Hi. I have just joined this site having searched for information about HTS. I was there from 1964 until 1970 as I stayed on an extra year and re-sat some exams I essentially screwed up because in truth I did not have a clue at aged 16 what I wanted to do if I left. Mr Mens was the head teacher when I started there but unfortunately he left after a couple of years and a guy called Drake took over. That was the start of my decline at school. Up until Drake came I was doing pretty well academically. I was in the A2 stream and I had earned the School Progress Prize presented on Speech Day. But I could not stand Drake and the feeling was obviously mutual. Teachers I remember were my first form teacher Dorman who took us for French. Lewis for geography, Day for physics, Sheldrake (Bombduck) for chemistry, Osborne and Plowright for English, Ball and Stokes for PE and games and Rudkin for RE. At different times during my sentence at that school there were also teachers Moore, Sherriff, Haddon, Flutter, Griffiths, Hamilton (who I saw quite recently) and just before I left there was a female teacher who I cannot remember her name. The day I left that school ranks as one of the greatest days of my life. I detested the place. I remember on the day I left we were to have coffee and biscuits with the staff in the gym to say a final farewell and I remember Drake coming over to me and my best mate and asking us what our plans were. After we told him he finished by saying that the two of us had the dubious distinction of having been absent more times than present that final year. Yes we wagged so many days off we barely ever completed a full week. We would spend days down Wassen Pool (Sandwell Valley) during rain and snow, freezing to death until four o' clock before making our way home rather than attend. When we did attend school we would go into the woods at lunchtime and mess about on this rope swing that went out over the river until a lad shattered his leg crashing into a tree so the swing was removed. We would go down into Hamstead Village and get chips and if we pooled our money we could sometimes buy 10 No 6 tipped and smoke a cigarette on the way back. When the school became Hamstead and girls were attending my sister who is nine years younger than me went there. On her first day she encountered Drake and when learning her name was asked if she was my relative. She happily informed him that I was her brother to which he replied '' well I hope you have a different attitude to school than your brother.'' Needless to say they never got on either. I can look back now and smile about stuff that went on there but at the time I found it horrendous. I still think about the bullies that went there while I attended and wonder whether as they became adults they ever felt ashamed of the misery they caused kids. Fortunately I was not one of the ones bullied but I can remember those bullies names even now.