‘I used to be a pupil here, now I’m a teacher and my face is on the tea towel'

Reo Mardell, a teacher at St Peter's Infant School in Rochester, speaking about his return to his old school and his remarkable discovery.

Transcript

00:00When I was a kid, I know it sounds silly, but I always wanted to be a teacher and at

00:05parents' evenings, I'd tell my teachers I'd want to be them one day. And then I was sort

00:10of into drama and then I thought, maybe not for me. I mean, it sort of links to teaching

00:18and drama, it sort of links, because you're very out there, very creative, very enthusiastic.

00:23So I thought, oh, maybe going down the teaching route, I can bring my drama skills to children

00:28and show them it's okay to be yourself and to be out there. It was just, it felt like

00:33home, to be honest. My mum worked here as well when I was here and it's just really

00:37nice just to come back to my roots and to see the staff that were still working here

00:42when I visited and I saw them, I felt like I'm returning back to like a family. So it'd

00:47be really nice just to come back home. The layout of the school is just exactly the same.

00:52The playground was just, it brought back so many memories. Just the classrooms as well,

00:58just seeing how they've not changed at all. It's just been amazing just to walk back into

01:03here and just see everything still the same. And even just seeing the teachers as well

01:09that are still here, I just couldn't believe it.