I also attended Lordswood Boys' Technical School, and was there between 1961 and 1968. Hills Ltd, of West Bromwich, had been involved in the construction - I know that because my father worked in the drawing office at Hills.
Like Roger Blower above, my practical skills turned out to be non-existent. In woodwork, we were given a piece of rough-sawn timber and the first task, which took me the best part of a term to complete, was to plane it straight and square. After numerous attempts to get my efforts accepted by Mr Caldicott, and after each rejection having to shave off more wood, my piece ended up not much bigger than a matchstick (I exaggerate a little, but not much). I also remember the metalwork teacher, Mr Betts, who liked to tell us that his dog could do better than us - and in my case I've no doubt he probably could.
I also recall the Astronomical Society. The observatory was already built, and an impressive structure it was, but when I joined the school in 1961 they were grinding the mirror for the telescope - and when I left in 1968 they were still grinding the mirror. I often wonder if the job was ever finished - and whether the end result was a perfect parabola.
My abilities lay in maths and science and this is what I focused on, dropping the crafts as soon as I could. Overall, I got a very good education at Lordswood, where there were some excellent teachers, and I went on to Birmingham University where I read chemistry.