Mr T - Lowther Primary School

ies are back out I remember when we were
first given Furbies – this is when I worked for
the Early Learning Centre – and you had to take
one home to try it out and I didn’t really know
what it did. So, I put it on the car dashboard and
when you went around the corner it slid down
the car dashboard and you know what it went
It used to go ‘oooooooeeeeee’. And we used to
have queues outside to get Furbies and queues
outside to get Teletubbies – when they were
really popular – and Power Rangers – yeah. I
can’t remember what they question was. Have I
always been a teacher – No! Teaching is much
better.
H: One of the features in each issue
of the magazine is a question posed
to the press gang. We’d like to ask
you the same. This issue’s question
is “If you were a celebrity (dead or
alive) who would you be and why
Mr T: A celebrity Hmm, I’ll be honest…..
H: I had trouble with this one as
well….
……………I’m not a big fan of celebrities, unless
they have done something really worthy, ummm
– I always thought Mrs Henchie was a bit of a
celebrity – she did get an OBE – which is really
cool. I think in terms of people that I looked up
to; I used to like Michael Jordan who was a basketball
player. What I like about him was that he
was a team player, but also, when it came to
winning he always used to go that extra mile, so
I’d probably say him. In terms of other people
I’d like to be, there’s a lot of people who have
made a difference around the world and I like
celebrities that kind of make me laugh. People
like Alan Partridge – he’s funny and ‘The Office’.
H: What is your favourite meal and
how often do you have it
Mr T: My favourite meal, honestly Hanaa, I love
food. I don’t think I could name a favourite meal
– I just love food. There is very little that I
won’t eat, seriously, very little. I genuinely love
good food. I like savoury food and I like sweet
food. I like foods from around the world – curries,
yeah – all sorts. Um, I don’t like it when
teenagers just give me hot chillies like they did in
cooking yesterday – they played a little joke on
me. They said “Mr T, try this chilli” and I was like,
yeah, I’m not going to eat that. They said “Try it,
it’s not hot, it’s just sweet.” and I was like yeah,
I’m not falling for that one. And then Callum says
“No, I’ve got one, look.” And he ate it!
H: Was it a different one
Mr T: Yeah – his was a red pepper. I ate the
chilli and my face started getting redder and
redder and redder. They were all in hysterics. I
was not impressed with that. I love all food – its’
one of the things that I love about Lowther – we
do so much cooking. I’ve had a few good meals
here – I can tell you! I look forward to when you
lot do the Year 6 meal because that is always
gorgeous! No pressure!
H: What is your favourite film Why
do you like it so much
Mr T: I think you know what my favourite film is.
H: No I don’t!
Mr T: We watched it in Literacy recently.
H: La Vita Bella!
Mr T: Yeah – life is beautiful is my favourite film
ever since it came out really. The reason I like it
is – well I don’t like it, I love it – because the
messages it gives you is one of how important
family is and how important people are – even
when things are hard – to try and be happy and
positive. Guido is amazing as a character isn’t
he Even when he was about to die he was still
in the joke. He did the funny walk didn’t he Past
the guard. It’s a very emotional film.
H: I had a lump in my throat.
Mr T: Me too. You know a little bit more about me
now, don’t you
H: What is your favourite song
Why
Mr T: One of my things that I do is that I’m a bit
of a music nut. I’ve got a lot of music at home –
a lot of music! So to choose one song, I couldn’t.
H: I’ll let you have three!
Mr T: Ummm – you’ll let me have three
H: Top three!
Mr T: See, what I like about music is that different
songs are good for different moods. So, like
if you’re feeling chilled out you might like a certain
type of song. If I’ve got to drive somewhere
and I’ve got to get there quickly I might put
something a bit more ‘up tempo’ on. I can tell you
the styles of music that I like.
H:OK!
Mr T: I’ll tell you what I do, I do a mix at Christmas
for all the people at work and my friends rather
than send them a Christmas card –so they get a CD
of music – or they can download it! I can give you a
sneak preview of what this year’s mix is going to
include.
H: Exclusive for this issue!
Mr T: Yes – it is exclusive and the staff can let me
know what they think of it. I’d be very happy for the
children to listen to the mix as well if they would
like. It’s all – do you know what a ‘cover version’ is
H: No.
Mr T: They are songs that other people have copied
or remixed or different versions of an original song
that people would know. I did something similar last
year. Have you seen the ‘Sound of Music’ Do you
know the song (sings) “These are a few of my favourite
things” Well, there is a jazz version of this
which I’ve included on the CD. If you go on ‘Sound
Cloud’ you can listen to last year’s mix.
H: As I said at the beginning, we want
to know a bit more about the ‘real’ Mr T.
Could you share with our readers the
naughtiest thing you did at school
Mr T: The naughtiest thing I did at school Ummm -
I was a good boy.
H: Is that so
Mr T: What do your reckon is the naughtiest thing I
did
H: Ummm – maybe you played a prank
on the teachers
Mr T: I did play a few pranks –but they were kind of
appropriate pranks – if that makes sense.
H: There’s no such thing as an
‘appropriate prank’.
Mr T: If I ever got told off at school, it would be for
something like talking too much or playing the fool!
Do you know what that means So that’s all I really
got into trouble at school for really. I did get one
report when I was a secondary school where the
teacher said – “If Mark ever stops talking, he might
actually do well!” (laughs). You know now that I like
to talk and play a joke or two! So, I can’t tell you anything
outrageous, because I haven’t really done
anything outrageous.
H: Well thank you for sharing all of that
with us and I hope we’ll speak again
soon.
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