On the morning of Thursday the 29th June I had to get up at 5.00am to return to Eltham Hill for a second year and teach a class room of girls how to build and launch a "Windy City" rocket kit.
I left home just after 5.50am, and after the drive and ferry crossing, I arrived at the school at around 7.30a.m which gave me just over an hour to prepare for the kids.
I soon found Pat - the Maths teacher who had booked the workshops and after a general chat I was shown the classroom and the large boxes containing the rocket kits, and I set about getting the classroom ready for the first workshop.
Too soon 8.55a.m. came and the 19 children poured into the class and started chatting between themselves.
Soon after the teacher helping me arrived and then for the next 2 hours I taught them how to build the rockets.
The time passed very quickly and soon 19 rockets had been built with only a few children making big enough mistakes and had top start again.
Once the room was cleared of the mess (as I only had 15 minutes between classes !!) we headed out to the school field.
Then for the next 40 minutes 17 of the 19 rockets took to the sky with the girls pushing the launch button and then screaming as their rocket shot of the pad under a small flame and a lot of white smoke.
The second workshop went almost as well but this time I had the maximum 20 children in the class and this time again 17 rockets reached for the skies
The second day at the school went well and overall I taught 77 children who each built a rocket and around 68 of the rockets were launched.
After packing up I quickly found Pat to say goodbye and she said that the kids and staff had really enjoyed the workshops and she asked back again next year, to which I said yes. ( I must be mad)
We will see.