It’s fair to say I am not going to win any awards for my commitment to writing blogs but as I’ve began my third year (eekk! HELP!) it’s time I got back to the keyboard!

We’ve been asked to think about a memorable experience from our own time at school. This is a tricky question. I have many fond memories so trying to pick a stand out one is tough! However there is one that springs to mind…

I lived in Germany for a few years when I was younger so went to Kindergarten and then Primary School out there. Next to my P1 classroom was a large open plan room and every 6 weeks – alongside the other younger years classes we would turn this space into a different kind of ‘shop.’ For the last 3 weeks, on a set day of each week, parents would be allowed in for an afternoon and we would take it in turns to serve them.

The shop I remember the clearest was the florists. During art lessons we made roses out of crepe paper and attached them to pipe cleaner stems. Parents were given some plastic money as they came in so they could then come to our ’til’ and buy our handcrafted flowers. The coins given to the parents were only £1 and 1€ and each flower would be to this value, thereby making it quite manageable for us.

To display the flowers, we painted and decorated little cardboard boxes – letting us loose with the glitter was a brave move by our teacher but we absolutely loved it! In the shop, little tables and chairs were laid out so that once you had worked your ‘shift’ you could go and spend some time with your customers and tell them all about what you had done.

This time was valuable. My Dad was in the RAF so it was a military school I was at and many of us would not be seeing our military parent much during the week. Despite this, the school was very much part of the camp so there was a strong connection between the two. A  real emphasis was put on trying to ensure that children could see their parents as much as possible. Therefore, the afternoon visits into the school were factored into the camps timetable where possible to maintain a strong family environment for the children.

I realise now how lucky I was to have attended a school like this and it was due to the unique environment of the camp we lived in that allowed it to work so well.  It was ambitious for the teachers to take on quite a large project that was near enough continuous but it worked so extremely well for that particular school.

It’s not like anything I have ever done since at any one of the schools I have been to so am thankful I had the opportunity to have had such a unique experience at my first! And who knows…maybe I’ll be brave enough to try it with a class of my own one day!