Our son – Doug – is currently out in Australia playing rugby and generally having a tremendous time (I’m not really envious!). In the past week he’s been staying with Mark Walker’s  family in Melbourne.

I met Mark out in Harvard last summer and we struck up a great rapport.  He’s doing some very innovative work at Elsterwick Primary School where he is living out his professional life a reflective professional dedicated to improving the quality of learning and teaching in his school – whilst still retaining his innate sense of fun.

I enjoy reading Mark’s blog and realising that the challenges we face in Scotland are not as unique as we might think. I can’t really thank Mark and his family enough for showing such exceptional hospitality to our son.   

Perhaps Doug summed it up in one of his texts home when he said “They are great people”.