Working at the combined Foodstore of County Durham and Sunderland Foodbank networks. This post is a great opportunity for me to work with a familiar team, responsible for the maintenance, availability, and general upkeep/servicing of everything from pallets & trays to vans & forklift trucks. The previous van driving role continues to be voluntary, since that's already a defined post in the organisation. I've enjoyed that role, getting to meet many people across the region.After a brief transition period following appointment as Foodstore Equipment Coordinator I handed the driving role on to others - I may still step in occasionally, but so far the excellent volunteer teams have taken on what I used to do. Now, instead of driving the vans, I look after them!

I have various connections to County Durham Foodbank (part of the Durham Christian Partnership), through friends and family - my wife works as standby cover manager for their charity shop - and from helping out in fundraising, taking part in charity cycle rides such as the Coast to Coast route and others. I had spent some time during August and September 2018 managing the store on a holiday cover basis and was asked by the charity if I would help provide driving services for their 3.5t van, covering two days a week.I have been able to use my interpersonal skills, as well as experience driving a range of different classes of vehicle, to help expand the work, fostering good relationships with depot staff, distribution point volunteers, community managers at donation partner supermarkets, and staff at other organisations. It's a rewarding role in many ways, and I enjoy it, but as a volunteer my capacity for self-funding is not endless and at some point I will have to move back into paid employment!Driving different vehicles is more about confidence in handling something larger than a car, or more capable in circumstances that normal road driving does not present. Applying the different rules of the road is understandably essential, but a person can know all the rules and still not be confident in the vehicle. Things such as vehicle payload capacity, load distribution, and subsequent impact on handling/performance go hand in hand with both confidence and the law. I have been able to raise awareness particularly of GVW in the Foodbank role, including changes in warehouse processes to ensure the van is not loaded over capacity. I have a clean licence, with UK classes up to C1E & D1E, and have driven up to C1+E and D1 on the road, (although I don't hold a current CPC or e-card). I have also driven off-road, including experience on proving grounds designed by Land Rover, and been a full member (car only) of the Institute of Advanced Motorists since July 1991.

Initially employed to boost ICT use across the curriculum, using my previous Network Manager experience to guide system changes at a strategic level, and to teach both ICT and Technology (Engineering, Graphics, Resistant Materials) to students aged 11-16. Teaching duties also included use of the Key Skills curriculum, to support inclusion, with resources based on my 2005-08 secondment programme.As time went on, I line-managed various different school departments, plus added responsibilities for whole-school items including, child protection, e-safety, attendance and homework.I also taught Numeracy Skills and developed a range of detailed analytical spreadsheets to help track data patterns.I enjoyed presenting morning assemblies, in which I tried to balance the need to give information on a variety of subjects with engagement and a spot of showmanship. I often used PowerPoint and Prezi for the visuals, though occasionally would go 'analogue' and not use any electronics.

Whilst still employed at Morley High School, I was offered a secondment to create, develop, manage and deliver an innovative E-Inclusion Programme, hosted by the Leeds CLC network. This was initially to help with high numbers of pupil exclusions, and was to offer qualification routes for students to enable a return to mainstream schools or to continue on into college. Following positive reception and success, the initial one-year secondment was extended to three years, eventually being delivered to students in 27 of the then 36 high schools in Leeds, either directly by myself, or through other staff in their schools.The Programme also received critical acclaim from organisations in Sheffield and Rotherham LEAs, and was nominated for an EU E-Inclusion Award in 2008. It also made use of the 2007-08 initiative to place 3G-linked laptops with disadvantaged students, allowing E-Inclusion to be delivered at any suitable location, including students' homes. The final outcome included a learning platform based on Moodle, a 400+ page A4 guide and DVD containing resources as well as a local version of the Moodle platform. The Programme also included innovative ways to gain recognised qualifications, including training as boat crew, and GPS-mapping tasks in collaboration with Council properties,E-Inclusion operated as a virtual school. Through it, I know of around 240 Leeds students who were able to continue with their studies and on into further education, some from very challenging circumstances. For a few, E-Inclusion was the only way back into education.Through this Programme, I was able to develop my understanding of organisations outside the regular school/educational field, and to gain vital experience dealing with colleagues from all levels of responsibility, up to Director/C-Suite and government agencies. It was this experience that enabled me to step directly into senior school leadership.

During my time employed as a teacher at Morley High School I had three distinct roles - this will explain why the Network Manager role and E-Inclusion secondment overlap with this one, but as the secondment was for Education Leeds, why it also lists separately from the MHS roles. Education Leeds was the overarching organisation that managed schools and related youth services in city and surrounding areas at that time.My teaching role began in the main as a Teacher of Technology, with some ICT, the balance of which varied depending on the needs of the school across the years between 1996 and 2008. My initial task was to introduce GCSE Electronic Products to the Technology curriculum, based on my interest in electronics from childhood, and also more recently on the Education Business Partnership that I had undertaken during my post-graduate qualification year.Whilst at MHS I made links across the city, so by the time I was offered the opportunity to take the secondment with Education Leeds I had a good base on which to build. Education Leeds looked to practising teachers for input in things such as the New Opportunities initiative, so as well as creating resources myself, I was able to help build teams of specialists to carry out paid development in areas where there were shortages compared to other subjects.

A change in role at Morley High School. Following the retirement of the previous post-holder, who held both Curriculum and Network responsibilities, the ICT department slimmed from three to two teachers. The role of Curriculum Manager was taken up by my colleague and I stepped into the role of Network Manager, using my previous skills in programming, PC building and system management, as well as the work undertaken to assess the impact of the millennium bug on school computers. This also reflected the rapid growth in PC numbers, combined with the staged move from a mixed Acorn/NT Server/Novell estate, each with their own cabling and back-end, to a single Windows-based system.During this time, in 2003 I was able to design a major network upgrade. This included writing the specification (using experience from my days as a consultant building services engineer) and being involved in the installation, working with the winning contractor's team. The final system included nine servers based on Windows Server 2003, 650 desktop PCs, and 100 wireless-enabled staff laptops. The installation also involved a site-wide multi-band Wi-Fi network, and was configured to allow fail-over protection, with redundancy built into both the servers and fibre connections between the six main nodes.During this time, my teaching role shifted almost entirely to ICT. I also became an examiner for Edexcel, to gain a better understanding of the qualifications being taken by my students.

Following completion of my post-graduate training, my links with the staff at the University of Leeds' School of Education led to the offer of research work on a project from the UK Government's Department for Education and Employment. The project involved collating results of 50+ studies into "The Work-Relatedness of GNVQs" and writing the final report, in association with Prof Paul Sharp.The initial seed-funding had been distributed to the national Training and Enterprise Council network in an earlier round, with the remit to see how small funding sums (approx £5,000 each) could be used to raise the relevance of the new GNVQs to work, as there were concerns even at the early stage (less than two years after being introduced) that they were being pushed as 'Vocational A-Levels'. The final report informed national strategy.

Working as a supply teacher in the school where I trained meant I knew the routines, staff and students (one of whom later became a colleague in Leeds CLCs).A supply teacher has to be flexible, adaptable and able to deal with change. During this time I taught a wide variety of subjects (even being the 'Teacher in charge' of Urdu lessons, though in truth this was taught by a native speaker!).

Following the privatisation transfer of the YRHA Estates Management Engineering team, DSSR set up a Harrogate office. I continued my training at Leeds College of Building on day-release, which later involved some units delivered at Leeds Polytechnic, and also gained more practical experience dealing with contracts on site.The gradual introduction of CAD saw changes in the office - we continued to use the Hevacomp suite, and I gained experience with Lotus 1-2-3 3D spreadsheet, WordPerfect 5.1, and AutoCAD 13, as the skills of the engineer shifted away from hand-inked drawings.I continued to develop my skills in spatial visualisation, interpreting and understanding design ideas, and presenting solutions that would be both valid from an engineering point of view, and also be able to fit within the physical space.Whilst the new office took on wider commercial work, we had a large amount of continuation health authority projects, and I found myself mostly involved with these. I especially enjoyed working on hospital operating theatre suites and the large plant rooms that were needed to provide essential services to projects that often ran into millions of pounds, taking years from Phase 1 design to completion on site, although individual projects could also range all the way down to a few tens of thousands with correspondingly quick turnaround.

Specialising in the properties managed by the Yorkshire Regional Health Authority, this role involved learning the basics of building service engineering and then putting this into context on site visits, surveys and design projects.At this time, drawings were still completed by hand by the engineer, which used my O-Level Technical Drawing and A-Level Applied Engineering Graphics skills.The work covered designing the building services engineering for properties varying in size from a small medical centre to major hospital sites, including medical wards, operating theatre suites, service centres, boiler systems, and so on.