In Praise of the PLLC

It’s funny how places have their own language.

Newcomers to Moorside must struggle at times to understand what they’re hearing because I’m sure that our conversations are peppered with unfamiliar jargon like IS, blues, The Den, house style, ER, passports, passport control, traffic lights, LSU, DFL...

And PLLC.

Sometimes that gets shortened to PLC, but it means he same. PLLC stands for the Phil Lewis Learning Centre.

Phil was our much loved deputy headteacher who tragically passed away while competing in the Great North Run of 2005. We’d just been designated as a specialist technology college and Phil was director of specialism. Phil rightly saw that our students needed to improve their independent learning skills, so he decided to devote much of our extra specialism funding to transforming an old community area into a modern resource centre which would be open for study and research before, during and after school. Sadly, he didn’t get to see the fruition of his idea, but I think that it’s apt that every time we mention the PLLC it’s a small tribute to Phil and his service to Moorside.

When I worked for OFSTED (I know what you’re thinking, but no one’s perfect), I inspected school libraries and learning centres so I’ve seen quite a few of them. The vital ingredient is who’s in charge and I can think of at least one manager/librarian who just didn’t like young people (full stop), especially if they wanted to do naughty things like looking at the books or asking for help with finding information.

So I know how lucky we are to have Gem Horth at the helm of the PLLC.

Gem is a gem.

She provides as much learning support to students as she can and is constantly seeking to innovate and to think of new ways to encourage plenty of use of the PLLC. She’s made it the heart of the college and to me it’s a microcosm of everything we stand for: love of learning, support for one another and having fun.
You’d see what I mean if you spent just a brief amount of time there. First of all there’s a fair chance that Gem and several others will be in fancy dress as she’s a dab hand at spotting national days like...and this is true...Talk Like A Pirate Day. There might even be food available as there was on Australia Day when Gem somehow managed to rustle up a beach barbecue.

So they’re examples of the fun side of the PLLC, but you’ll see lots of learning too. Every computer will be in use and Gem encourages individual and small group tuition. So all at one time you’re likely to see Vicki Lakehal our learning mentor at work as well as Elspeth Bain our literacy tutor and Michael Dynes our Connexions adviser. Gem herself, without being asked, takes a special interest in helping students with English as an additional language, possibly because she herself is a gifted linguist and knows how to develop their fluency in a second language.

Anyway, as you can tell, I think the PLLC is great. So we mustn’t lose it in the move to the academy building. Twelve months ago I suggested to the sponsors that the learning centre be at the front entrance to allow community as well as student use but also to announce that learning is the academy’s central purpose. I’m glad to say that my idea has made it into the building design.
So wouldn’t it be good if they called it the PLLC?