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Saltley Secondary School

Know the name Mr Kinder, but was never taught by him. Some of the conversations I have these days with my ‘médecin’ would have been interesting as French oral practice back then. (As would both parties having to wear a mask). Andrew.
 
I am thinking Mrs Capon, but a bit hazy, ready to be corrected . The boys and girls were split for a class, woodwork and domestic science. There was no teacher available for the boys on this particular session , so we were put in a classroom and given work to get on with. Even in the hallowed halls of Saltley that was not going to work. There was gradual buildup of chaos, until in marches Mrs Capon. “Right you lot, come with me”. Off we go down to the domestic science room (laboratory ?) and had to sit in with the girls so she could keep an eye on us for the rest of the session. Cooking I remember rather than needlework. Girls thought it was very funny. (Boys took it as a lesson, ahh, that’s what wives are for. Have to get one of those one day).
Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
I am thinking Mrs Capon, but a bit hazy, ready to be corrected . The boys and girls were split for a class, woodwork and domestic science. There was no teacher available for the boys on this particular session , so we were put in a classroom and given work to get on with. Even in the hallowed halls of Saltley that was not going to work. There was gradual buildup of chaos, until in marches Mrs Capon. “Right you lot, come with me”. Off we go down to the domestic science room (laboratory ?) and had to sit in with the girls so she could keep an eye on us for the rest of the session. Cooking I remember rather than needlework. Girls thought it was very funny. (Boys took it as a lesson, ahh, that’s what wives are for. Have to get one of those one day).
Andrew.
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Mrs Capon would probably have been wearing a track suit. Needlework was Mrs Griffiths, I think, and Domestic Science was a red-haired teacher (the name escapes me at the moment!) Was it Miss Powell?
 
You are very likely to be correct. This would have happened pre A levels for me, I don‘t remember boy/girl class splits for A level. I was never taught by the teacher who came and marched us off to cookery. The name Miss Powell rings a very small bell for me, but I don’t remember a red-haired teacher. Could Miss Hulse have been involved? Never taught by her either, but the name has floated to the top.
Andrew.
 
Miss Hulse was a dark-haired PE teacher. One lunchtime she brought out a netball class to the centre playground where we boys had been playing touch rugby with a folded cap. I bravely asked if we could use the forbidden tennis courts instead and she said , "Yes".

The practical classes were either boy or girl pre-sixth form. I believe they were mixed in the sixth but I never attended any. Dr. Hetherington, master of the timetable, called two of us in once "This period X, you two don't seem to be doing Woodwork". "That's right sir". Hetherington talking to himself say, "Perhaps Metalwork?, OK, off you go". A couple of weeks later we are back again and he holds a similar conversation and we are dismissed. Same again a couple of weeks later but this time he rattles off all the practical options and asks us outright which one we are doing. We say, "None sir, it's a free period." He says, "Oh no, Oh no. Mind there isn't much time left now - carry on."

Actually we hadn't realised that we were supposed to pick a practical subject and we did have proper free periods too.

When we were in the first form we had 30 minutes per subject and I used to be up at 11 at night in tears. The teachers said that from the second form it would get worse and it would be 40 minutes. This turned out not to be true because as the years went on we found ways of doing 'homework' in the crush hall etc. Once we had free periods in the day we often had done the homework before we went home. I was a book monitor for Miss Jackson. She spent a lot of time doing girls' discipline and missed lessons. I realised that she counted the homework books but only marked the top six. She thought they came in random order but I stacked the deck, putting the homework defaulters near the bottom so they gained another week to catch up. I did my homework but proved my theory by putting my book at the bottom. She couldn't understand why at the end of term that my book hand missed her marking pen. I should have charged for this service!
 
Spargone said:
Miss Hulse was a dark-haired PE teacher. One lunchtime she brought out a netball class to the centre playground where we boys had been playing touch rugby with a folded cap. I bravely asked if we could use the forbidden tennis courts instead and she said , "Yes".

The practical classes were either boy or girl pre-sixth form. I believe they were mixed in the sixth but I never attended any. Dr. Hetherington, master of the timetable, called two of us in once "This period X, you two don't seem to be doing Woodwork". "That's right sir". Hetherington talking to himself say, "Perhaps Metalwork?, OK, off you go". A couple of weeks later we are back again and he holds a similar conversation and we are dismissed. Same again a couple of weeks later but this time he rattles off all the practical options and asks us outright which one we are doing. We say, "None sir, it's a free period." He says, "Oh no, Oh no. Mind there isn't much time left now - carry on."

Actually we hadn't realised that we were supposed to pick a practical subject and we did have proper free periods too.

When we were in the first form we had 30 minutes per subject and I used to be up at 11 at night in tears. The teachers said that from the second form it would get worse and it would be 40 minutes. This turned out not to be true because as the years went on we found ways of doing 'homework' in the crush hall etc. Once we had free periods in the day we often had done the homework before we went home. I was a book monitor for Miss Jackson. She spent a lot of time doing girls' discipline and missed lessons. I realised that she counted the homework books but only marked the top six. She thought they came in random order but I stacked the deck, putting the homework defaulters near the bottom so they gained another week to catch up. I did my homework but proved my theory by putting my book at the bottom. She couldn't understand why at the end of term that my book hand missed her marking pen. I should have charged for this service!
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Miss Hulse became the Deputy Head didn’t she ? I played in tennis teams and Hockey teams. We had to take biscuits for home games on Saturday mornings. No parents with cars to take us to away games we just went on the bus.
 
Miss Hulse was Deputy Head, and she and Miss Thompson were friends. Once they went on holiday to Yugoslavia where they stayed in a monastery, and Miss T. told me that they communicated with the monks in Latin! Miss Hulse was extremely posh, I thought.
I kept in touch with them, especially Miss Thompson, for years after leaving school.
 
Never taught by Miss Hulse, but Miss Thompson taught me English. I thought she was a bit upper crust, she would walk around the school dinner room, making sure we were holding our knives properly. (Index finger along the top of the blade, so it did stick with me). Was Miss Thompson connected with a university, perhaps part time research staff into language or something like that ? Andrew.
 
Miss Thompson had an MA from Cambridge, as I think did Mr Chippendale. Once when we were in the Sixth Form I and my friend Stephen went to a Shakespeare event at the university with various actors and Gareth Lloyd Evans, a Shakespeare scholar. Miss T. knew him, how well I don't know, and asked us to convey her regards to him - which we didn't, feeling a bit shy.
 
Maria Magenta said:
Miss Thompson had an MA from Cambridge, as I think did Mr Chippendale. Once when we were in the Sixth Form I and my friend Stephen went to a Shakespeare event at the university with various actors and Gareth Lloyd Evans, a Shakespeare scholar. Miss T. knew him, how well I don't know, and asked us to convey her regards to him - which we didn't, feeling a bit shy.
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Re English Literature I was at Saltley (1960) when the trial was taking place about Lady Chatterley's Lover. A friend brought a copy into school covered with brown paper with the title 'Treasure Island' written on the front. It was well passed round.
We used to go to a little cafe down Cotterills Lane at lunchtime sometimes to play the pinball machines, smoke Park Drive tipped and share plates of chips.
 
I don't remember the cafe, but I remember a fish and chip shop down there somewhere, perhaps they were the same place. Some of us used to go there occasionally for take out chips at lunchtime.

In the summer hols of our last year, 6 of us (mates, all boys same year at Saltley) hired a static caravan in Weymouth for a week. Went down by coach from Brum, meeting up on the coach at the various pick up points, I would have been living in Shard End then, others near the Coventry Road. One of the lads brought a copy of the Kama Sutra with him. Don't know how he got it past his parents. That got well passed around as well. Not that we understood any of it of course, not even sure which way up to hold it. That was the trip I found out that I hated lager, still do. Andrew.
 
Second thoughts, more likely 6 Maths as 5 Maths' form room was the first classroom in the New Block on the ground floor. Note the better quality tie and coloured-in blazer badge. Didn't we get to stop wearing caps too.
 
I still have my coloured blazer badge unpicked from my blazer when I left in ‘67. I think it is my only momento of Saltley now. Cap went a long time ago. For some reason, the only photos I have are the official school ones. (I do still have my woggle from days in the cubs though, that is even older). Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
For some reason, the only photos I have are the official school ones. (I do still have my woggle from days in the cubs though, that is even older). Andrew.
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I don't think there was a written rule about no photography at the time but I never saw anyone else bring in a camera. My camera fitted a blazer pocket nicely and I don't think anyone was aware that they were being photographed.
I have taken photographs in several places where photography very definitely was banned and I am glad that I did so as all of toese places are now long gone. (I didn't take pictures of anything that the reasonable person would consider classified but I'm glad that I didn't get caught!).
I don't recall getting any official photographs from school. I remember a whole school photo being taken but don't remember being offered a copy. I am in an 'official' school rugby team photo, but can't remember it being taken and definitely never had a copy. School report sheets in a buff folder and school magazines with white covers are the only things I remember getting to take home.
 
I remember several of the long photos taken with the camera turning on the tripod. Someone stood at each end to prevent runarounds at the back to appear twice. That would have been detention plus lines, maybe even the cane. I have one of those on the computer dated 1964, took me ages to find myself recently on that. I also have a form picture including me that was probably 6 Maths, but I have seen several others with people I knew in other forms. Quite a few sports team photos, but the chances of me appearing in those would be tiny. Andrew.
 
Have been looking through the Saltley threads of the last few weeks and they have brought back many happy memories for me as I was there from 1954 to 1961, certainly so long ago as to make me a real old boy. Perhaps we never appreciated it at the time but the school set me up so well for my future life. Staff at that time included the revered head Dr Lloyd, who sadly died in service. Other staff I recall were Mr Shakespeare, PE and games, Mr Cade the deputy, Mr Bright, geography, Mr Dodds, science, Mr Gibbs, woodwork (I still have the tongue and groove box I made) and Mr Bennett who taught English and could make poetry sing. One maths teacher taught us how to play contract bridge at the end of one term in the sixth form. I was in the army cadet force where there were three platoons as well as a naval squadron. Great fun at camps (Wales and Wellesbourne) and shooting at Lichfield and at the TA centre close to the school. The cadets were slowly disbanded when the new head came, change of emphasis perhaps.
No running or talking in the corridors or in the cloisters around the quads, and definitely no walking on the grass. Happy memories, we knew the rules and stuck to them, although I did manage to get my fair share of detentions!
 
overtonman said:
Have been looking through the Saltley threads of the last few weeks and they have brought back many happy memories for me as I was there from 1954 to 1961, certainly so long ago as to make me a real old boy. Perhaps we never appreciated it at the time but the school set me up so well for my future life. Staff at that time included the revered head Dr Lloyd, who sadly died in service. Other staff I recall were Mr Shakespeare, PE and games, Mr Cade the deputy, Mr Bright, geography, Mr Dodds, science, Mr Gibbs, woodwork (I still have the tongue and groove box I made) and Mr Bennett who taught English and could make poetry sing. One maths teacher taught us how to play contract bridge at the end of one term in the sixth form. I was in the army cadet force where there were three platoons as well as a naval squadron. Great fun at camps (Wales and Wellesbourne) and shooting at Lichfield and at the TA centre close to the school. The cadets were slowly disbanded when the new head came, change of emphasis perhaps.
No running or talking in the corridors or in the cloisters around the quads, and definitely no walking on the grass. Happy memories, we knew the rules and stuck to them, although I did manage to get my fair share of detentions!
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Here's a few faces I'm sure you will remember,picture from around 1956....
 

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overtonman said:
Have been looking through the Saltley threads of the last few weeks and they have brought back many happy memories for me as I was there from 1954 to 1961, certainly so long ago as to make me a real old boy. Perhaps we never appreciated it at the time but the school set me up so well for my future life. Staff at that time included the revered head Dr Lloyd, who sadly died in service. Other staff I recall were Mr Shakespeare, PE and games, Mr Cade the deputy, Mr Bright, geography, Mr Dodds, science, Mr Gibbs, woodwork (I still have the tongue and groove box I made) and Mr Bennett who taught English and could make poetry sing. One maths teacher taught us how to play contract bridge at the end of one term in the sixth form. I was in the army cadet force where there were three platoons as well as a naval squadron. Great fun at camps (Wales and Wellesbourne) and shooting at Lichfield and at the TA centre close to the school. The cadets were slowly disbanded when the new head came, change of emphasis perhaps.
No running or talking in the corridors or in the cloisters around the quads, and definitely no walking on the grass. Happy memories, we knew the rules and stuck to them, although I did manage to get my fair share of detentions!
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You must have taken woodwork with Mr Gibbs in a standalone concrete slab building. It was demolished and replaced by a woodwork and metalwork shop. A new teacher, Mr Greaves, took on the metalwork. During the re-building the woodwork was moved into the Domestic Science laboratory. I remember screwing a grinding machine to the floor with coach bolts. As they only screwed into the parquet floor we were lucky it didn't fall over!
One rule that I remember was that we weren't allowed beyond 'the bank' which meant that we could go on the grass above the playing field but not onto the pitches. I received many a masters' detention but never a prefects'.
Here is a Saltley cadet - before my time though.
saltarmy.jpg
 
Yes, the bank was the strict limit for pupils though having been a founder member of the model areoplane club we were allowed access at times. Woodwork was in the concrete building, we thought nothing of it , lets face it , it was the early '50s and much war damage was still evident in the area. My box of which I am still proud was actually a nice dovetail construction, not tongue and groove. The canteen was a similar concrete construction, I recall a picture in the Mail a few years ago wondering why it was still in use. At one time I was a milk monitor which involved skipping 10 minutes of a class before break and getting all the foil caps off the third pint bottles with a fork. Occasionally a bit of salt would be added, but we were never found out. Love the picture of all the staff, I recall nearly all of them though names are forgotten in the mists of time!
 
I remember the model aircraft being stored in the General Science Laboratory on the ground floor. One of them was a 'flying wing'. The all used control line flying so just went round and round in a circle. Many of the club members had little stands to hold their single-cylinder motors on which they would run them up from time to time. (They probably went onto trailer-mounted Merlins when they grew up!). The club was probably defunct by 1963 .The GSL had a cabinet with a massive red lamp glass on it, a power supply of some sort. There was a bracket holding a mirror galvanometer too but I don't remember that ever being used.
I had a dove-tail box, or rather bits. I went off sick and came back to find four random sides in the cupboard instead of four sides tied up with string. At least one lad made a top and bottom too and had their box felt-lined to keep cigars in. I am sure that we had to go to the canteen to get our own milk, unlike primary school when it came to the class.
Jumping forward one of my jobs as an Acting Prefect was to oversee a gang of juniors carrying crates of rank milk bottles from the Prefects' Common Room back to the canteen - that did it for me - the prefects should have looked after their own filth. (Acting Prefects were appointed to allow prefects time off to study for external exams). Always a poacher, never a gamekeeper me!
'Jasper' Rhodes on the right? Mr Whitehouse, top back middle, (with some hair!).
 
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