22nd Sept - Abbott Community Primary School

If you spend as long as I have on-the-road you don't make quick assumptions about schools. I've often been disappointed by the cosiest of leafy suburb schools but more frequently I am blown away by the success of schools in less salubrious areas, who are contending with issues that teachers in more privileged schools merely have nightmares about. Today was one of those days - it took no more than five minutes for me to realise that my day in Abbott Primary School, in Collyhurst, Manchester, was going to be a pure delight...

I'd been invited in by the deputy, Mel Crosbie. As we fine tuned the day, over tea in the staff room, I got my first sense of genuine affection the staff have for the school and its pupils. Her enthusiasm was mirrored in each member of staff I met and their collective commitment was reflected in the strong work ethic of the children and the obvious pride they have for their school.

Staff rooms are excellent barometers of a school's well being - I've heard many a teacher bad-mouth children in the privacy of their sanctuary; although they'd never do it within the child's earshot, it's indicative of a pretence that children are likely to see through. But the teachers at this school seemed to only share positive comments about their children - it was obvious why they were held in such high esteem by their pupils...

Although I enjoyed every minute of my day (especially meeting the amazing Georgia who had broken BOTH arms and, I learnt, managed to lose a banana down one of the plaster casts...). It's my time in year 6 that's going to stay in my mind... For it was there that the brazen Britney came out with the priceless observation "Hey, when you take your glasses off you look just like our milkman..." and it was also here that I witnessed the result of some truly inspired teaching. I'd already heard Gill Rowland enthuse about the way her class had thrown themselves into their work on Romeo and Juliette and how Shakespearean quotes had become common currency, so I was keen to see it first hand. The children duly obliged...

They were brilliant...

"Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books,

But love from love, toward school with heavy looks."