Futuram Civitatem Inquirimus

Having just had my first blip dedication - many thanks MrSmith - and engaged in a very pleasant trip down the leafy paths and byways of my brain, I thought it was time to dust off my photos from the early 1990s, a time when I was doing my teacher training at Prescot School. 

I was there, ostensibly, as a trainee teacher of French and German. In reality, it was actually a better-than-average crash course in classroom control. The catchment area was, at that time anyway, exceptionally deprived. Many of the kids had never left Merseyside, and only one had been to France.

While the downside might have been the lack of interest from pupils not sure why they were being made to learn a second language, there were many plus sides. Top of which were the people I was learning from. To this day, Prescot remains the best place I have ever worked. I was being mentored on the French side by Leigh McEvoy - a bald Ormskirk ManU fan, who spoke perfect French, genuinely loved the kids he taught, and was one of the best teachers I ever came across in my brief career. On the German side, Tom McHale and Samien Owen were responsible for looking after me. Both had wicked senses of humour and were also exceptional teachers.

In fact, exceptional teachers were pretty much everywhere you looked. On top of that, there was a real bunker mentality. For while some kids rampaged in the town centre, brought knives into school, got arrested for dealing drugs, beat up passers by, etc., the staffroom became a place of respite, humour and support.

It was an eye opening experience for the small group of human sacrifices trainee teachers who arrived at the school. I think all of us loved it. All of us certainly became better teachers as a result of it.

The extra photos are for MrSmith and Raheny_Eye among others. The cottage is in North Wales.