On Tuesday, December 9th, our school was visited by illustrious character Mr. Paddy Armstrong. Paddy is known for being one of the infamous Guildford Four; those wrongly imprisoned in the 1970s for the IRA bombing of a pub in Surrey.
To a full group of Transition Years, Paddy first showed the group a short documentary about his life after release.
He then answered questions from the captivated audience, giving honest and sincere responses without glossing over the hardships of his experience.
That is not to say that the atmosphere was tense, indeed it was very open and often very humorous. Paddy’s personality really drew in the students, and often he broke the barrier between speaker and audience, engaging the pupils in fascinating dialogue.
It is a tribute to our school and students that we are able to attract such illustrious speakers, and a huge benefit to our Transition Year programme.
