Recent content by Valmy

I certainly remember a 'music' night in the hall, when a number of the pupils performed on stage - a jazz group including a brilliant six former playing the clarinet (I think he was in the school orchestra - if I remember right he was handicapped and sat in a wheelchair), but he was just as at...

Since we celebrate on Christmas Eve here in France, I'll get my Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year to everyone on here before the feasting starts! Alors, Bonnes Fêtes to everyone! Atlantic Oysters, Salade Landaise and Roast Goose on the menu!

were any of us BrumBum! I think the kids who sucked up to the masters tended to get 'sorted out' by the rest of us! I was in the A stream for all but one of my terms at GD and yet I was a cheeky sod, gave as good as I got (of course within reason, or we would have been beaten to death!) and had...

Hi Big Gee, Sorry it was remiss of me not to answer your message. So, thanks! I did get into Wal's bad books once tho' I was called to his study after I had chucked a kid in the deep end at swimming class (I think that was in Harborne) although the kid couldn't swim! We quickly got him out...

A new slant: does anyone know if any of the masters were themselves Old Dixonians? All in all I found the masters to be a great bunch of guys, with the odd exception see above, but I hardly know anything about them. I can well imagine that Tom Long fought in the Spanish War, but he being a...

Hi Acton! Trout's teaching method was to stand with his back to the class, writing his own notes on the blackboard from a little black book held in his other hand - that was IT for the whole class. One term (relating to the Armada and The Elizabethan/Jacobean period) I memorised his notes by...

Thanks for the clock picture! Did you see it working? When midday strikes, the two knights at the top, in Danish and Swedish colours, begin hammering each other on the head with their swords! Glad to hear that Dixonians are back to the original (almost) given the animosity between the two...

Hej David och tack för svaret! Yeah, ej I Trafik - it seemed a bit like all the buses were that! What a coincidence! I lived mostly in southern Sweden (I went to Lund University for 3 years then lived and worked in the city until 2002 when we moved to a house close to the Baltic coast (near...

Hi David, thanks for the welcome, I had a lot of time for 'Richard' Hanney, he was my latin master and coaxed me to an O level pass. My languages grounding at GD (English, French, Spanish, Latin) stood me in good stead when I went on to study linguistics and French at university (In Sweden...

Hi all, I'm new here, just found this forum. I was at GD between 59 and 64 and remember most of the teachers written about above. I started in 1B but went up to 1A and stayed in A until 5A when I left after O levels. I remember a great history teacher in my fist years - a tall slim young guy...