Human Emergence UK (CHE-UK), launched with the weekend event, ‘A Regent’s Summit on the Future of the UK’, facilitated by Don Beck at London’s Regent’s College - see the Blog: ‘”Britishness” at the Regent’s College Summit’.

Commentary: my involvement with the leadership team of CHE-UK didn’t last more than 3-4 months. This was primarily due to lack of time to give it the commitment and effort it needed. However, CHE-UK remains a key alliance in my thoughts on how British society needs to change and develop. I remain an active supporter and sometime participant.

Aug: Rossett A-Level Psychology results again very good, with a significant number of students exceeding expectations. Amongst the As were 3 students co-teacher Ali Standen and I had thought were possible but hadn’t quite dared predict! (One of these students, Avnish Chana, got a ‘perfect A’ - 100% - on one module, AQA ‘B’ PYB5.) A small handful of Psychology students at Guiseley also exceeded targets. My

Seeing through YELLOW lenses at Regent’s College, June 2009 - with Lynne Sedgemore CBE and Juliana Freeman on my right and noted children’s author Rosemary Wilkie and CHE-UK Director Jon Freeman on my left - Cookie (without lenses) is at my far right on the back row [Don Beck]

marking for the Rossett Year 13 Health & Social Care coursework, submitted for verification in May-June, held 100%.

Aug: ‘From Rule Britannia to Cool Britannia to Integral Britannia’ published in Integral Leadership Review.

Commentary: This was a more formal account of the formation of CHE-UK. I was the principal author but Don Beck, Jon Freeman and Rachel Castagne all contributed significantly.

Aug: Met with Councillor Darren Reynolds of Burnley Council to discuss ways of using Integrated SocioPsychology to undermine support for the British National Party.

Commentary: I had formed the idea at the Regent’s College event of setting up a single issue project to demonstrate the effectiveness of Spiral Dynamics and related sociopsychological technologies at a community level. With Burnley being a BNP stronghold  - 4 councillors and leader Nick Griffin being the local MEP - and the much of the national media in a virtual state of hysteria at increasing electoral support for the BNP, taking the very!) far right party on seemed just the kind of issue I was looking for.

Unfortunately, Darren was the only councillor interested!

Sept: Interviewed by leading newscaster Beth Rhodes at Ridings FM about a proposed CHE-UK event: ‘Pennine Summit on the Future of the UK’.

Sept: Formally commenced a 1-day a week contract with Guiseley for a year.

Commentary: While I loved teaching at Rossett, it had been such a pleasure to be invited back to Guiseley to help out. The couple of lessons a week had proved so successful that they now decided they wanted me for a full day. As I didn’t want to limit my non-teaching work too much and Guiseley needed time to weigh up their options, it suited both sides for it to be a temporary arrangement.

Sept: On recommendations from both Jon Twigge of CHE-UK and Burnley’s Darren Reynold’s, met with Carolyn Wilkins, assistant chief executive of Oldham Council to discuss ways of undermining local support for the BNP. Again, though, the initiative seemed to go nowhere.

Oct: Interviewed by Professor Mike Tracey of the University of Colorado about my relationship with Sian Baverstock, granddaughter of Enid Blyton and daughter of early BBC TV controller Donald Baverstock.

Commentary: I had gone out with Sian or a little over 6 months in 1988, during which time I visited the Baverstocks’ home several times. From the obituaries of her mother’s death in June 2007, I realised that Sian had died the previous year. Quite affected, I wrote the Blog: ‘For Sian & Gillian Baverstock’ . Tracey, researching a book on the Baverstocks, eventually found this Blog and asked for the interview.

Mike was very interested in my psychological perspective on the relationship between Sian and her parents and told me my interpretation helped make sense of fitting certain parts of the ‘jigsaw’ together.

Nov: ‘Julie’ came back to me for more help with the university assignments. Now, in her third year, this was quite a stretch - tutoring someone working effectively at honours degree level.

Commentary: Julie was now showing real signs of maturity. She was no longer coming to me because her RED had been having too much fun and she’d got seriously behind. Now, with her BLUE and ORANGE much more to the fore, she was thinking ahead and seeking extra help because she wanted to get a first class!

Dec: Signed up to the Open University to do a degree in Social Sciences with Psychology & Sociology.

Commentary:  Having tutored undergraduates, I decided it was time I formalised my knowledge and understanding of Psychology by undertaking a degree course. However, I also wanted to  develop my knowledge and understanding of Sociology at the same time. There was also a sense of unfinished business going back 36 years, as, due to the machinations of the Bradford Social Sciences Department, my final original Social Sciences degree was with specialisms in History & Politics.