Think back to when you were at school. Wasn’t it great waiting for Christmas to come? Two weeks of guaranteed free time away from school and having to get up at half seven in the morning.

Yes, teachers also think this way. Unfortunately we have to get up at 6:45 and at least look like we’re trying to teach you something. It helps if you pretend to listen, makes the whole thing work a bit better.

Teaching year 7′s about formulae in spreadsheets is quite tricky. The fundamental concept of a formula is totally alien to them. How do you explain to a small kid that even though the cell says “14″, it really contains “=B6*B7″? It makes no sense – they see one thing, but it does something else. The link is hard to make.

I spent most of my first lesson trying not to headbutt the wall or eat my whiteboard rubber. The second lesson was a repeat of the first, with slightly cleaverer children. We got further. Most of the class understood what a formula was and how to make them. Shame the actual objective was to understand how formulae can be used to predict and model data, but there you go.

It’s all good practice. Although I do want to glue some of the kids to their chairs. It is really irritating when they don’t sit on them properly or spin round and round.