Fen School A, Walk 5

This walk, with 14 of the children from Years 3-4 (ages 7-9), along with their teacher and a teaching assistant, took us to the cemetery and then through the village to the river. This group was larger than usual and a bit difficult to manage as a result.

We set out from the school and made the now customary stop at the church. Speculations on age of the church ranged from “1000-2000 years”; I ask how you could tell? One girl suggests “you could look at the age of the gravestones”, and goes on to talk more about the church – that it's nice and friendly, and that during Cromwell's time, parts of it were smashed. They talk about the fact that they come here every Wednesday for services when they have cake.

The discussion about the history of the church leads to some conversation about what’s changed in the village “lots – there was no playground, no cars” “I think there would be no park here and there definitely would not be houses like that here” - we're reaching the playground and another boy interrupts: “the playground is greater than the world”.

As they walk they talk about the fact that there is a ‘cemetery down here, and I live near here and I so I should know everything about it. I used to come down here and ride my bike.’ And then: “that’s the Rec over there and I play football.”

As we pass by the Recreation Ground, we ask one boy, who has been silent so far about it; he doesn't answer and it turns out he doesn't live in the village. Another boy answers for him: “He doesn't know about it, I do, I play football there. Also, there's a pond at the end and there's snakes. I go there with my nan and feed the fish.” And then, “hey, I have got something to say, this place is over 1000 years old.” One boy keeps talking: “My grandfather died here,” he says.

At the cemetery, “we are now in an ancient graveyard” and here they talk a little about the World War 1 memorial. We do a moment of quiet. “They tell us that they sense the cars, birds tweeting, this thing go ding-dong!” “I felt wind and raindrops.” When we ask them about why they come here: “I have been here for honouring my great, great granddad, to see the graves when the people died, with my family" and then someone else says: “sometimes I come on my own!”.

They start to get excited about heading towards the river: one boy says, “It's going to be massive, with boats on it”; another says, “I love this way to the river – there's ducks, ducklings”; several start quacking like ducks. Another boy says: “we are going to river and we are going to drown!” perhaps reflecting warnings about safety at the river.

One boy gets overexcited and calls out “there's the river”, when we reach the Catchwater, but another quickly corrects him: “no, that's not the river, that's the drain”, then explains to me, “I've been here a lot, just walking when its summer”.

Before arriving at the river we talk a bit about a chapel that we pass. The children are familiar with it. They know one of the people who works there. One girl says: “I go here because my dad knows someone who works here, and I go here sometimes.” We continue walking and they tell us “we went down here, we went down here before”.

We have to cross a train track and everyone is very careful to look out for trains before opening the gate and crossing over.

As we reach the bank, we ask about the geocache which we have encountered with other children on a previous walk; one of the girls knows all about it as she's one of the people who placed it there; suggests it needs to be moved if it keeps getting found. Several of the others know about the geocache and geocaching, and one boy says, “people who don't know anything about it are called muggles”. Lots of the children say they come to the river; one boy comes fishing here with his sister; another has ridden a motor trike in this direction; another says “I come here walking a lot because I like the muddy puddles!”

We ask what they know about the fens: although they have a sense of general characteristics – “very soggy”; “flat” – they don’t share much awareness of the history of the landscape and how it’s changed. One child points to the Cathedral, calling out “I see a church”, corrected by another: “the Cathedral”.

A train can be heard coming down the railway line, and all run towards the level crossing; the teacher says to them all “you can run”, and runs with them herself. (She later says that she thought that was the easiest way to keep the group together, although I suggested that she was probably excited about the train herself: “well maybe a bit”). We don't run, but walk after them; but at the level crossing, one of the boys chides us: “You should have run”.

Back over the railway, the children huddle a gate by a yard where somebody is working; noting that he suddenly has an audience, a man comes to the gate and explains to the children that it was an old scaffolding yard and he has been there 33 years. One of the boys says that he's been in before, “collecting conkers”; the man smiles and says that people shouldn't really come in there because it's not safe, but agrees that it's a good place for conkers”.

We continue back towards the school to the sounds of children shouting: “we are going through a pile or leaves, we are going through a swamp. A swamp! Now we are right near a ditch.”

On the way back across village green, several of the boys start playing a version of manhunt. As they head towards a bridge, one of the boys calls out “don't go over that bridge there, someone lives there”, but the others ignore him and tramp over anyway, one of them declaring “Another day in paradise”. Others talk about crossing the bridge “… over a dangerous river!” It emerges that it is in fact the first time that this boy has crossed that bridge.

Back at school, one of the boys says to me that he liked the walk because he doesn’t live in the village and so had never been further than the main road – another boy responds incredulously: “This is your first time? You live in Stretham and you've never been around?”