Light headed

We have just moved to a new, purpose-built school. It is great because I was in a mobile classroom (why do they call them mobiles when they don’t move?) and it was not pleasant getting to the main building when the weather was bad (most of the time).

In general, I am quite happy with my new facilities even though the room is slightly smaller than my old one. One benefit of the new accommodation is that I have a conservatory adjoining my room although, for some strange reason, it is described in the architect’s plans as a greenhouse.

The school has been designed to be ‘green’ so it has many energy saving devices and recycles rainwater to flush toilets etc. My room has a modern lighting system which is operated by motion sensors. This means that the lights go off automatically. Unfortunately, I discovered that I cannot turn off the lights to watch videos or carry out experiments on light or colour unless the entire class sits perfectly still the whole time. (Yeah, that’s going to happen!) After much thought and scientific application I found that if I disabled the motion sensor with a piece of card and some sticky-back plastic then the lights could be turned off.

The builders have come up with a more permanent solution. They are going to install an ingenious manual activation device on the wall. This means that when the switch is down the lights are on and when it is up the lights are off. Revolutionary, eh?