Duke of Edinburgh story: I once spent an hour and a half with Prince Philip as I showed him and the Queen round our newly built school. 1/8

2/8 When I initially met him (I had just started as head), he asked me why the school was (then) called a community college. I came up with some inspiring words about the school being the centre of the community to which he responded 'Well that's bloody obvious'.

3/8 I then introduced him to the various local dignitaries (most of whom had been nowhere near the school previously!) and then onto the school leaders. As I introduced the two Vice Principals, he asked 'Do you enjoy the vice part of your job?' which made me laugh.

4/8 The Queen went off on a tour with the previous head (who had led the school during the rebuild and I decided that he should escort the Queen since he had done the heavy lifting) and I escorted the Duke.

5/8 His protection officers advised me to just 'let him go' rather than try to keep him to the schedule we had designed and, sure enough, he dived off down a different route at various points, always towards children making a noise doing activities saying

6/8 'That sounds interesting, let's have a look'. He stopped numerous times, stepped over the rope barriers, inserted himself into the crowd of teenagers and let then take photos of him with them (his protection officers just rolled their eyes).

7/8 He was interested in what the teenagers had to say and when we were coming to the end of the tour, he asked me whether we were running the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. I explained that we weren't but that it was on my list.

8/8 The Duke looked at me and said 'I would really like it to be top of your list, these young people deserve it'. We did start it within a year and wonderful staff led and drove it forward to the success it is now at the school.