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Erdington Boys School Slade Road School

Morturn

Morturn

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Staff member
Slade (Road) Secondary Boys school, move to Fentham Road to become, Erdington Boys School, now gone and built on.
Fentham (Road) Girls School, not sure what they do there, some sort of day centre
I recall a St Gabriel’s catholic school, think it was Princip Street B4 or Price Street B4
 
Morturn said:
Slade (Road) Secondary Boys school, move to Fentham Road to become, Erdington Boys School, now gone and built on.
Fentham (Road) Girls School, not sure what they do there, some sort of day centre
I recall a St Gabriel’s catholic school, think it was Princip Street B4 or Price Street B4
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I have just replied in another thread,about Slade Road,and how we moved to a new school called Erdington Boy's,we must have been in the same year,we moved after our first year.
 
Lots of levels editing and magnification suggests it is not a note, it looks like a building but we cannot be sure. Perhaps he had made a drawing of the school and was keen to show it ... :)
Picture.jpg
 
Nowadays you could almost be certain that it would be a smartphone, but back then.....just not enough information in the image to make a good guess.

Maurice :-)
 
Only just come across this thread. I was in the Juniors at Slade Road during the war and the glass and wood screen in the photo brought back vivid memories. Our class room was the same. However, during the war it was not another class room the other side but full of baths. I can't remember what disease it was, but they filled the baths with hot water and plunged kids and adults in as a cure. Can't remember what was added to the water. But frequently during lessons all we could hear were the screams of those put in the baths.
 
I went through Slade Road Primary School to the Senior School and then to Erdington Boys (from 1961 to 1972).
Teachers I remember were:
Slade Road Primary:
Mr Conduct (Head Teacher)
Miss Hope
Mr Fleming
Mr Robyn Whittle
Slade Road Senior & Erdington Boys:
Mr Dawes (Head Teacher)
Mr Hayden-Jones (English & Deputy Head Teacher)
Mr Nelson (P.E)
Mr Lewis (Biology)
Mr Deardon
Mr Wittle
Mr Evans (Physics)
Mr "Killer" Cordon (Technical Drawing)
Mr "Scratchit" Hitchcock (Maths) sported hearing aides.
Mr Summerville (Geography) hails from Northumberland which he called God's country.
Looking back the education wasn't all that good but I enjoyed going because the student camaraderie was great.
 
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Welcome Cass. We have a thread about Erdington Boys. I shall move your post to that thread. I shall also create a Slade Road Junior and Infants School thread and copy your post to that thread too. Thanks for posting.
 
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I also went to the new Erdington Boys School as a brand new school. I will say it was not a great experience. There were a couple of decent teaches, but in the main the others seemed out of control under a headmaster who just did not seem interested in providing quality schooling. Most of the teaching staff were into bullying, punishment and humiliation. The seemed to hold the pupils in sheer contempt.

The schools intake area included some very poor areas of Birmingham including the cottage homes too. It was for some a double whammy with poor quality of homelife and poor quality schooling. The school should have been the one safe place for a lot of these poor, vunerable kids.

It was failing schools like this and like the William Tindal school London where teaching staff were doing their own thing that bought about the establishment of Ofstad and school inspections with the much needed changes.
 
Well said Morturn. It seems that I had the same experience as you.
One teacher I forgot to mention taught Physics (I am not going to mention his name here). He was a tyrant and spent the physics classes talking about anything but physics.
 
Slade Road/Erdington Boy's old boy here too, the first year at Slade was ok, Mr Summerville, and old Mr Jones were my only favourites over my Secondary modern school years.
It all seemed to go downhill when we moved to the newly built school, apart from the dinners, hated it, should of gone back for the 5th year, but got a job instead, eldest of nine it came in very useful having another earner in the family.
I recall the teachers mentioned, and maths, Mr Hitchcock.
 
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The food was indeed exceptionally good. The head cook was Mrs Stevens, a lovely lady. She was quite firm but would never see a kid go without a meal. She seemed to work miracles with the food, always a choice of two main meals using fresh ingredients.
 
oldjoe said:
Slade Road/Erdington Boy's old boy here too, the first year at Slade was ok, Mr Summerville, and old Mr Jones were my only favourites over my Secondary modern school years.
It all seemed to go downhill when we moved to the newly built school, apart from the dinners, hated it, should of gone back for the 5th year, but got a job instead, eldest of nine it came in very useful having another earner in the family.
I recall the teachers mentioned, and maths, Mr Hitchcock.
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Mr Hitchcock (Maths) sported hearing aides. Good man and teacher who took us through to some very good grades in our O-Level Maths.
Mr Summerville (Geography) Looked and dressed like one of the "Dave Clark Fives". Hails from Northumberland, which he called "God's Own Country".
 
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Morturn said:
The food was indeed exceptionally good. The head cook was Mrs Stevens, a lovely lady. She was quite firm but would never see a kid go without a meal. She seemed to work miracles with the food, always a choice of two main meals using fresh ingredients.
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I was in the 5th year when I was graciously allowed to have free school meals for the first time, and it was also the first time that I had a two course meal. I loved the puddings, especially the treacle pudding and custard.
 
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Mr Hitchcock, nickname Scrachit was the form teacher of a friend of mine called Trevor. His mom wanted to pop into school and see his form teacher. Trevor had told her his name was Mr Scrachit, so when she asked the school secretary if she could see Mr Scrachit, she nearly fell through the floor with embarrassment.

Trevor was grounded for several weeks
 
Morturn said:
Mr Hitchcock, nickname Scrachit was the form teacher of a friend of mine called Trevor. His mom wanted to pop into school and see his form teacher. Trevor had told her his name was Mr Scrachit, so when she asked the school secretary if she could see Mr Scrachit, she nearly fell through the floor with embarrassment.

Trevor was grounded for several weeks
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That wasn't Trevor Howard, by any chance, was it?:grinning:
I remember his nickname "Scratchit".
 
oldjoe said:
Slade Road/Erdington Boy's old boy here too, the first year at Slade was ok, Mr Summerville, and old Mr Jones were my only favourites over my Secondary modern school years.
It all seemed to go downhill when we moved to the newly built school, apart from the dinners, hated it, should of gone back for the 5th year, but got a job instead, eldest of nine it came in very useful having another earner in the family.
I recall the teachers mentioned, and maths, Mr Hitchcock.
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Mr Jones was a brilliant teacher, he even made religion interesting. I felt sorry for Mr Nutt, he seemed to get all the miscreants.
 
Smudger said:
Mr Jones was a brilliant teacher, he even made religion interesting. I felt sorry for Mr Nutt, he seemed to get all the miscreants.
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There were three Jones’s if I remember correctly. Trevor Jones taught English to first years. Very smart looking older guy whose copperplate handwriting was a work of art.

Harrington Jones who, I was never sure what he taught. He seemed to organise all the school plays and was quite a good photographer.

There was a Jones, a Welsh guy who taught history and managed to make it as boring as watching paint dry.
 
Mr Hayden-Jones , was quite good i must admit, never remember him getting bolshy in any way, and if recall correctly Mr Summerville was leaving at the end of our first year, so we had a collection and got him some ciggies.
I remember Mr Jones getting us to sing Men Of Harlech in one lesson, and explaining what a buttress was.
I also won an encyclopedia at the end of the year, for doing very well in English, kept it for years, now sadly lost, like the years themselves sadly.
 
Morturn said:
There were three Jones’s if I remember correctly. Trevor Jones taught English to first years. Very smart looking older guy whose copperplate handwriting was a work of art.

Harrington Jones who, I was never sure what he taught. He seemed to organise all the school plays and was quite a good photographer.

There was a Jones, a Welsh guy who taught history and managed to make it as boring as watching paint dry.
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The photographer and plays-director who taught English was Mr Hayden-Jones. He commanded respect. He later became Deputy Head Teacher. He took all the School's group and individual photos, all in black & white and well produced.
 
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