A Day at School

Hi All,
Yesterday I went to Warden Park school in Cuckfield with Graham U and Stuart Willis (BMFA Chair) to run an 'enrichment day' for the kids at Warden Park school involving building and flying BMFA Dart models.
Stuart runs a regular model aircraft club for the kids after school, so some of them came along plus a load of others - we had 19 boys and girls in total.
Stuart, Graham and I met with Alison Palmer who is a science teacher and we set up a load of Stuart and Graham's models in a large science lab along with some BMFA Darts and some tiny balsa gliders and various RC gear and engines (including a turbine from Taj Manning).
The day was planned by Stuart and consisted of a talk about aircraft in general (how they fly and the control surfaces, etc...) and then a bit about the actual models he and Graham had brought along, with a quick demo of the RC controls and then Graham ran up his EDF motor.
Next we gave out the BMFA Dart kits and split the class into 4 groups each of us had a group to supervise and help as they made their Darts - 1 per child, so everyone had a model at the end. Stuart had brought all the equipment needed and gave them a talk about the dangers of scalpel knives (luckily only 2 kids had minor nicks from them during the build). We all proceeded in our groups at a pace suitable for the kids and within 1.5 hours most kids had reached a point where their model was drying on the building board / plan,  so the kids had a break to let things dry before cutting out the parts from the plan and gluing them together to make the model. Once all the models were constructed it was time to leave them to dry so we had a lunch break. During the break Graham and I made sure the all the models were straight and were drying properly and we used Cyano and kicker to help some of them on their way (so that the kids would all be ready to fly after lunch).
The afternoon was spent in the dining hall, where Stuart took 4 at a time to help them test-glide and trim the models with blu-tack. Graham and I had the cyano and kicker on hand to fix any breakages, so everyone had a working model to fly.
Then Stuart took groups of kids and got them to wind the rubber-motor and test fly the models , this process was repeated a number of times until everyone had a working and flying model and then there was a 'mass launch' at the end.
During these flights, Graham and I were gluing and fixing the models and adjusting the rubber motors, etc so that everyone had a good go at the flying.
We were joined by the school's headmaster during this flying session and he seemed genuinely impressed with the Darts and the kids' achievements.
After the flying we returned to the science lab where there was a talk on basic aeroplane controls and the 'science' around flight including the principles of rudder, ailerons, flaps, etc.....
Stuart had set up an RC simulator so everyone had a go at flying an rc plane with a Spektrum Dx8 transmitter and there were also a couple of quizzes based on aeroplanes which the kids took part in using I-pads.
At the end of the day, we had to decide which of the kids were to receive a prize and then Stuart gave out bronze, silver and gold prizes to these kids (a certificate and model glider kit) but it was hard to decide because they all tried very hard.
I was impressed with the whole day - Stuart had it very well organised and Alison Palmer was brilliant with the kids and knew a lot about aircraft. The kids were polite and listened to everything and called us 'sir'  !!
Graham and I both had a great day and I will do it again if needed any time, plus I've offered to help Stuart with his model plane club next term if needed.