About John
John Roberts
Disruptor, innovator and entrepreneur working mainly in education, industrial relations and technology. Expect blogs on climbing, edtech and trade unions.
Read my profile in Schools Week.
Latest Posts
First things first, how you vote, is entirely your decision, and I encourage you to read the documents attached on each item at the top of the voting card. If you disagree with me on how to vote, then that’s fine! However, if, like me, you… Read more
On Friday last week, 2nd March, we handed over to the BMC, our work on the independent Organisational Review Group. The final report was an amended recommendations report, following a 3 month consultation on our initial report in November. As of last Friday, the ORG as a body, was disbanded, and its members, now well versed in the complexities of the BMC, are back to their respective roles, or are simply just back to being BMC members. Read more
Since April the BMC Organisational Review Group has worked collectively for thousands of hours, sent thousands of emails, written a 40k word report with 51 recommendations, gathered the views of over 4500 BMC members, spoken to c. 25 partner organisations and stakeholders, launched a further consultation, and done a tour of England and Wales presenting the report at local area meetings, to over 400 BMC members. Read more
The week in Chamonix began by getting caught in a storm, and ended the same way. The first one expected, the second one less so, but sandwiched in the middle was a couple of peaks that will make the week a memorable one.
Some obscure routes and some classics: El Niño, Madame Rêve, Digital Crack and République Bananière. Read more
Back in March, just before the AGM I wrote about the motion of no confidence raised against the British Mountaineering Council (BMC). Of course, the motion was defeated, but the BMC was, and is, under a period of potential reform. Read more
A six part yoga for climbers video series in partnership with Epic TV, Prana and the Depot Climbing Centre Manchester.
Each episode is 10 minutes, so you can do the standalone sessions as a great pre-climb warm up, or post climb cool down, mix and match sessions to create a climber specific workout, or complete the full series as an hour long challenging yoga session specifically tailored to climber’s needs. Enjoy! Read more
Instagram Gallery
Multi-sport weekend photo dump. #wearsunscreen
I never thought that this was the landscape in Northern Iraq and Kurdistan. Of course, as an area, it’s had decades of conflict, but it sure is an area of huge climbing potential. In some places just like siurana or chullila. Completely untouched.
Spent a fascinating week in Kurdistan and Northern Iraq with @theultrarunnergirl visiting the work of the NGO she founded @freetorunngo (more on that later) in and around Erbil.
As a part of the world still dealing with the fallout of years of ongoing conflict and the violence and oppression of ISIS most recently, Covid adds just another complex challenge for those living here: not least for those internally displaced from homes across Iraq to which it is still too dangerous to return, like Mosul and Sinjar.
It’s a privilege to have been able to visit, particularly with the world as it is right now. It was a short trip, yet full of many surprises, culture and unexpected landscapes. Erbil is thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world with around 7000 years of history.
Here a Kurdish soldier greeted us on the top of the mountain we’d run up in the scorching heat (at over 2000m altitude), asking for photos and offering us water despite the daytime fasting of Ramadan.
More posts to come...
Success! The longest run in over 3 years!
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In 2018 I broke my ankle twice in the same year (the video was the second time!) and it’s been pretty tough to get back into running to any real degree due to continuous tendon and ligament dramas (and COVID recovery!). Climbing ok, skiing ok, flying ok, but running has been a real pain.
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I’m not gonna lie, I moaned a fair bit, got tired a lot, and needed a full rest day afterwards, but I’d definitely forgotten how fun it was to run all day until you can’t run anymore and the only thing you have the energy to do is eat pizza and fall asleep. Thank you to @theultrarunnergirl for not letting me make any excuses any more.
Just a small dot in a large ocean of sky.
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Thanks to @tom__livingstone and @flyingchamonix for a fun pre-work home and fly. Was all great until I landed in a big pile of 💩
📸 @theultrarunnergirl
The moon 🌕, and the sun ☀️, almost exactly 12 hours apart, rising in almost exactly the same place above the flammes des pierres 🗻
Very grateful for the view that I have from the garden door 😍
If you’ve got an itch...
No lifts open in Chamonix still affording many opportunities to head to areas of the massif I’ve not visited before. Never stop exploring, or something like that...
The rays of dru and dawn.