Award Ceremonies are Boring

This evening was supposed to be an evening of celebration and enjoyment. In some ways it was, but in others is was hardly the best night out I've ever witnessed.





Every parent, brother or sister that has had a son, daughter or sibling in school or college will probably have witnessed some sort of award ceremony. It's an evening where the school celebrates the achievements of it's students and staff and it's an opportunity for the head teacher to blow his own trumpet for an hour or two.

But it has to be said, some of them are as enjoyable as a trip to the dentist.

Lets face it, whilst you appreciate and applaud the achievements of others, the fact is that you only really care about what your child has done and once that's over and done with, you'd rather head on home.

Today's ceremony was similar. My brother has just completed a CISCO Essential IT course and went today to get his certificate at the stupidly named "Allerton Grange School".
Allerton Grange might not sound like a stupid name for a school but let me explain. In Leeds, there are two schools, in close proximity, with very similar names. Allerton High School and Allerton Grange School. When I was asked to drive to 'Allerton School', guess which one I went to? I will be campaigning for Allerton Grange to change it's name to avoid further confusion.

Anyway, after visting the wrong school, we change course and headed to the stupidly named school, just in time for the awards ceremony.

The evening kicked off with an individual from Education Leeds telling us all the value of IT in the modern world, which was mildly interesting but it didn't exactly tell me anything new.
He then passed on to another individual, who I'm sure was on a recruitment drive.
He proceeded to scaremonger the entire audatorium, telling us the importance of IT and how the UK is falling behind and how modern society will be completley crippled by a 9% skills gap or a badly wired RJ45 connector if we didn't do something this instant. If people had been paying attention, pandamonium would have inevitably broke out through sheer panic.

As he went away, the certificate giving proceeded. This is the point where you just clap robotically as complete strangers collect a piece of paper from another complete stranger.

At the interval, we headed to the foyer for the evening's highlight - the free food & soft drinks. There was little going on after the interval and so many, including my brother's head teacher, made our excuses and left.

Well done to one and all.