The Summer's over!
Well all my GCSEs are finished and the results were fine so I now have 'AS's ahead. I must say I am really happy not to have to do any more of the essay type subjects and I am really looking forward to the next 2 years.
During the holidays I have been very busy. I spent the first 4 weeks helping at The Abbey School in Farnham - I spent most of the time helping with the IT but I also supported some of the students with their work. As it was the end of term there were lots of outings and I managed to be invited on many of them - this was as a 'helper' but they were all really good fun. The Abbey is a Special School for students with Learning Difficulties but it is a fun place to be and there is a very positive feel about the school.
Earlier on in the year I had been nominated by The Abbey School for an ICT Becta Award and in June I heard I was shortlisted as one of 5 candidates in the UK. This meant that I was interviewed by 4 people who came to the school - it was a 4 hour interview on site which included making a presentation - it was certainly very daunting. As part of the interview I demonstated my software - I actually supported a teacher with a lesson where the students used the games on the interactive board and I think the day went really well - I certainly enjoyed it although I must say I was rather nervous at the start! At the end of July I heard that I had not won the award but I was given a very positive report - I was a little dissappointed but not really suprised as the award was aimed at a 'Learning Support Assistant and ICT' and I guess being so young and only very part time didn't help but it certainly was a great experience.
At the end of June I presented some of my software and databases that I have written for The Abbey School at The Surrey 'Best Practice Day' at Sandown Park in Esher. It was a really big ICT show and The Abbey School had a stand. I had never done anything like that before and we had an exhausting and extremely busy day. I spent lots of time demonstrating my software to passers by on an interactive whiteboard, but we did make an error with a slight over production of sample discs - hence lots of special offers at the moment!
We then went sailing on the Norfolk Broads - this is an annual family event and I am sure I wrote about it last year and probably the year before! This time we had pretty bad weather although I must say we did have some strong winds that were very good for sailing. Unfortunately we also had lots of rain and one night a rather large leak appeared and my bunk was saturated! It was actually quite cold but despite the weather we had a good time.
As soon as that was over I worked for 3 weeks at Loyalty UK (LMUK) in London. LMUK is actually the company behind the Nectar reward card with sponsors such as Sainsburys. I was very lucky as I was involved in the eCommerce department and I worked very hard helping with the Nectar website and also with their emails. It was brilliant to do real work as I was a bit worried that I would just be asked to make coffee and enter data. They were a great lot of people and I really appreciated the 'work experience', I am sure some of you will receive emails I made!
This year my summer holiday was so long because I finished the last term in June as soon as my GCSEs were over. I have worked hard redesigning my website www.barneyblackburn.com. I market my software from that site and if you have time perhaps you might take a look.
Well it's back to school now but on a positive note we have 2 weeks at half term. My sister is expecting a baby around that time so we are hoping to visit her and see the baby.
The message board and the stories pages continue to go well but do please keep leaving messages and stories. My quizzes are not as regular as they were because I seem to be very busy now and have other interests as well. I will try and keep them going but maybe I will keep them on a bit longer in the future. If you have any thoughts as to what I should do then please do email me and give me some suggestions. I really want this site to stay alive and interesting and I really need you all!
I still have my last newsletters and they can be read by clicking here. Also if you remember I used to have a news page, well I have put these back on, so please click here to go to them.