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News / Blog
Christmas Newsletter 2023
As with gladness, we grow older - with gratitude and grace Christmas update from Ann and Maggie…

24 December 2023
Women and early years learning – 1950’s style
Women have played a huge role in my education throughout my life, starting with my mother and…

08 March 2024
‘honouring history: encouraging evolution’ reflections…
Is there a case to be made for th ancient ‘ceremonial’ office of High Sheriff, in the gift of…

28 August 2023
Maggie Cook's tribute to Dame Ann
On 2 June 2022, a few special friends gathered in our garden, in the early summer sunshine, and…

31 December 2022
Christmas Greetings 2022
Happy Christmas - and tales of 2022 - damehood, death, and delight!

24 December 2022
Mystical Experience or Medical Emergency? Cold Water Sea…
Part 5 ‘Hard to define what constitutes ‘mystical’ – perception refreshed giving a greater…

05 May 2021
Mystical Experience or Medical Emergency? Cold Water Sea…
Part 4 Transient Global Amnesia

05 May 2021
Mystical Experience or Medical Emergency? Cold Water Sea…
Part 3 Oblivious to the consequences that were to befall me, I marvelled in the moment, in the…

05 May 2021
Mystical Experience or Medical Emergency? Cold Water Sea…
Part 2 One such occasion was the early morning of Sunday 2 May 2021- when I had woken early to catch…

05 May 2021
Mystical Experience or Medical Emergency? My first…
Part 1 : the location: Lindisfarne Northumberland 2 May 2021

04 May 2021
60 years on c1960 Norbury Church of England Primary School,…
I was a fat child. Today I’d be labelled obese but back in the late 1950’s no-one, except…

03 March 2021
Figures of Speech
How I've become a reluctant (minor) gay icon - my contribution to LGBTQ+History Month 2021

28 February 2021
Locked down and out: education and marginalisation in Covid…
This blog is the text of a talk I gave to members of the Athenaeum Club on 18 January 2021. The…

23 January 2021
Covid Chronicles Ann & Maggie's Christmas Newsletter 2020
Zoom Meetings & Never leave home without your mask

18 December 2020
If you get chances in life and climb up the ladder of…
An interview with Dr Ann Limb CBE DL Fellow Commoner, former visiting scholar Centre for Women…

09 December 2020
'God comes to you disguised as your life' Paula D'Arcy
For our annual Quaker Winter Retreat this year, I wrote and spoke about the way in which 'God comes…

30 November 2020
FE in the spotlight
Ann Limb urges the media to put further and adult education in the spotlight and the funding of…

20/10/2020
A highly teachable moment? If not now, when? New skills for…
My overall message is clear - leaders across the spectrum of the political and educational…

27/06/2020
A ‘lesser well known mortal’s’ guide to Desert Island…
I suspect that many of us fantasize what eight pieces of music/sound we would take to our desert…

09/12/2019
Christmas Letter 24: 2019 – a year of resonance
​Dear God, Let us prepare for winter. The sun has turned away from us and the nest of summer hangs…

07/12/2019
Maggie & Ann’s Quaker Wedding 11 May 2019
‘Take heed, dear friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts. Trust them as the…

06/12/2019
Transforming power of FE: the opportunity to make a…
​Equality Education and Equity are my passions and were the hallmarks of my career in further…

24/05/2019
‘Out’ is not being at home
For a Northern working class ‘lass’ like me, being ‘out’ in the 1970’s meant not being at…

01/03/2019
VQ day on 4 June but double standards still prevail
Skills pass the television test but a dinner party divide remains. The official TV viewing figures…

02/06/2014
Building bridges: Orchestrating opportunities – the role…
The worlds of skills and economic development are moving closer together - and it helps to have…

11/04/2014
Why arts, heritage, culture, sport and creative industries…
Why the South East Midlands LEP could see the arts, heritage, cultural, creative and sporting…

20/03/2014
Reflections on Strategic Leadership 2:leadership of learning…
Education is field of endeavour that must surely rank as high as any when it comes to the social,…

13/11/2014
Reflections on Strategic Leadership 1: leadership of…
Over the last 3-4 months, I’ve been involved in quite a lot of activity around strategic leadership…

13/11/2014
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent
An imaginary dinner party with Eleanor Roosevelt and Helena Kennedy Sometimes when I find myself in…

01/05/2013
Deeds Not Words* What links Emily Davison & Michael…
The first time I voted in a General Election was February 1974. As it happened, it was a postal vote…

03/03/2013
Has Labour finally ‘got’ skills? Ann Limb
Ed Miliband’s 2012 speech to the Labour Party Conference was eye catching for its spontaneous and…

26/02/2013
Mary Lou Carrington Award
The email began ’ I’m writing to let you know that you have been chosen to receive this year’s…

08/01/2013