Maverick Bronze Award

Well I got sucked in! I didn't buy the Badge Fiend badge for no reason after all. Parts of this challenge are harder than I expected and some perhaps easier, but on the whole success will depend on my perseverance and overcoming my tendency to go 'Oooh! Shiny!' and start doing something else. Wish me luck with that part!

My Community

For this section I will continue to run a Warhammer Club at the school I work in. I do not have to run clubs, so this is voluntary and in my own time after school. Although this has been running a few years with plenty of participation, this year I would like to give the club more structure, so to that end students will need to identify a half termly project to improve one of their skills and take part in the club battle league. They will also be encouraged to join in local competitions, and hopefully make a trip to Warhammer World in Nottingham.

My Beliefs

I am really struggling with this as my religious beliefs are nebulous at best, and I have found it difficult to identify anything else. However, after a quick brainstorming session with my daughter it became clear that I feel rather strongly about back-garden wildlife! 

I believe that gardens should be havens for wildlife, as well as usable outdoor spaces for humans, and not sterile patches of mown grass (or worse, artificial grass), and bare fences. I also believe that children should be encouraged to learn about the wildlife and plants in their area and the best place to start this is ideally at home. To this end, I intend to survey my garden to see exactly which plants I have (I may struggle with species of grass), and what wildlife currently uses it, and investigate what I can do to make it more wildlife friendly, and put some ideas into practice. I will also encourage my tutor group at school to get involved by surveying their own gardens regularly and ask whether we can have a wildlife corner on the school newsletter. I may also be able to get the Agricultural Club involved.

My Skills

I am going to really work on improving my Skills at Islamic Geometry. I signed up for a monthly course via Patreon at the start of the year which I really enjoy, but don't practice much between sessions. I also want to improve my painting/ colouring skills to enhance the geometry, so will experiment and also try some skills videos online. My aim is to spend at least an hour a week on this during term time, and perhaps more in the holidays.

My Adventure

Not sure yet but it may involve camping away from the family for a few days.

My Challenge

I was going to set a weight loss challenge but I suspect that is doomed to failure - too many variables and lots of available cake! Instead I shall use this as an opportunity too learn Python computer programming; it is something I have talked about for years but never made time for, then last year I purchased a book called 'Coding for Beginners' which has since sat around gathering dust. My plan is to work through the projects in this book so that I can write basic programmes, and hopefully be able to attempt writing something that will decide ciphers.