Kulvinder Johal is assistant head teacher at Northbury Primary School in Barking. She told Kay Atwal about salad and space.

“I teach English and maths in year 6 and year 4,” she said. “I’m also in charge of science, design technology and the library, and I’m the international coordinator for the school.

“We’ve been promoting living healthily, so I’m running “salad workshops” for year 3. Pupils and parents have been working with me to produce a chicken caesar salad or a nashi and grape waldorf salad. I’m trying to encourage parents to see a salad as a main meal as well as a side dish.

“A group of our pupils have just returned from a trip to the European Space Centre. It was hard work organising that trip as it involved visas and getting the children from Barking to Brussels, and then beyond to Libramont.

“One of the boys asked if he could go again next year!

“Work is busy, exciting and full of challenges and experience. It’s my second home and it does take over everything at times. After work I run to collect groceries after work for the salad workshops or wood for the “growing music” workshops, or sometimes I go to Barking station to get the train to a meeting in central London. It’s very diverse and very busy, and I love it.

“While I was busy ordering the salad ingredients, an envelope arrived from a school in Sri Lanka that we’re doing a project with. They have sent over a CD with their work on it as our focus is a day in the life of a child. I’d forgotten it was coming so it’s a really nice surprise.

“That’s probably the best thing about my job – it’s never boring and there’s never time to sit around. There’s always work to be done and every day is very different.”

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