Echo from the past

I did a primary school session at work this week, for bright history students from our feeder schools. There was supposed to be 30 but I ended up with nine, plus three helpers from my Y9 history class, so we had a great time. We had lunch together in the canteen and then I taught them a lesson about source reliability and the Battle of Hastings.

One girl in particular was very engaged. She put her hand up often, guessing often, getting it right sometimes. She caused a pause to the lesson briefly when she identified a student in my tutor group, whose names are all on the wall in an attendance tracker, as the brother of one of her friends. She was a cartoonist, she told me, and so the Bayeux Tapestry was right up her street.

This all reminded me a little bit of myself, or how I think of myself at that age at least. At the end of the session we were sat together in reception waiting for her mum to pick her up, having a chat. "I've always wanted to be an authoress," she said. Then I knew she was a lot like me at that age.

Keep working at it kid - you'll get there in the end!