On Wednesday 17th and Friday 19th May, Year 7 and 8 mentor groups were virtually visited by experts from BBC1’s ‘The Repair Shop’ as part of their Communications topic this half term: Consumerism and The Right to Repair.

In the first Q&A session, pupils asked Kirsten Ramsey and Brenton West about their careers repairing ceramics and metal objects. Kirsten told pupils about her recent project repairing a royal heirloom for King Charles, and Brenton shared his experience of renovating a Nobel Peace medal worth four million pounds! The duo shared their enthusiasm for renovating and repairing and explained how they had both reached the Repair Shop after years of fascinating projects repairing metal Disney characters and Ancient Egyptian canopic jars.

In the second session with Lucia Scalisi, Julie Tatchel and Amanda Middleditch, pupils learned about a painting, saved from the Nazi invasion by a brave family, who smuggled it into a labour camp sewn into the lining of a coat. This was brought to the Repair Shop by the great granddaughter of a survivor, renovated by Lucia and is now waiting to be returned to its original home on the wall of a village church in Ukraine.

All five of the experts enjoyed the session and were hugely impressed by the questions they were asked. They were all vocal in their support for the Right to Repair; believing that we all should be able to repair our own phones, washing machines and laptops. But when it comes to family heirlooms, antique paintings and Nobel Peace medals they suggested we step away from the superglue and leave it to an expert!

Thank you to all of the experts for their time and wonderful stories. Their words had a really positive impact on our pupils.