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School Board Man

B

Bill123

master brummie
Does anyone remember the dreaded "School Board Man"?
He would come round to your house to find out why you hadn't been to school without a doctors note.
I'd roll up at home at 4.30 pretending I had been to school, only for my mom to tell me the School Board Man had been looking for me, and she had told him he must have made a mistake because I was at school that day!
I was in big trouble when she found out I had been lying.
 
Hi Bill123
I just read your piece about the school board man, (Charley Wag) we used to call him. Anyway my wife said that she and a friend
were stopped in the street by the school Board man, who put them in the back of his little green Hilman Imp car and took them to their
houses. They got my wifes father out of bed as he worked nights. He told my wifes father that he was now taking them back to school.
Where the cane, slipper or ruler was used as a deterrent.

Stars
 
I took a day off school and went to visit my cousin who lived in Herbert Road as she had a day off too. We took our roller skates and were skating around the front of the Post Office on Coventry Road (there was a lovely big flat area - perfect for skating) when the School Board Man saw us. We were lucky, he just told us off and then told us to go home. Put an end to our enjoyment though!
 
Hi Guys
How could you ever forget the school board man ; i know i will never for get him ;nor our family ;
this man plaqued our family ;only because we was a big family he was always coming about some think or one of us even thou we never played
the wagg we was genuinely sick ; but every given moment he would come and upset my mother ;
the only decent time he came to our house was to tell my mother that we have been chosen for the christmas tree fund for free clotheing and bots and socks at digbeth ; and we al went down like other hundred s of poor familys ;
when i left schol and started work i got a job a couplle of years later after leaving school and started to work for divis the builders and we was doing roof repairs around the old basal heath rd and the surrounding areas up to camp hill
i went to a house in st lukes rd ; i had a roofers hamer in my hand for splicing slates
when i seen a man knocking on the occupants door ; it was him our olsd school board man
I reconised him emediatly and said do you remember me ; looking at him with abit of a look at him
i must have frightenend him ;he took off at great speed down st lukes rd never seen him again ;
his name was mr arnold ; that was ove sixty five years ago and i still can recal his face
astonian
 
My dealings with the "wagman" were quite pleasant as i would have every Tuesday off to get the family allowance for my invalid Mother and this went on for weeks and eventually he came round and asked why Tuesdays and my Mom told him the reason why and he asked if i could do it another day as to make it look less obvious or get my sister to have a day off every now and then,so not a bad "wagman" judging by the previous posts
 
I always remember a Russell family, who were tear a ways, and Mrs Russell being a big woman, rolling her sleeves up and fighting the school board man, knocking his brief case and board into the road with his hat, and chasing him down the road with him trying to get on his bike and failing, and all the road out cheering!!.
 
l can'nt ever say l ever had a day off from school....after all l could just about spit from my house to the school across the street, always thought the head mistress would come knocking on the door...l was more scared of that than the school board man....over here in texas if the kids play" hookie" here and if seen out and about the police pick them up take them back to school in the back of a police car deliver them to the principal and the school informs parents etc....the police even patrols the beaches, my son got caught having a day off for sunning with a bunch of other teenagers as soon as they saw the police car they all scattered but most were caught including my son...they not only got detention most got a real bad sun burn...we have a good laugh about it now but thats the only time l knew he had played hookie....l know there were other times that we never knew about...Brenda
 
Just reading some of these made me smile, I think they still have some sort of school "attendance officer ", nothing like how they worked in years gone by, can you imagine the reaction if they put kids in the back of a car, or stopped kids in the street and started questioning them.
 
Good morning elizebeth
yes you are quite right the kids are a different breed today and more mature and they would not be scared of the egg boil man
as our house used to call arnold the school board man;
its just as well the police are in attendants when walking the streets stopping parents and kids to question why they aint in school
because the courts would be highly over run by assaults charges ;by these minors ; but they are big minors today
if you see them up broad street going into the clubs ;marjority are only 14 =15 years of age and they look older
its very hard to tell today especialy from a licencee angle ; the door men do not care tohoots ;
we have run pubs and clubs many years and its hard to tell; but getting back to the school board man the education department
would have nobody to do the job if they wa getting knocked about and put in hospital astonian
 
I remember the School Board Man, and was really scared of him. At least then, if you were off school there would be no walking about the streets, as you were supposed to be ill if you took time off school. All so different today.
 
l should also mention here in Texas if the kids are caught more than 3 times skipping school they have to go to court and are put on probation if that does'nt put some sense into them then the parents are fined and its been known for parents to do jail time on rare occasions fo not controlling their chidren....every time a child is abscent from school the school system looses money from the state etc...so l can understand why the rules are strictly enforced....Brenda
 
The old School Board Man or attendance office or whatever you call him now also doubles up as an Education Welfare officer so now you are likely to see him if your children get free school meals.
 
A short time ago in this country, there was supposed to be a threat of prison if parents kept there children off school. I think it was something that they couldn't police, so we never hear of it these days.
 
Apparently parents are "allowed" 10 days for their children to be off school for sickness or any reason deemed neccessary,but many parents use these days for a holiday break as they are cheaper during school term than out of term,in Minehead it is not unusual to see many children on holiday with their parents any week of the year,a school board man would have a field day
 
I think the Travel Companies are partly to blame for their sky high pricing during the school holiday period, just greed in my opinion. Eric
 
maggs said:
Couldn't open this David. Perhaps it's my computer.
Click to expand...

Have just tried the link again and it opened OK for me. I am using Internet Explorer 9. I know some people have been unable to open links I have posted when they have been using other browsers.

There was an article in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph that the government are about to announce new regulations tightening up rules on absence from school including banning parents taking children out of school for holidays.
 
So they should David. I don't think there is ever a time when I go shopping that I don't see school age children shopping with their parents, let alone going on holiday.
 
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