Another day out from school today, this time to Bletchley Park with a group of Year 7s. My first go at supervising a school trip and it went remarkably well - I didn't lose one child and at no point did I get close to administering the Epi pen (except to myself).
Most of the day was on the coach as Bletchley Park is near Milton Keynes, a good 2 hours drive. The shrine to war-time code-breaking has seen better days and is in desperate need of a makeover. In fact, I would not be surprised if it isn't subsumed into another museum one day soon. It is a remarkable story and, while there are veterans to tell it, perhaps worthy of a stage to itself. However, as memories fade, it probably needs to take its place alongside other exhibits at a bigger museum that will capture its essence without the vast expense of a site of its own. An amazing story all the same. They recruited code-breakers from winners of the Telegraph cryptic crossword puzzle. I bet they were at it like rabbits when they weren't hunched over German messages, squinting through their cigarette smoke in dimly lit Nissan huts.
