I was perhaps unfortunate to listen to Alan Parker, the main speaker, flanked by two Office for Standards in Education inspectors. They failed him on sharing his learning objectives with the class (we never did work out what his brief was), pace and rigour, management of resources (we stopped halfway through for distribution of a handout), time management (he had several unshared overheads left at the end of his presentation) and keeping the group on task (far too much fidgeting and giggling at the back). Only a six, I’m afraid.

The meeting then got bogged down in procedural motions and amendments during which most of us lost the will to live. Lunch and workshops revived us slightly.

There is still much governor goodwill to draw on, but on a beautiful May day, I would rather have been cultivating my garden.