Once upon a time there was a very lazy bird.  A bird so lazy that he didn’t do anything unless he really had to.  “Why do today what I can put off till tomorrow?” he would chirp merrily as he sunned himself in his favourite tree.   

Now this bird’s favourite food was worms.  Wriggly ones that popped out of the ground after the rain were his particular favourite.  All moist, pink and delicious, he would swoop down from his tree, pluck the worm from its hole and slurp it down whole.  But of course, he would only do this when he could be bothered – he was, after all, a very lazy bird.   

One day, after the rain the bird looked down and saw the biggest worm he ever saw.  It looked delicious he thought, but he wasn’t hungry yet so he left it all day wriggling on the ground.  As the sun began to set though, he realized that now he was indeed quite hungry.  Spying again the tasty worm he flew down to the ground, grabbed the worm with his beak and pulled with all his might. 

He quickly found there was an awful lot of worm.  It was a long one, and the more the bird pulled out, the more worm he found.  “This is the biggest worm I’ve ever seen!” he chirruped delightedly, as he pulled out inch after inch of worm.   It took him so long to pull out the worm that night had fallen before he was done. 

Finally, the rest of the worm emerged with a giant pop!  The Bird looked around proudly – it was the biggest worm he had ever seen.  That was when he turned around and saw the Fox who had woken up from his burrow beneath the tree and was now grinning at the bird with a very hungry look on her vulpine expression.

Now, I probably won’t be giving up my day job to start telling children’s stories any time soon, but this seemed as good a way as any to convey the importance behind the idea of starting your studying early.  It’s all too tempting to say “Oh, I’ll do it later” or to leave everything to the last minute and try to cram for the exam.  The reality is, however, that later quickly becomes never and too late. 

Remember, distance learning is something you do for yourself.  Don’t let yourself down by leaving everything too late.  Like a wriggly worm mostly hidden underground you never know when you’ll find a topic turns out to be much bigger than you first imagined.  It’s always better to start early and finish early because you didn’t need the time, than to start late and find you haven’t got enough.

Until next time. 

Daryl Tempest-Mogg

Director of Studies – ADL