John K Mitchell's Misc Blog

Yesterday afternoon I went to a performance of Shahrázád (otherwise known as "The thousand and one nights") put on by the key Stage 2 children (7 to 11 year olds in years 3,4,5 and 6) at the Peakirk cum Glinton C E Primary School in the village.

The main characters were taken by the year 6 children and how some of them remembered all the lines that they had is beyond me - the performance started at 1:30 and finished at about 2:45, with some of the children on stage and performing for most of that time.

The staff, helpers and children had obviously put an awful lot of work into the play and I, along with the rest of the audience, was very impressed with the end results.

This got me to thinking - there is only about a month left before the year 6 children leave the primary school and (after the summer break) start at their chosen secondary schools. I can remember many of the children starting in reception and it is amazing to see the way that they have matured as they have risen through the school. To have the confidence to stand in front of a hall full of people and act, sing and dance is not something that I would have had at their age.

Whether this is down to the fact that it's a church school, the staff in the school or just the children themselves I do not know although I suspect that there is an element of all of these factors - along with the fact the many of the girls have performed in local dance shows, gang shows and had lessons at the Key Theatre youth theatre or summer schools in Peterborough outside of the school environment.

Hopefully the current year 5 will take on the mantle at the start of the next school year - it will be interesting to compare them with the current year 6.

Every so often I get to feel my age and start to think that I need to top up my life insurance policies before it gets too expensive.

Just recently I came across the site for a broker who are based in the UK. Looking around their site it seems that they are an insurance broker and not just a website that acts as an affiliate link to other sites.

Now I'm not sure if it's a top up to my normal life insurance that I really need, it seems that I might be better off taking out something called "accident sickness and redundancy insurance" or "income protection insurance" since this will pay out should something happen and I'm unable to pay the monthly mortgage payments. I've put in a request for someone to contact me and talk through the options, they say that they can give advice and it would be helpful to get an opinion about my options.

Update : 15th June 2006
I had an exchange of emails and then a phone conversation with the above company and it seems that I am more likely to need to take out sickness and accident insurance as aparently my life cover is high enough and apparently people are 20 times more likely to have a long term health problem than they are to die before the age of 65. Having said that, they are looking at the costs of my current life insurance policies and are comparing it with current rates to see if I can get the same cover for less.