Fish Fingers, Custard and Kiwi’s

We are Target Who and friends and family have played a big part in sending our books long distances.

Over in New Zealand my friends Steve and Louise Roebuck had been following the adventure of Target Who via my Facebook statuses.  This summer they came back to the UK for a visit and were only too pleased to take books back with them and find two worthy schools to donate them too.

David Dovey, Louise Roebuck, Emma Dovey, Steve Roebuck

The first set went to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Takapuna and we are grateful to the Moss family for delivering them to the school for us.  I love how they wear hats as part of their school uniform - The Eleventh Doctor would be impressed!

Orla, Aoife and Leo Moss

The Second set was donated to Puketapu School in Hawkes Bay.  Louise told us:

“It is one of the oldest schools in Hawkes Bay, established in 1864 and have just recently had a brand new library built so they were very pleased with the donation of books.”

 

The excited pupils of Puketapu School

Then we heard off Kamo Intermediate School.  One of their teachers had spotted mention of Target Who over Facebook thanks to Andrew’s Cousin, Christina Ledger.  As Christina was about to travel over to New Zealand she happily took a set with her and delivered it to them along with some fish fingers and custard to celebrate!

 

Holly Edmeades about to enjoy some sigh fingers and custard!

 We heard back from Kamo that told us:


“Thought you might like to see how we enjoy Fish Fingers and Custard in New Zealand. A HUGE thank you from Kamo Intermediate School pupils for the books you sent around the world with the wonderful Christina. We hope you enjoyed your day at the beach Christina, and thank you sooooo much for bringing the culinary treat!”

We are Target Who and our books are delighting children half a world away.

Target Who would like to thank Stephen Roebuck, Louise Roebuck, Orla Moss, Aoife Moss, Leo Moss and Christina Ledger

Honouring Jon Pertwee

We are Target Who and this whole project is our way of saying thank you to Doctor Who for the influence it had during our childhoods and how these books encouraged us to embrace reading.  In the run up to Doctor Who’s 50^th Anniversary we wanted to also honour the actors who have portrayed the Doctor over the years, so last month we sent a small bundle of special books to one of their childhood schools.  Some schools took the time to write back and thank us and the first of these was Frensham Heights, where in in his own words the late, great Jon Pertwee “discovered scholastic happiness”.

We received a wonderful handwritten note of thanks from Headmaster Andrew Fisher, it reads:

Somehow pen and ink seems more appropriate for a Doctor Who related letter - not sure why, timeless I guess.

Thank you so much for your kind gift to our library - we are delighted.  We are aware of Jon Pertwee’s link to the school; he spoke very beautifully about Frensham in a radio interview which warmed my heart considerably.  Very best of luck with your scheme - worthy and fun a great combination.

All the Best

Andrew

It wasn’t just on radio that Jon talked about Frensham.  He says the following in his autobiography, Moon Boots and Dinner Suits:

It was in 1935, at the age of sixteen that I entered Frensham Heights. The school, a vast Victorian mansion, was an ancient pile of great importance. Its main building, towering behind an imposing drive and a hundred acres of beautifully laid out parkland, housed, fed and slept us; its stables, with their half-opened doors, were our class-rooms. Above, in converted lofts, were the weaving looms, pottery wheels and kilns. There were also carpenters’ shops, engineering workshops, green-houses, and a printing press.

I was helped and encouraged to dig out and build an open air theatre from the side of a hill, overlooking a small wood. It’s still there, just – I saw it through the weeds only three years past. In that same theatre, we put on amongst ourselves two stage productions of near professional standard. One was Twelfth Night, and the other – an extraordinary choice for a school play – Lady Precious Stream, the traditionally presented Chinese play that had had such enormous success in the West End of London.

For the first time in my life I really began to learn. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. The teachers were interesting and knowledgeable of their subjects, and the curriculum was intelligent, allowing a student to work several one hour study periods consecutively, thus enabling him to complete the ‘peak’ set him by his tutor.

We are Target Who and it has been an honour to place some of our books into the school that meant so much to Jon.

Happenstance and Kismet

We are Target Who and we are seeking help wherever we can find it to move our books into school libraries.

My wife has often teased me that I have not spoken to a single person in the last six months without at some point mentioning Target Who.  She is probably right.  I am a little obsessed about this project, but then I have seen first-hand the effect they can have on even the most reluctant reader.  

Over the summer we had Solar Panels installed and I interrupted the workmen’s tea break to tell them all about Target Who.  One or two of them even took books back for their local schools!  However a courtesy call from the company’s head office led to even greater help..

Gary Anderson was the employee who rang and what a wonderful stroke of fortune that was.  I confirmed that all had gone well with the installation and then quickly took the chance to spread the word about our little project.  Gary was very enthusiastic and loved what we were trying to do.  By the end of the call he had given me his email address and agreed to forward an open email about our project around his colleagues and friends.  Then he asked the killer question … 

“Could I pass your details on to my fiancée?  
She works for a company that regularly visits schools all over Birmingham.”

I agreed instantly and that’s how I first got in touch with the wonderful Laura Cameron.

 Laura works for Hays Education in Birmingham, who vet and supply temporary teaching staff for schools.  Laura leads the Sandwell Primary Team along with Sam Millan and together they provide an extensive service for Teaching, Teaching Assistant and Early Years support within this area. 

 

Laura and her colleagues helped contact an agreed number of schools in her area about Target Who.  We then arranged to drop the required number of books, pre-bundled for each interested school at Laura’s office, where they have slowly been distributing them on our behalf.  Then I asked my killer question. 
“Could I contact other Hays office around the UK and see if they would do the same for us?”

Laura agreed to help arrange this and booked an appointment with her Director, Roop Bhumbra where she explained what we wanted to do and what a positive impact they were having in the schools we had reached so far.  Roop provisionally agreed, but there were a few hurdles to jump first.  I provided Hays with my employment history, several references and undertook a police clearance check.  That finally came through last week and Hays offices managers were sent details about Target Who and informed I may be telephoning soon.

I have spent this week slowly ringing round the many offices and organising delivery help.  The response from Hays staff was been 100% positive and any schools signed up in their area will now be distributed via Hays.  So far I have spoken to the majority of the of Hays Education offices in the South of England and South Wales,  I have provisionally agreed distribution with the area manager that covers the North West of England and North Wales.  Next I will be speaking to offices in the North East.  They won’t be able to deliver to every school, but the numbers we have left to reach will be significantly lower, enabling us to focus exclusively on them.

We are Target Who and with the help and support of Hays Education our books will be heading into hundreds of schools soon.

Gary Anderson and Laura Cameron

Target Who would like to thank Gary Anderson, Roop Bhumbra, Manoj Parekh, Nathan Smith, Michael Watson and each and every one of Hays Education staff that aids our cause.

Target Who would especially like to thank the very wonderful Laura Cameron for making all this possible.

Special Delivery for Who?

We are Target Who and this month, as we hurl towards the 50^th Anniversary date, we’ve been busy researching and planning some very special deliveries.  For these, we haven’t exactly broken the laws of Target Who but we are bending them a little.  We have despatched the books unannounced and paid for postage.  The costs incurred have been funded by a small group of generous Doctor Who fans, some of whom have chosen to remain anonymous.  David Dovey, Andrew Ledger, Phil Sandifer, Roger Smith, and Jason Wandby are amongst their numbers and a small number of others.  Wonderful chaps - all of them.

 The books have been sent with an enclosed letter explaining our project and the reason they have been chosen for this very special delivery.  There is also a polite request to send us something we can share with you on the blog; maybe a photo, a thank you note, or news of the pupil’s response to our little gift.  Of course schools are very busy places, and in the grand scheme of things perhaps a donation of a small number of Doctor Who books is a trivial thing to them, no matter how much placing books in their particular school may mean to us.  We may never hear back from them, but if we do we’ll share the news here.  

We are Target Who and we hope to make you smile as we slowly unveil these special deliveries.

Problems, Perseverance and Plans

We are Target Who and recently we have had a run of bad luck.  They say that bad luck comes in threes and I have already reported how I suffered a detached retina in my left eye, and how Andrew’s recent house move has left him cut off from the internet.  On Sunday our third and hopefully final serving of bad luck came our way.

The day started so well; a pleasant morning with the family and an afternoon being entertained by Steven Moffat at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, where he told us about SPOILERS.  Shortly afterwards the vision in my right eye became distorted and a trip to A&E confirmed that the retina in that eye had also detached.  I had laser surgery on Monday afternoon; I now have zero vision in my right eye, partial blurry vision in my left and a very lovely wife who is typing this on my behalf. 

However, it is not all bad news.  Andrew has finally re-joined us in the 21^st century and will be and will be able to ensure Target Who emails do not go unanswered. 

Also over the last few weeks I have been having discussions with many people and laying down plans which are starting to come into fruition.  

With the help of my childhood fiend Mark Roberts and teacher Jon Biddle the books for all Norfolk schools have now reached Norwich and distribution will start next week.  We will pin them onto the map once each school confirms receipt.

We have also found someone to help distribute across Essex and if all goes to plan he should receive the books on Sunday.  Again distribution should start from next week, although due to his location, Essex based schools within the M25 will take a little longer to reach but he will endeavour to reach you as soon as possible. 

There is also a much bigger plan in the pipeline which will hopefully enable us to distribute to hundreds more schools.  This has been delayed by the need for me to update CRB clearance, but as this is now completed I hope to announce further details very soon…watch this space!

Finally, many other Target Who members have been working together on a series of VERY special deliveries which we are looking forward to announcing in the weeks leading up to Dr Who’s 50^th Anniversary in November.

We are Target Who and despite these hiccups we continue to focus on getting our books into school libraries (apart from David who can’t focus on anything at present!).