The science teacher pours 500ml of water on to a miniature aqueduct model, built by students who hold their breath as they wait to see whether any liquid was lost.

Some cheer in excitement when they see that most of the water made it to the end of the aqueduct they carefully put together – using the laws of gravity – in a yard at St Paul’s Bay primary school.

Then, one student turns to another, whose aqueduct project was not as successful, and yells: “I was about to call your husband and ask him to fix my plumbing. But I don’t think I’ll do that now.”

The whole class bursts into laughter – the loud, cackling type typical of adult students.

We gave our children a good example. Even we like school

Twenty mothers spent the day “in their children’s shoes” at school on Monday.

After packing their own lunch, they turned up at 7.45am for the morning assembly and then sat for a series of lessons that included music, science and art.

Teacher Mark Azzopardi, one of the organisers of the Back to School Day, said the idea was to bring parents closer to the school while, at the same time, encourage them to better understand how their children spent their day and the methods of teaching.

They received 80 applications from parents, both mothers and fathers, who wanted to participate, so the activity will be repeated.

The experience also helped parents get a taste of the multicultural environment their children were growing up in since the students at the school were of various nationalities, he said.

Glorianne Degiorgio was the parents’ teacher for the day.

“We used the same discipline with them that we exercise with students,” she smiled, adding that some parents actually behaved like children.

“They wanted to stay near their friends in class but we insisted that they do not, just like we do with the children,” she said.

Tedia-Anne Church, whose daughter is in Year 5, had lots of fun. “I think this helped me understand my daughter. She loves music and, during the music lesson, I learnt about instruments I had no clue about,” she said.

Tania Calleja and Milicent Borg also loved the experience. “We are often here at school but not as students,” Ms Calleja said. Ms Borg added: “We gave our children a good example. Even we like school.”