Place of learning

Through the trees edging a wet Gloucestershire field today, I saw a large, white aeroplane berthed on the grass next to a dark, burnt-out tower block. Beyond the hedge beyond the fire engines there was, apparently, a sooty train, and a bit further across the fields there was a section of motorway and a ship.

I was at the Fire Service College in Moreton-in-Marsh, whose 365 acres provide facilities for training fire fighters, people responding to major incidents and those doing search and rescue. It’s a strange and sobering site, but I wasn’t being shown round; I was with some of the trainees from my workplace whose work experience includes repainting part of the college. Because my job is to create training that will help them into employment, and I plan to integrate their work-experience learning with reflection in the classroom, I went along to find out what they do. I decided that rather than walking round observing and questioning, it would be more useful to get stuck in so I donned whites and was given a section of skirting board to undercoat alongside the trainees. I’ve come away with no notes, but lots of ideas, as well as answers to questions I wouldn’t have thought to ask had I not been involved in the work.

This image is the college canteen building from a classroom window and not, despite appearances, the place where the emergency services practise controlling prison breakouts.



Black and white in colour 30