Visiting The Terracotta Army

Yesterday, I went to the British Museum with my youngest son's Year 5 class to see the First Emperor exhibition, featuring the Terracotta Army. The show was fascinating and the children really enjoyed it, requiring no second bidding to throw themselves on to their stomachs and make earnest pencil copies of the relics in their exercise books. I was impressed by that, but also by the way the nine and ten year-olds behaved. From queuing in the drizzle to catch the number 38 into town, through their packed lunch break and the gift shop visit, to the long ride back home they were a credit to their school and to their borough. Hackney continues to have an image problem and its children can suffer as a result. It was, then, a real bonus when as we neared the museum a fellow bus passenger asked Jo, the class teacher, where we were from. "Lovely kids," he said. Quite right too.