fireside scene, late evening. around a big U-shaped sofa are polly the tabby cat speaking earnestly, prue the pigeon listening intently, edie the opossum listening a bit less intently while crading sibyl the fox asleep on her lap

talking late

11th October 2022

‘You get kids whom no-one at home listens to, no-one at school listens to, and no-one in the community - well what community - and all these ghouls online, who seem to be there for them and aren’t and whom we’re abandoning them to. If there’s one thing I want to do as deputy head it’s genuine listening. Making the time for it, making the kind of environment where it’s possible.’

the inadvertent double-booking of the last visit went well so they did it intentionally this time round

in the aeroplane of conversation, sibyl and polly are engines and edie and prue are wings - if sibyl is out of action (as she usually is by this time in the evening) polly can 100% propel the chat on her own. (so polly can listen, it’s just not her primary function right now)

and edie’s an opossum again, having cycled through rat and rabbit. hopefully this metamorphosis sticks