I went as Florence Nightingale to an independent school in Doncaster today, and as usual the AA had over-complicated the route in its final stages off the A roads and through the town streets. The directions the caretaker gave me to get back were much simpler.

I am actually rather against fee paying schools, but I have to say that this was one of the best organised visits I have ever encountered. Two men - the caretaker and another who was, I think, his assistant - carried Florence's numerous boxes from my car to the small hall where I gave the workshop. I was given a cup of tea both before I started and after I finished the workshop.

Most importantly the children were very well prepared - I thought at the beginning that they all knew so much there would be nothing new for me to tell them - and very well behaved. The group consisted of two classes - just 22 children in all aged 6 and 7. There was one little girl called, I think, Lena (but that could just be my interpretation of an unfamiliar Asian name) who had her hand up for every question I asked, and, when I chose her, gave very full, very accurate answers in whole, properly constructed sentences. She was not the only one. The little girl who had to read a shortened version of the 23rd psalm to the dying soldier coped with the language of the King James Bible admirably and very audibly, and the little girl who wrote the letter for Trooper Fred read it out with equal clarity. The boy I picked out to be the cook actually started reading the Alexis Soyer book I handed him with instructions to cook a nutritious meal from the (plastic) ingredients provided.

When the children had finished, they folded up their aprons, and helped the teachers fold up the bedding and nightshirts.

I sometimes complain about teachers who fail to prepare properly, but this school was a shining example of how much more the children get out of a workshop when the are well prepared.