In this life

At this time of year I’m mired in marking Higher English, our university-entrance level English exam. 210 scripts from all over Scotland sit...

From Thursday June 18 till Monday June 22, we’re off as a family to Crieff, about an hour’s drive north of Edinburgh. We’ve had holidays the...

A random kitten picture taken nearly two years ago. Who knew? - well, lots of you, clearly, but not me - that "invigilator" wasn...

I’m not a person who is particularly easily annoyed, but I was a bit annoyed yesterday. I had a student who was sitting Advanced Higher ...

I was marking essays and thought this was rather a fine example of a piece of writing that was doing all right until it unaccountably fell t...

It's been a somewhat rubbish week, the kind when you think to yourself that it's all a bit much and it would be easier to go to bed...

It’s been a beautiful weekend, if not exactly tropical. I’ve spent much of it doing un-green gardening duties: putting weedkiller on my moth...

No, it's all right - we didn't let her swallow the wool. She enjoyed playing with it, though! The very second that I pressed “Publi...

I live about three miles from work. Four days a week I drive there, for reasons of speed and convenience. I do feel guilty about this, thoug...