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Erdington Boys School Slade Road School

Morturn

Morturn

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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.
 
Good day, My name is Richard Downing and I remember going to Slade road all boy's school for one year in 1955 and the music teacher was a Mr Nutt and he had been my moms teacher somewhere!!!
I lived very near the corner of Gipsy Lane in Farley Road and first started at Marsh Hill school then rode my bike to Slade road through Brookvale Park, then did three years at Stockland Green Mixed school riding my bike up Marsh hill and as a past time would rub a line in the mud off the back of the bus with my front tire, one time a teacher was standing on the platform as you could in those days, I got disciplined at school for that but it never stopped me, as I had a bad attitude toward school in those days.
I did finally smarten up and joined the Birmingham Mohawks from 1961 to 1965 first at Spring hill rink and then at Silver blades. I met my wife at Spring Hill rink and we are in our 57th year, I wonder if it is her who smartened me up?????
 
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 Jupp (Geography)
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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CassB said:
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
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
"Killer" (Technical Drawing)
Looking back the education wasn't all that good but I enjoyed going because the student camaraderie was great.
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I was in the year below you I think and moved to the new Erdington Boys School to be one of their first 1st Year intake. I recall Mr Conduct and the Head who replaced him at Slade Road Mr Spinks. Teachers that I recall were Miss West, Mrs Harkin (deputy head), Miss Tooney, Miss Staunton, Mrs Gorkrodgers and at senior school Trefor Jones (English). My father also went to Slade Road in the 30's - early 40's.
 
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.
 
Morturn said:
I also went to Slade Road Senior School for four months and then was decanted to the new Erdington Boys Schools. Here is a photo of Mr (Killer) Cordeon the Technical Drawing teacher. He actually was a decent chap and very knowledgeable.View attachment 195479
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Mr "Killer" Cordon. I absolutely looked up to him and loved his lessons. It use to amuse us the way he rubbed his chalk work off the blackboard, both arms in motion. And his handwriting on the blackboard was perfectly scripted. Legend has it that he got the name "Killer" from being a wrestler. don't know what type, masked or unmasked?
 
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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.
 
In all honesty, I cannot recall anyone in that photo. Now you mention it, I think I had heard the wrestler rumour too.
 
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".
 
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