After 10 fantastic and wonderfully enjoyable years of working for the Taylor Bennett Foundation, my time has come to an end. Over the last decade I have had the privilege to meet and work alongside dedicated staff and very creative and talented trainees, many of whom have gone on to do great things. I have often followed these successes from afar; happy in the knowledge that maybe I helped in some small way.
I was introduced to TBF by an ex-colleague of mine who was at the time the writing tutor but because he was leaving the country wanted to hand over to someone that might be interested in continuing where he left off.
Skip forward 10 years and I'm writing about how brilliant it's all been. The success of the programme is testament the hard graft that has been put in by everyone involved - but special hat tip to Sarah Stimson who had the vision and the will in the first place. Many thanks for taking me on, believing in what I had to offer and helping to create the important foundation that it has become.
I have worked with many fabulous people - too many to mention so I won't but you definitely know who you are... - and I sincerely hope that TBF continues to go from strength to strength. The work it does is too important for it not to. To the PR companies that have supported TBF in the past, thank you. To the companies that are still working and supporting the great work, thank you again.
But the organisation is only half the story. The other half of the story is about the trainees: the wonderful, intelligent, hard-working, hilarious, talented trainees. Again, too many to mention, but thank you to all of you that have sat through my sessions, whether face to face or online, and put up with my poor jokes, punctuation quizzes, sessions on sentence structure, concision (ironically) and anything else we may have covered. TBF is a great, great thing but without you the trainees, it would be a mere concept. An idea. You have made the dream real for many and people will now be looking to you thinking, "Yup, that's something that I can do."
As I said at the top, I've read about many trainees' stories and successes on this platform and it gives me great pleasure seeing you all succeed. Keep up the hard work and know that I'll continue to champion you, even if it's only from the comfort of my couch. I wish you all the best and hope you go from strength to strength. Good luck everyone.
I haven't mentioned anyone specifically really, apart from Sarah, as I'm terrible with names and I don't want to leave anyone out - but know that these past 10 years have been important to me and I will look back fondly on my TBF time. If we have worked alongside each other, then thank you for your endless patience and professionalism towards me. Natasha Ferguson, I wish you all the best going forward; I know TBF is in some safe hands!
To all the past trainees I've met and worked with I say thank you. To all the TBF staff, thank you too.
Good luck everyone :-)
