Why the one-eared bear logo?
The one-eared bear commemorates one of my favourite activities Je suis le roi! Like all good ideas, it came out of the blue. I was driving round the Leeds ring road on the way into the second day of the SHP conference some years ago, having already demonstrated this activity in one workshop. For no reason that I can recall, it suddenly occurred to me that the Harrying of the North section of the activity would be more memorable if, instead of just sweeping the teddy bears off the desk, I slowly and calculatingly cut an ear off one of the bears to reflect William the Conqueror’s treatment of the north. I tried it at the next workshop and was rewarded by anguished cries of “No, don’t!” from mature and hard-headed teachers. Since then, bears have been being mutilated in classrooms all over the country. Students of all ages find the unusual and unexpected memorable. In the activities on the site, you’ll find plenty of stuffed toys, a hairdryer, anachronistic mobile phones and other daft id
