Age and high blood pressure placed me in the category theoretically at greater risk should they contract Covid-19 so, once schools began re-opening their doors to visitors like myself, I delayed resumption of dome-based presentations.
However, I'm pleased to report I had a few takers for Classroom-based presentations and my first experience of this was in September 2020.
After 21 years of presenting in the dome I'd been feeling a bit apprehensive of what might be in store for me in a Classroom - out of my comfort zone with who-knows-what practical problems awaiting, not least potential daylight washing out projections.
All people running a planetarium will work to rough scripts, not written down but retained in our heads and adapted as required in response to how a session develops, but after almost 7 months off due to Covid-19 would I forget what comes next?
Primary School children are by and large well-behaved in the dome, sometimes much to their teacher's surprise but there's something special about the inside of a dome that modifies behaviour, usually in a good way
- but what might happen in a Classroom?
This is a brief summary of what actually happened:
The school specifically didn't require me (or indeed the staff) to be wearing a mask or a visor
- I was just asked to do my best to stay 2m away from everyone and so after setting-up we moved a few chairs in the Classroom to achieve that.
With no curtains or blinds in the Classroom, the teachers had done a superb job the previous evening of covering the windows with sugar-paper, so with the lights out the darkness was (unexpectedly) impressive.
I usually play my favourite piece of soothing music whilst the class enters the dome, but this seemed like it would be irrelevant in the Classroom as the children would already be in there, having just registered.
I mentioned this to the Teacher whilst I was setting-up, but she suggested having the class briefly leave the room after registration and then re-enter - I initially thought this would be a strange thing to do but it turned out to be a master-stroke!
They left the Classroom, the lights went out, the projector was switched on and the music began.
A couple of minutes later Year 5 trooped quietly back into a darkened room with beautiful music playing and a big bright image at the front - with no curtains or blinds on the windows I suspect they'd never experienced their Classroom like this...
It was a bit like Santa's Grotto although of course absolutely nothing like that, but maybe you get the picture?
There's an aspirational phrase in Primary Education - "Awe and Wonder" - it really was tangible and (don't tell anyone I said this) for a few seconds I felt my eyes welling-up!
(What a big girl's blouse eh?)
Or was it that bag of onions I'd just peeled? No, I hadn't peeled any onions.
It took me back to all those years ago when I would first switch on the stars in the dome and the little "Oohs" and "Aahs" would kick in, but we get battle-hardened to that sort of sop.
Fortunately as it was dark, my momentary wobble went unnoticed.
Anyhow, both sessions went better than I would have dared to dream with just one oversight by me: no sense lugging unnecessary stuff about I'd thought, so I'd removed superfluous kit from my equipment boxes, which unfortunately included the electric light - I honestly wasn't expecting such a dark Classroom and I'd forgotten how much I fade that light up and down during a session, so we had to resort to the T.A. flicking the Classroom light switch on and off.
But I remembered my lines, both classes were beautifully behaved (although they always are at this school) and the Head Teacher thanked me three times for visiting.
My one remaining worry had been leaving something behind: in a dome you just clear the floor of everything you can see and that's bound to be it, but unloading boxes into a room full of Classroom paraphernalia was potentially more of a problem - that said I think I retrieved it all (or did I?)
So there you have it: it was great to be back, albeit in a very limited and rather unfamiliar way for a little while.