I have often wondered why it is that the more adults accompanying a school party to the museum the less good the educational outcome seems to be.

Last year I put it down to the (very young) children being totally confused by the 'chain of command' - Who to obey? Parents? Teachers? Strange lady pretending to be Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle? - as well as the bad behaviour of some parents who would wander off to smoke, talk on the phone, fetch coffee or chat among themselves. Other Museum Education Assistants mention finding themselves having to 'double teach', aiming at least some of their explanations at the adult members of the audience as well as the children.

Today's group (Year 1 age 5/6, ratio 2children:1adult) were not at all badly behaved; on the contrary, they were so subdued that it was an uphill struggle to get them to participate at all when they went into the Victorian cottage to meet its Victorian resident, Mrs. Kirkby. Usually when I want children to sit in the tin bath (no water), mend the fire (pretend), make the tea (cold) etc. I am inundated with volunteers. Today's first group wouldn't do a thing except for one brave girl and one brave boy who just about saved the day. The second group was better.

Added to this, when Rachel went into the Life Long Learning Room where a range of teacher led activities is set out - handling, naming and sorting Victorian and modern artefacts, colouring and dressing-up - she found the children wandering aimlessly about and the adults chatting among themselves. (These activities are very simple: they are explained in the teacher's pack sent to the school beforehand, explained again by the MEA before she disappears to metamorphose into Mrs. Kirkby, and each is accompanied by a laminated sheet explaining what to do, but they do need an adult to keep the children organised and focused.) Then the teacher asked whether the things could be cleared away to make ready for their packed lunches. It wasn't yet 11.30 - group 1 had been doing their activities scheduled for 40 minutes for less than 10, and lunch was timed for 12.00! Moreover, being only little, the children had with them mid-morning milk and fruit which this group must barely have finished when Rachel went in.

Now, while our workshops are fairly cheap as these things go, it is, when all the transport costs are added in, quite expensive to take children on a school outing and it seems to me that the teachers should be working to make every second valuable as we do.

I am glad to say that our work has paid off and we were told at our meeting yesterday that our museum education service is rated second only to Bath's. Bath: 2,000 year old historic city known the world over for its beauty and visited by millions each year. Scunthorpe: industrial northern working-class town, first charter a mere 70 years ago and generally considered more of a music-hall joke than a centre of culture. All things considered, that's not a bad result.