With only a few months before another milestone birthday, I have to admit to feeling increasingly long-in-the-tooth. So when the opportunity arose to turn back the clock and go back to school for a week I jumped at the chance!

The generous invite to spend a week amongst bright and enthusiastic teenagers from George Herriot School in Edinburgh proved to be briefly nerve-racking but enduringly inspirational.

My visit involved attending all S2 classes as part of a Religion and Philosophy project on the contemporary issues of animal welfare/rights and offering insight into the work of Advocates for Animals and our recently launched OneKind campaign. Within each busy 40 minute class I managed to squeeze a presentation, a quiz, a comedy ‘animal on-line dating’ game, and a Q&A session.

 My intention had been to inspire, educate and create an opportunity for the young people to laugh and feel good about being OneKind, but what I hadn’t expected was the extent of laughing and learning that I did!  The students really engaged with the issues and I was truly impressed by their questions and comments and the incredible humour they brought to the sessions.

Sadly the week flew by and before I knew it I wrapping things up with the final class and saying my goodbyes. However as I left the beautiful grounds of George Herriot School the sun was shining down and, aware of the first signs of spring, I was reminded of the quote... “Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar”... and I felt good that a OneKind lesson had been learnt by all.