If you want to crack this teaching lark you soon realise that hoarding stuff that other people would throw away can reap dividends. This map of the journey of a tank from D-Day to VE Day came into my hands from my Mother-in-Law whose stepfather was in the tank I believe. She was moving house, downsizing and she asked DM if he’d like it, along with another similar from North Africa. The newspaper was from the same source.

DM had rejected them but I said “no, let me take them…you never know when they might become useful in school.” Today is that day. I’m preparing lessons and have devised what I think is a really cool idea for something and these things will become props for them.

Sometimes you work really hard at planning lessons and the children just don’t see what you’ve had to do to make them exciting for them. They think these ideas and the props needed just fall out of a tree in the morning and you pick them up and run with them. They have no concept of the hours of blood, sweat and tears that go into making them engaged, excited and open to learning.

What’s most amazing is that good teachers make this all look completely effortless. They actually look as though the box fell out of the tree into their path and when they opened it, it was full of exciting, educationally stimulating and child-friendly stuff that they threw on the table and let the children’s learning commence. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…

NOT SO, my friends. Plan, replan, cover all bases, recover all bases, think of something terrific to stretch children who are so fabulous that they finish what you give them to do in a millisecond then think of what you can say and do to make sure that every child in the room learns what you want them to learn. Make sure there are no pitfalls of any description. Then go through it all again…just in case!