We had the following bit of trivia sent in, maybe it really is from the Academy handbook! It really makes sense of some of the nonsensical waffle that comes from Dougie ‘Diggler’ Blackledge. It tickled us and really does work!

Just to lighten things up a bit and perhaps provide a bit of fun trivia for your readers.....

 Want to sound like an Education big-knob? It's easy!

 Make three lists of words as shown below.....

1. achieving                     1. flexible                   1. benefits

2. encompassing             2. aspirational             2. targets

3. commissioning            3. dynamic                 3. outcomes

4. resourcing                   4. character-building    4. initiatives

5. launching                    5. outstanding             5. qualities

6. facilitating                    6  innovative               6. benchmarks

7. delivering                     7. transformational      7. structures

8. activating                     8. competency-based  8. territories

9. pro-actively                  9. supplementing         9. opportunities

 

Now, imagine you are Douglas, Anne, Dave or Moira and you receive a phone call from a parent asking about how the academy will improve educational standards.

Take out the list and, using one word from each column, adopt a superior tone of voice and say-

"Well, we shall do this by (4,6,7)"     eg 'resourcing innovative structures'.

"What does that mean?"

Become patronising "It means we shall be (8,7,4)"   eg 'activating transformational initiatives'.

"I don't understand what you are saying."

Give patient sigh "Well, yes. But we are the experts you know. Trust us."

 Try using the lists yourself but only use one word from each column each time -

Word 1, column 1 (achieving);

Word 6, column 2 (innovative);

Word 2, column 3 (targets)

If you can bung in 'holistic', 'perjorative' and 'heuristic' you'll really wow 'em! (And it doesn't matter at all if you don't know what the words mean)

 

You can use the lists above to produce your own high-sounding, meaningless, gibberish.

 Have a go at making up lists of your own.  Have fun!