Welcome to a new year.
Seriously…
The new academic year gets under way this month, and with it comes a fresh burst of activity for Fishing for Schools. Our pilot sessions begin, new schools join the programme, and we resume working with schools that already have a place. Alongside all this, we are interviewing new coaches – a thorough process that ensures we have the right people to deliver the programme – so there is plenty happening as we begin a new school year.
I was reminded too, of the importance of angling in the family unit. Only last week three generations of Jardines fished together at Sherborne Lake... giggling, having fun, catching roach, goodish carp, concocting ground bait, wondering at the colour of fluorescent pink maggots and whether they occurred in the natural world (possibly not), peering at the quiver tip and praying the tiny speck of bright red would dip under the surface.
We wondered at swan mussels, watched pond skaters and bemoaned the shrinking water margins - but all of it bound in a sense of fun and closeness and easy laughter that is almost impossible to convey to anyone else.
That for me is angling. Pure and simple.
It is what Fishing for Schools has done for two decades. We are just that – an extended family. All of us.
And that family is growing – especially with new opportunities afforded by the qualification, a new application season for our central pillar of free F4S sessions, and just the general buzz of new opportunities and new horizons.
The next year promises to be one of fascinating challenges and opportunities.
All of which you will share in with us.