As I watched, Courtney and Bradley came past, signing furiously to each other, but I didn’t watch too closely – when you understand sign language, it’s easy to find yourself eavesdropping on people’s conversations without even realising it, and I didn’t want to intrude on the teenagers’ privacy. They passed Samira going in the opposite direction and didn’t acknowledge her, but immediately stopped signing until they were past. Samira paused in the middle of the corridor and fished around in her bag for a moment until she found her phone. Frowning at the screen, she held it up as if making a video call, but it appeared the person she was calling didn’t answer. After trying another couple of times, she shoved the phone back into her bag and carried on to her next lesson.

I garnered a few curious glances from students on their way past, but mostly they seemed preoccupied with their own thoughts, on edge due to recent events. Within a few minutes, the corridor was empty again, but I found myself curious to see more of the school. To my left was a cloakroom, and at the end of the corridor I could see the school hall. To my right, classrooms and what looked like the library. Wondering if I was even allowed to be down here, I set off towards the classrooms.

These appeared to be for the secondary students, and I passed an English room and one for the humanities. At the end was an open door, and I poked my head round it out of curiosity, only to be met by the sight of five students looking back at me over the tops of their PC monitors, including Bradley and Courtney.

‘Can I help you?’ I jumped at the voice, and stepped back again as Saul Achembe came into view around a computer. He was smiling at me, but I apologised anyway.

‘Ah, don’t worry, it’s fine. This lot are working on personal projects, come in.’

I followed him into the classroom and perched where he indicated, on a stool next to his desk.

‘Having a break? Or doing some snooping for the cops?’ He asked the second question in a cheesy American accent and made me laugh.

‘No, they don’t need me at the moment, so I thought I’d have a wander. My sister came to this school, but I never really got to see it properly myself.’

‘You have a deaf sister?’

‘Whole family,’ I replied. ‘I’m the odd one out.’