The Scary Guy

This was taken in my first term at Broad Oak, where I work now. There's a back story.

About 12 months earlier, I had heard an interview with this guy on Radio 2 with Jonny Walker whilst I was driving over to Liverpool to visit my grandparents. He was pretty inspirational - he had been touring schools in the U.S. promoting a program of tolerance, anti-bullying and anti-hate with teenagers and was just embarking on some early visits to the UK.

I got in touch, and was able to secure a visit to my previous school, where "The Scary Guy" came in and spoke to all of the kids and he was awesome. His agent, Gary, was a fantastically genuine guy (still is in fact!) and Scary was very down to earth.

When I started at Broad Oak, Gary got in touch with me as Scary was doing another tour - did I want him to come in to school - well Yes I did, absolutely, but the budget was very tight - so we did a deal - Scary, Gary, Scary's wife and a friend of theirs all came to stay at our house for a week, they visited my school, and they used our house as a base to travel to the different schools that week. It was a very entertaining week at home, and my God did it cause a stir with the neighbours.

The last time I saw Scary was about 3 years ago - we had stayed in touch but unfortunately, because of a change in his personal circumstances, it became difficult to maintain contact.

But his message is powerful and our kids really responded to him - look for "The Scary Guy" on the internet and his organisation "KidsVisionHeart"

(Tattoo-ed from head to toe...and he's a BIG fella too!)