Although he’s now in his 80s, my father still boasts unusual prowess in mental arithmetic. He puts this down to a primary school teacher who refused to allow him and his classmates to go home until they’d each solved a complicated blackboard sum in their heads.

If the answer he whispered in his teacher’s ear was right, he was free to go. As you can imagine, competition to be the first to leave each day was intense.

When I told this story to a friend who happens to be a primary school teacher, she laughed mirthlessly at the very idea of trying something similar with her own pupils today. ‘I’d have outraged parents storming into the classroom to complain,’ she said.

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