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Saltley Secondary School

I was awarded a prize on Speech Day 14 November 1967, the principal speaker was Professor MJ Wise of the LSE, an Old Saltleian. I still have it after all these years, a dictionary!
 
Do you remember that at the end of Speech Day the Head Boy would announce that school would start an hour later the next day, as we'd had a late night?

maria
 
Does any one remember going to see Ann Jellicoe's play 'The Sport of my Mad Mother' at Duddesdon Manor School? It would have been in the mid-60s. All I remember of it is some one giving birth behind a sheet!
It seems a most unlikely thing for us to have been taken to. This is something about it by Michael Billington:

Memories are short. In an article for the current National Theatre programme for A Taste of Honey, Jeanette Winterson talks of Shelagh Delaney as a solitary female dramatist in "a roomful of men". What this ignores is the presence of Ann Jellicoe, whose strangely titled play opened at the Royal Court three months before Delaney's at Stratford East. Admittedly it lasted for only 14 performances, but it's a mind-blowing piece that combines social anarchy with verbal jazz and ends with a triumphant hymn to female fertility. Jellicoe's later play The Knack also deserves another look, but it is this one that showed her to be a radical theatrical pioneer.

Did I imagine the whole thing??

maria
 
I've shown that one to my husband, who says that they perhaps look like air cadets (the headgear), in which case they could be in a specialist air cadet platoon within the CCF. Nearly all the boys have Lance-Corporal, Corporal and Sergeant stripes, so they've been through the basic training element and have got their Proficiency. We wonder what regiment they were attached to - if they were army!

maria
 
Thanks, Mickeymoo. I started there in 1965, by which time it didn't exist. Was it something you could choose to do, or did every one have to join?

maria
 
Hi Maria,no it wasn't compulsory,any of the boys could join from the 2nd form upwards.A lot of us joined from my year,but many never lasted longer than the first month,too much "Square Bashing" .lol.....
 
Maria Magenta said:
I've shown that one to my husband, who says that they perhaps look like air cadets (the headgear), in which case they could be in a specialist air cadet platoon within the CCF. Nearly all the boys have Lance-Corporal, Corporal and Sergeant stripes, so they've been through the basic training element and have got their Proficiency. We wonder what regiment they were attached to - if they were army!

maria
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Hi all,

These were definitely army cadets, From what I can make out of the cap badges they are the badge of the Warwickshire Regiment which follows really as they were the locai regiment.

Old Boy
 
Mickymoo said:
Hi Maria,no it wasn't compulsory,any of the boys could join from the 2nd form upwards.A lot of us joined from my year,but many never lasted longer than the first month,too much "Square Bashing" .lol.....
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I can imagine! Though there must have been interesting things as well. Was there an equivalent for girls?
 
Old Boy said:
Hi all,

These were definitely army cadets, From what I can make out of the cap badges they are the badge of the Warwickshire Regiment which follows really as they were the locai regiment.

Old Boy
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Thanks, Old Boy. We thought they would probably be the Warwickshires.

Wonder why it died out. Perhaps a new head came who had different ideas.
 
Maria Magenta said:
I can imagine! Though there must have been interesting things as well. Was there an equivalent for girls?
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Yes,some of it was good fun,especially dismantling different types of weapons,cleaning them and then trying to put them back together again !..We did get to shoot at the local Army firing range on Alum Rock Road and a couple of times at Whittington Barracks....I don't recall anything similar for the girls...
 
Macca said:
Hi
Just found this info on Fred Bonser: https://www.214squadron.org.uk/crews_and_losses_wellington_m.htm

Macca
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SaltleyArchives said:
Just came across this 1928 photo of the school. Have taken the equivalent angle in 2013. Shows the section of the school that was lost to wartime bomb damage - and the tree has grown a bit!!
View attachment 86335View attachment 86336

Does anyone know if a photo of the bomb damage exists?
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Just found this website. My husband was at the school from 1937-1941. It was his classroom that was bombed (not the quad that was quoted earlier). His was the only desk undamaged. This was lucky because in those days you had to pay for your own books. He was evacuated to Hinckley on Sept 1st 1939 and did part time schooling at Hinckley grammar school. Can't imagine there are of his friends still alive
 
Only just found this thread. I was at Saltley Grammar School from 1959 and loved every minute of it (except for PE!). Started off in the wooden buildings at the end of the school. Still keep in touch with my best friends from that time. Almost all of us name 'Tilly' Thompson as our best teacher, but they all seemed to be such characters in those days. The school transformed the lives of all of us, as we mostly came from very working class families and we became first generation University students and professionals. Think we had a golden time of education in Britain, though I know that those who didn't manage to pass their 11 plus did not have the same advantages. Lovely to look at some old pictures.
 
Mickymoo said:
I was in the cadet force at Saltley at this time,it's probably 1956.
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Wonder if this is the photo referred to in Mickymoo's earlier post ? It was labelled as Saltley School, Belchers Lane army cadets. But no date given. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
Yes Viv,that was the picture that I was referring to.I remember most of the lads in it...
Vivienne14 said:
Wonder if this is the photo referred to in Mickymoo's earlier post ? It was labelled as Saltley School, Belchers Lane army cadets. But no date given. Viv.

View attachment 119254
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4th from the right on the back row is the late Carl Wayne,but known to us then as Colin Tooley !
 
hi micky what date was that photo taken...i did not realise that carl wayne was in that photo...the move were a good band...for those who dont know carl was married to sue hanson (miss diane in crossroads) they had one son jack...i wonder if the family have this photo as it would be a great keepsake

lyn
 
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The book of the week on Radio 4 this week has been Sylvia Plath's letters. It reminded me of the time Mr Hedley brought in a record of Plath reading her poems. This would have been in the late 1960s.
 
HSM said:
Hello was looking through Saltley info and found your comment about Mr Chippendale which was very interesting he was my grandad did he teach you Latin? He's on the back row of the staff 1965 - 9168 photo i think.
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He taught - or tried at least - to teach me Latin (which i failed at O level) - also English Language in 5th year (which I passed with grade 1) He could never understand why I couldn't do Latin. I can actually do a lot more now than I could then!
 
I was at Saltley 1961 to 1967 and remember Mr Chipendale trying to teach me Latin as well. — Amo, Amas, Amat —. I didn’t get to take it at exam level, I transferred out to another subject that was more useful to me at the time. I too have found Latin much more useful in life after school than I ever expected. Cheers Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
I was at Saltley 1961 to 1967 and remember Mr Chipendale trying to teach me Latin as well. — Amo, Amas, Amat —. I didn’t get to take it at exam level, I transferred out to another subject that was more useful to me at the time. I too have found Latin much more useful in life after school than I ever expected. Cheers Andrew.
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..Moneo, Mones, Monent...
Mr Chippendale, a memory of a strong smell from whatever he put on his hair. I always felt sorry for him as I supposed he had gone from teaching respectful, young Indian boys to rude British Fifth Formers, most of whom were only there to get a quick O-level language pass to qualify for Northern Universities Joint Matriculation. That requirement was dropped the following year and so many of us dropped Latin too. I still have Kennedy's Shorter Latin Primer on loan. I wonder if the school secretary still has my extra exam certificates, those exams that the sixth form did to keep 'match fit'?
 
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