23-30 March 2007

This is a series of excerpts from Mrs Anderson's complete report, which was published in the magazine. It is not all to do with Greece - there are also some insights into the nature of Caldicott boys! Oh, yes, and a couple of amusing incidents.

Amusing Incident Number One

We had a daily award for the tidiest room. Mrs Mackie and I did a room inspection after breakfast each morning. On the first morning we knocked on each door shouting “Room Inspection!” Out of the 8 rooms we didn’t get one response. One of the boys came down from the floor above and I asked him where everyone was. He said they were in their rooms waiting for the inspection – on the floor above! Oops! You’ve never seen two old ducks move so fast up a flight of stairs before anyone came out to see why we were knocking on their doors!

Fact

The boys were escorted around Greece by four adults whose ages amounted to 250 years, while the total of all 21 of the boys' ages was just 255 years! Now that is some food for thought!

The Nature of Caldicott Boys

Our boys are so well behaved, disciplined and polite at school that I did wonder if they would go ballistic once the structure was removed. This was not the case. They were truly amazing. We travelled great distances in our hired bus – at times in four-hour stretches - and they just played cards (some new games that Mr Anderson had taught them) or just slept without any noise or disturbance. On the odd occasion someone would dare to step over the line – only briefly – with a few growls from Mr Anderson they were thorough gentlemen thereafter.

Greece

At Epidauros we visited a 3rd century outdoor theatre. It was in such amazing condition, with the seats still intact. It is renowned for its amazing acoustics. A coin dropped in the centre can be heard from the highest seat. Built of limestone, the theatre seats up to 14,000 people. Our boys had practised part of a Greek tragedy (Aristophanes’ The Frogs) and it was one of the highlights for them, to present it in these amazing surroundings.

Amusing Incident Number Two

In Olympia the boys were able to see where the Olympic flame is lit every four years and see the statues leading to the track made in the likeness of the people who had cheated in their races. This brought shame to the athlete, his family and his town. The way the sporting world is today, each stadium would be crammed full of statues of this type! The boys were able to run a race on the original 200yd Olympic track. The competition amongst the older boys was incredible as they all wanted to be the ‘gold medal winner’. We took photos of them and then staged a photo of Mrs Mackie winning the race with the boys close behind.