The year seven camp was a success. Even though the rain clouds did their best to spoil it for us. It was fascinating to see the kids in a different environment. One child I teach who is normally a pain was brilliant when we went on a trip down a mine. He probably answered more questions to the instructor down there in an hour than he has in maths all year long.

Of course there was the typical sort of school camp stuff: the homesick girl, the boy who loses his trainers and walks round the camp site in bare feet, the boy making fart noises after lights out, the girl who trips over guy ropes - possibly just for the attention, the special ed kid who turns out to be a star when it comes to cleaning kitchens, the year eleven helper with a fan club of twelve year old girls and the teachers either laughing or crying at all of the above.

For my part I was plenty capable of being a disaster and had a nightmare with the group of kids I was in charge of. They were incapable of listening, or at least four of them were and drove me mad. They threw rocks and didn't listen to instructions.

I then made the mistake of allowing them to switch tents for the second night. The camp leader overuled (in a subtle and cunningly genius way that avoided making me look like an idiot - she invented a campsite 'sleeping plan' that prohibited tent switching after the first night) because this would just cause pandamoneum, she did have to make a big fuss at them for being so pesky as to ask to move in the first place though which left me feeling rather embarrassed.

So when we were sat round the campfire that evening I was sat wet-through and fed-up because of being such a pushover and not being able to get eleven year olds to behave better than two year olds. Then two kids came up to me and said: 'you look pretty down sir so we thought we'd come across and sit with you.' Just when you think that children are evil little creatures who are always plotting to make your life a misery they suddenly show an uninhibited level of humanity and maturity. It's the sort of thing that reminds you why teaching is such a great job and that for every kid you wouldn't be too bothered to see falling off the climbing wall there's about five who are absolute stars. Great stuff.