From my Ladybird books in my childhood, one story impressed itself on my imagination more than any other. Robert the Bruce was holed up in a cave and had lost all hope of defeating the English invaders. In his despair he saw a spider in the cave weaving a web. Seven times the web broke and eight times the spider started again. The eighth time the web held and Robert decided that he too could show the determination that the spider had. He led the Scottish army at Bannockburn and defeated the army of Edward I and, as Flower of Scotland tells us ‘sent him homeward tae think again’!

Looking back at it now a couple of things came out of that story. First was my fascination with Scotland and my growing liking for the Celtic nations in general. I had to keep this hidden at Five Nations Rugby time, because my Dad was a died in the wool English supporter while I favoured Scotland, Wales and Ireland! I felt that the English had treated their neighbours very badly and I already had a dislike of Henry VIII so I was something of an iconoclast already. That’s one word that has been used to describe me as a teacher, and one I accept, but not the word that describes all of me. That word is ‘Trier’. Like Robert the Bruce and the Spider I will not stop trying. I may fail, I may change course, I may come to my senses, but I will never stop trying. It isn’t in my nature and it isn’t something I feel comfortable with. All my life I have been a trier. It’s at the very core of my being and I am very proud of that aspect of my personality.

Trier