This week I went back to the school where my Dad had been deputy head for several decades. As a child I had sometimes been there with him at weekends, roaming empty corridors and grounds, and I knew the site quite well. It was strange to see familiar places, still in 70’s brown, in juxtaposition with brightly coloured modern buildings.

Me and my Dad in 2018. He died in November 2019.

The task in hand was a full day of careers workshops organised by Education Business Partnership for the year 10’s (not year 12 as was my understanding - never make that mistake - there’s a massive difference!). My colleague and I had 4 groups of nearly 30 14/15 year olds through the day to discuss outdoor and environmentally linked careers. It wasn’t our best day. We were outdoors all day so that we could do activities (at our request), but it was freezing cold, very noisy (air conditioning units), and rather bleak. We had one chaperone with us (safeguarding) who had to be with the kids, and with both of us at all times. Going to the loo was like the fox, chicken, grain puzzle. We both got told off in no uncertain terms by staff members through the day for doing the wrong thing.

But of course the kids were just lovely. Bubbly, silly, cheeky, funny. I just wanted to talk to them and not have to try and shoehorn someone else’s agenda into their day. Year 10 is much to early to be discussing their own careers - we just need to open their eyes to what is going on in the world. But how to you do that with so many kids, on their home turf, in the freezing cold? I’ll write about that if I work it out!

Did we make an impact? Possibly, on a few. It certainly wasn’t the way to engage year 10s about sustainability and I won’t be accepting another invitation to attempt to do so in that kind of setting! The sad thing is that learning for sustainability is exactly what these kids need - for themselves, their futures, and each other.