I’ve been having a lesson in history, but not the kind you might expect. Most people who know me know that one of my passions is local history, and I’m always keen to learn more about Swindon’s roots.

That usually involves talking to people who are much older than me, sometimes much older, and that’s always a pleasure and often an honour, but it’s a dilemma too.

Most people interested in local history are – let’s face it – old. In fact, if you are in your 50s, like me, and feeling old, get yourself to a meeting of one of the many local groups in the area, because you’ll soon feel young again, by comparison.

I’m not being unkind. Most amateur historians recognise they don’t seem to reach younger people, and that’s a shame because anybody who has been given a pride in their town repays it in countless ways.

So it was really refreshing, last week, to visit Goddard Park Community Primary in Welcombe Avenue, where they couldn’t do any more to instil a sense of local history in the kids – and therefore pride, place and purpose – unless they strapped them to the side of a Great Western express.

I was there to meet the headteacher, Mike Welsh, and his assistant, Jo Harding, about a project they are going to be involved in in September.

It wasn’t my first visit to Goddard Park. For a start, monthly meetings of The Swindon Society are held there, and last year I helped kids and parents dig a mock First World War trench. Who wouldn’t?

This time, however, I was treated to a peep in the classrooms, and although it was a whistlestop tour and only lasted five minutes, that was plenty long enough to leave me inspired and uplifted.

It suddenly occurred to me that while we like to think that we have a lot we could do in schools to tell them about local history, we’ve been looking at it from the wrong angle. Because they have a lot they can teach us.

For one thing, I bet all the little nippers at Goddard Park School – and a few others I could mention – know more about what made Swindon Swindon than most adults in the town.

In the main hall there is a big mural headed The History of Swindon, which every kid gets to look at, every day, and all over the place there are reminders of local things, such as a set of beautiful ceramic pictures, made in the school, that show off Great Western engines, Spitfires and cars built in Swindon.

Loony politicians of all colours make it really difficult for teachers to do their jobs properly these days, but when they are allowed to get on with it, like at Goddard Park, they come up trumps, and I think everybody who gets paid handsomely to plan our futures should go back to school for at least one day so they can learn a lesson or two.

When teachers do their bit, our challenge is not to GET them interested, but KEEP them interested. But what do our so-called leaders do to help?

Even Goddard Park’s name harks back to the former lords of the manor in Swindon, which is the simplest way of reminding people of their past.

Contrast this with the new development in the town centre which they are still insisting will go by the non-sensical name of Kimmerfields, even though they had the choice of two perfectly good historical names for that part of town – Queenstown or Whalebridge. Kimmerfields? They might just as well call it Snickers.