Rick Cowell, director and founder of ANME Ltd., discusses how a Zoom call set up for the network to connect during lockdown turned into a success – sometimes going on for seven hours!
The COVID crisis hit the world like a tidal wave and, regardless of your opinion of how it was handled, whether it could have been predicted and better prepared for etc., there’s no denying just how much of a shake-up it caused to education in the UK. Suddenly schools were forced to skip months or years of preparation, careful development, testing and gradual implementation, and jump straight into remote learning!
When this happened one of the ANME Ambassadors (Tim Mace), and two members (Jack Marshall and Terry Dignam) took the initiative to start what they called the ANME Pub. While no-one could escape and go to the pub on a Friday evening after increasingly difficult weeks at work, members could join the ANME Pub Zoom call at home, have a drink and a laugh, and take part in a quiz with colleagues from schools and colleges across the country.
These ANME Pubs ran every Friday during the lockdowns, and once a half term since then! The following testimonials from members sum up just how much it meant to them during an otherwise challenging time, especially this one from Paul Gillon at West Hill School.
“Back in the early days of the first lockdown, when a number of us were working from home to protect our health, Tim invited us all to the first ANME Virtual Pub. At this time most of us had never really used Zoom, and Tim was using the free version (45-minute limit), so it was short and sweet, but it broke the ice.
“As time passed and a licence was bought, the sessions started to get longer and longer – the longest being over seven hours! The old stalwarts could always be found huddled around their drinks in the corner and we soon got to know a bit about each other. Tim, the landlord, with his wireless dongle in the downstairs loo, Terry preparing MasterChef-worthy meals for the House Rabbits, Jack waiting for his gran to deliver his laundry, Ben using his holiday snaps as his background, Phil with his living room full of PDUs, Will, calling in for a quick one on the way back with a takeaway, and me.
“The evenings usually started off on serious topics but, like most sessions in the pub, they could end up quite silly. I would liken the atmosphere to the North West meetings; everyone was made to feel welcome.”
As a result of Jack and Terry’s initiative, their contributions on the ANME Portal, their enthusiasm about all aspects of the ANME, as well as the recommendation of several of the existing ambassadors, they were also invited to become ambassadors, and we are thrilled to announce that they accepted!
We are looking forward to working more with Jack and Terry in the future, at our meetings and representing the ANME elsewhere too – keep an eye out for them and make sure you ask them for their token!
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