Sinister is Latin for 'left', making it the sort of enjoyable schoolboy pun that is such an advert for mixed-gender education.

He called it potentia because there's nothing quite like Latin for disguising the fact you're making it up as you go along.

Carved above the lintel were the words SCIENTIA POTESTAS EST. Science points east, I wondered? Science is portentous, yes? Science protests too much. Scientific potatoes rule. Had I stumbled on the lair of dangerous plant geneticists?

There's nothing quite like Latin for disguising the fact that you're making it up as you go along.