despite the City elections. Over the last couple of weeks, my activities as a Common Councilman have included a visit to The City Academy Hackney where I’m one of the City-elected governors. As someone with a languages background (my BA degree was in Russian Language & Literature), I take a particular interest in the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages, & so I sat in on parts of two Spanish lessons & one French, all with Year 9 students. The lessons seemed a lot better designed to get the students talking than when I was at school, & there was a strong emphasis on the value of learning foreign languages for future career options. There was an element of humour too – I loved the way the student deemed to have made the most effort in the previous French lesson was rewarded by being given a string of garlic & a red beret to wear! Then in the evening I was back at the Academy for a governors’ meeting.
Otherwise, apart from the Court of Common Council meeting on 7th March (the draft minutes of which can be found here), this month has been kept relatively free of committee meetings – partly so that we can have some time to devote to our election campaigns. But I have managed to write up & circulate the minutes of the most recent West Area Police Community Forum meeting.
It is of course very difficult to do diary management at the moment, as every entry to do with the City Corporation has to have the caveat: ‘if I’m re-elected’.
And otherwise, in addition to e-mailing & leafleting, I’ve got on with the rest of my life – from proofreading a Ph.D thesis on the National Program of Public Works under the Rojas regime in Bogota, via reviewing a new biography of Rebecca West (West’s World: The Life and Times of Rebecca West
Tomorrow it’s the Ward Mote (12 noon at Cutlers’ Hall), and then the elections on Thursday. And I am rather looking forward to them being over, whichever way the voting goes.
Virginia Rounding: Author/editor/proofreader 