Truth can be stranger than fiction. Imagine a passage in a Charlie Lupton book which went something like this:
When Charlie and Mickey arrived at school on Monday morning, all the children were gathered at the edge of the playground. They were looking onto the playing field.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Mickey.
‘I dunno,’ said Charlie, ‘let’s go and see.’
They made their way through the crowd of children. When they got to the front they stood, open-mouthed.
‘Now that,’ said Mickey, ‘is one hundred percent randomly epic.’
There, in the middle of the grass, was a small, passenger jet aircraft.
You think that’s farfetched? Think again. Milton Hall Primary School in Westcliff-on-Sea have got a jet on their school field! To be precise it’s the fuselage of a Cessna Citation Private Jet. They are going to convert it into a classroom where children can have lots of different lessons including computer technology, reading and writing. What an amazing way to learn!
Of course, the plane has no wings, many of its components have been removed and it couldn’t actually fly. Time for the imagination to take over …
During the lesson, while nobody was looking, Mickey sneaked to the front and went into the cockpit. He sat down on the pilot’s seat. There were many switches, buttons and dials. He noticed one button in particular. The words Automatic Takeoff were beneath it. He lifted his finger up and went to press it. He hesitated. He had never flown a jet aircraft before. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. His finger hovered over the button. He really should get back to doing the division sums in class. But he found sums boring. It was time to make things more interesting. He pressed the button …
