The sleep deprivation kicks in...

Let me paint you a picture of what is going on around me. I'm in a small computer room with 22 hyperactive teenagers and one fellow staff member, who has the unfortunate job of giving each of the 22 little darlings their username and password to access the delights of myspace or bebo or whatever the hell the kids are on nowadays. He's surrounded by a crowd of them and I think they might be suffocating him whilst he tries to explain that he can't read out 22 at once and will they please just line up and do it nicely. Ha, fat chance.

I on the other hand made a quick getaway to the nearest vacant screen (tripping over 2 having wheely-chair races on the way) and decided to take a moment to myself. There haven't been enough of them today.

I'm currently at the University of Warwick working as a Residential Assistant (aka student ambassador, mother-of-8, group morale booster, reprographics assistant, personal shopper, first aid instructor, eating disorder expert, rounders coach and woman-who-knows-the-most-silly-get-to-know-each-other-games) and I will be here for the next few weeks. This is the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth summer school, and although nowadays it's not the only one I do, it's still the one I hold closest to my heart. You see in 2002 I was one of the first 100 students accepted into the academy and attended this very summer school. The year after I attended it's daughter project in York, and last year I worked at the Leeds site. Being back at Warwick seems fitting, I've come full circle and this is the last year that they will run NAGTY as I know it.

Watching these kids, sorry - students (they don't respond well to being called kids), as they progress through these 2 short weeks I can't help but feel sad that they'll be the last to experience it. For many it's a life-changing opportunity and the confidence these young people gain from it can't be underestimated. But the scheme doesn't seem to achieve the original aims it intended to reach- to provide the able top 5% of young people with an opportunity to extend their learning regardless of background. Many of the students here with me now will have parents who have forked out £700 for this experience. Most will have afforded £350. And those that can't? Well they're not here. The social profiles of the students vary greatly from the pilot year, when I was here, when it was free. It's a shame it can't always be like that.

So yes, my summer is very busy at the minute. To give you some kind of indication of the amount of work I'm doing in a day at the moment, I'll not bore you with a detailed breakdown but instead tell you I'm averaging 5.5hrs sleep and my pedometer today (which was only put on at 9 and I'd been up and running after small children since 7) currently reads 17648. I've 4 more hours to go before I can even think of sleeping.

I can't moan too much though. So far my group of girls are completely trouble-free, and I am of course getting paid to do this. I only wish that this and the other summer school I've just finished working at paid enough between them to clear my overdraft. Instead I'm straight back to work once my feet once again land on Manchester soil. Or in Manchester puddles. I think that's more likely.