Noelene, despite a lot of time off, passed the first year of her Art BA at Bolton (almost) University and is now doing the second year specialising in sculpture, ceramics and print.

Dawn officially graduated and has a new job as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, working in the community, and Claire's now with the PDSA full time, raising the money to save all those poor, mistreated cuddly animals.

Carl, Claire's fella, also did well at College and is now in the second year of his Degree in (wait for it!) Consumer Product Design, also at Bolton.

Even I managed to get in on the act and, with my Monday evening class at Turton School, scraped through to the GCSE German course with a very believable rendition of "Ich möchte ein Mittel für Durchfall" (I would like a remedy for diarrhoea!). And that's no comment on my linguistic skills.