Exams are pretty big in the lives of our children and many will have worked hard and diligently to prepare for those due to start on Monday. But the disruption caused by the snow will now, most likely, knock those preparations into the long grass. The reason for this is that the Exam Boards cannot manage the challenge of exams schedules when not all candidates can attend due to poor weather conditions.

There are no doubt many options to deal with this challenge, but the option of ploughing on regardless and leaving those who cannot attend to take the exams in 5 months time is undoubtedly the wrong option. The reason it is wrong is because it is putting the system at the heart of the answer, not the customer who is called the candidate in this instance.

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If the business world can look at weather forecasts and make decisions ( salt, grit, even cat litter will be on surge supply, whilst demand for salads will probably be down so not much will be ordered), then it is hard to see why the exam boards cannot make the necessary changes especially when the forecast is so clear and the impact so wide ranging.

Surely it is not beyond their ability to make a radical change to the plan that reshapes the playing field in favour of the students. With forecasts of poorer weather still over the weekend, Monday promises to be a tough day to get to school. So why not close all schools for a week for the weather to clear, and delay the start of the holidays by one week, now or in the summer, to make up the “lost” time.

This could work, but it would probably be rejected by all those in education who place themselves ahead of those they are supposed to teach and prepare for the future.

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There’s an old African proverb that says that it only takes a small amount of salt to make a big difference. What a message!

It’s so true that the smallest input can have a massive impact on the output and I remembered this earlier this week when the Welsh Assembly Government announced a commitment for 3 years to help the Mbale Region of Uganda.
My first reaction was: what on earth are we playing at? What’s the point, Copenhagen is supposed to be fixing all that, and what on earth has it got to do with Wales?

Well the truth is the talking in Copenhagen is getting nowhere, and there is not likely to be any valuable resolution before the end of the conference. Instead the only way that we can see some real progress is for some of us to do something.

WAG’s commitment may be small beer in the grand scheme of things, but I feel proud that we are at least doing something and not just talking about doing something.

And you know what: it’s not just about money: the commitment was for money to plant and grow trees to provide shade to allow coffee to grow: that’s a well thought out contribution that should not be the subject of any corruption.

We should feel proud and willing to do more. How much salt will we need?