I too found this site by chance. I was at CGS between 1954 and 1960. The 1954 intake was a four form entry (120 strong). I was assigned to class 1K in Blue House. The Head was Sir RMS Pasley (pronounced Pashley) and our form teacher was Mr J Roberts. The Head once told us astonished first years that his title derived from a family history of ‘privateering’, I.e. state legalised piracy. True??? Other teachers were Mr Harris (chemistry), Mr Harris (music) - who was famous for his very bad temper, Mr Harris (English) - a Cornishman, which he was forever telling us, and a phenomenally fast bike rider, Mr Franklin (English), Mr Thomas (history) - a Welsh speaker, Mr Evan’s (history and Latin), Mr Philips (biology), Mr Liddell (maths), Mr May (French and Deputy Head), Mr Paddock (maths) - with a tremendous bass singing voice which was always a few notes behind the rest of us, Mr Faulkner (physics), Mr Carter (French and PE). Some of these teachers came in as others left, e.g. Mr Jones (music) replaced Mr “music” Harris. I remember rather little of my time before the 6th form apart from a boy named Johnson tripping up and head-butting one of the old steel cast iron framed desks and an ambulance taking him away unconscious. The school had a policy of promoting the three boys who came top in the end of 1st year exams straight into the 3rd form. Myself, Roger Green and David Longmore suffered this fate. That Autumn we were given a set of 2nd year text books and told to ask “if we had any questions “. Not a good system.
The Cherrywood Lane site had two playgrounds. The CL one was officially for 1st and 2nd years. It had an old, locked iron gate at one end reached by several concrete steps. This was “the black hole”. The second and third year pupils invaded from the other playground and tried to force as many 1st years as they could down these steps. Major fights would break out (not all first years were small or retiring; East Birmingham was a fairly rough area), and scraped knuckles, shins and cut lips were common. It was eventually sealed off as someone ended up with a broken leg.
More anon.
The move into the third form also started the system for choosing subjects for 'O' level. You could drop things like Art and opt for something else, e.g. I opted for German. This was taught intensively for 3 years, the first year by Mr Badman (a very enthusiastic teacher), and the last two years by Mr Dixon. About 15 of us opted for German. I must confess it brought the nerd out in me as I really took to the quite complex grammar.
The move to the Tile Cross site was quite an upheaval. Most of the pupils and staff lived nowhere near the place. It was a 30-40 minute trip on the no. 14 bus followed by a 15-20 minutes walk - not good in bad weather. Birmingham City Council must have handed out several hundred free bus passes. The school itself was immensely spacious compared to Cherrywood Road. The main teaching block was 2-storey and the science block as the end of the school furthest from the entrance, was single storey. During that first (Autumn) term the two blocks started to part company. A significant opening appeared and considerable amounts of rail could get in, and the heat could get out! Over a period of several weeks, there were men on the roof with building materials, hot pitch and gravel. Eventually the buildings stopped moving and the gap was closed.
After 'O' levels, only about 12-14 of us opted to stay on for 'A' levels. In the science 6th were me, Neil Green (deceased), David Brennan (deceased), Roger Green, Brian Padgett, John Hobbes, Adrian Armstrong and (for a year) 'Chalky' White. On the Arts side, I remember John Stewart (deceased), Donald Heal, David Longmore. We discovered that Mr J Roberts was in fact a geologist and he offered this as an intensive 'A' level to anyone interested. I signed up. It was the making of my career as I eventually graduated as a geological chemist and spent my career in that subject area.
In Spring 1959, Sir Rodney informed us, at school assembly, that he would be retiring and Mr J May would be acting Head: the whole school booed very loudly. Sir Rodney left the stage rather hurriedly whilst Mr May remained impassive and simply stared at us. Mr May was a temporary appointment and was replaced as Head by Mr Ockleton - he of the fantastically minute hand writing. However, I have a photo of the staff from 1970 in which Mr May is clearly Head again but I cannot get the 'Attach files' button to accept it, nor can I simply paste it into this document - any ideas anyone? That is about all from me at the moment.
