In my day job as a vicar, I love doing weddings. When I started here five years ago, I did about six a year. I now do about 25.

The other day, after marrying the gorgeous Rachel and Tim, I walked out of church to the usual throng, including the chauffeur of a vintage Rolls Royce, who could have been Noah’s grandad, he was that old.

Without so much as a hello, he pointed directly at me and shouted, “You’re young!”

“Actually, I’m in my forties,” I replied. He retorted with: “A lady shouldn’t reveal her age.” “No, and a gentleman shouldn’t shout at people in churchyards,” I muttered.

Being a vicar is - with the exception of funeral directors, High Court judges and prime ministers - one of the few professions where even in middle-age, you are considered a spring chicken.

If I’d stayed in teaching and wasn’t yet in senior management, I’d be considered probably beyond promotion by now. Of course, it’s all relative and I am young compared with that chauffeur. Mind you, compared with that chauffeur, the Duke of Edinburgh is Justin Bieber.

I was naïve when I first started as a college chaplain in my thirties - I considered myself a big-sister figure to the learners. It gradually dawned on me that they saw me, at best, as a funky auntie and, at worst, as a bit older than their mum. But not the mature students - they are a breed of their own at college.

Second bite at the educational cherry

Kids should be allowed to leave school at 15 or so and given vouchers for education to cash in later

When I was in higher education as a dumb 18-year-old, the mature students really wound me up. They always got their work in on time, always got top marks and never skipped lectures to go on an all-day drinking session. I considered them boring and oh-so old. Now I look at the ones having a second bite of the education cherry and suddenly, I get it. They work hard because this is a precious second chance; they might not get another.

It’s been said that education is wasted on the young. I often bump into my former students in Tesco, now with kids of their own, who say “I wish I’d worked harder”. I’ve always wondered whether we are missing a trick, keeping kids in education when they don’t want to be there. One of my theories is that those who don’t should be allowed to leave at 15 or so with vouchers for the rest of the education they are entitled to. When they are done being young and daft, and have figured out that education is important, they can cash them in for the schooling they didn’t get.

So here’s to the ones having another go at education, sitting in classes with fellow students young enough to be their children. They work harder and longer because they have learned just how important education really is.

Rev Kate Bottley is chaplain of North Nottinghamshire College
@revkatebottley