Maria Magenta
master brummie
Mr Kinder, also very good, was my A level French teacher.
Mrs Capon would probably have been wearing a track suit. Needlework was Mrs Griffiths, I think, and Domestic Science was a red-haired teacher (the name escapes me at the moment!) Was it Miss Powell?I am thinking Mrs Capon, but a bit hazy, ready to be corrected . The boys and girls were split for a class, woodwork and domestic science. There was no teacher available for the boys on this particular session , so we were put in a classroom and given work to get on with. Even in the hallowed halls of Saltley that was not going to work. There was gradual buildup of chaos, until in marches Mrs Capon. “Right you lot, come with me”. Off we go down to the domestic science room (laboratory ?) and had to sit in with the girls so she could keep an eye on us for the rest of the session. Cooking I remember rather than needlework. Girls thought it was very funny. (Boys took it as a lesson, ahh, that’s what wives are for. Have to get one of those one day).
Andrew.
Miss Hulse became the Deputy Head didn’t she ? I played in tennis teams and Hockey teams. We had to take biscuits for home games on Saturday mornings. No parents with cars to take us to away games we just went on the bus.Miss Hulse was a dark-haired PE teacher. One lunchtime she brought out a netball class to the centre playground where we boys had been playing touch rugby with a folded cap. I bravely asked if we could use the forbidden tennis courts instead and she said , "Yes".
The practical classes were either boy or girl pre-sixth form. I believe they were mixed in the sixth but I never attended any. Dr. Hetherington, master of the timetable, called two of us in once "This period X, you two don't seem to be doing Woodwork". "That's right sir". Hetherington talking to himself say, "Perhaps Metalwork?, OK, off you go". A couple of weeks later we are back again and he holds a similar conversation and we are dismissed. Same again a couple of weeks later but this time he rattles off all the practical options and asks us outright which one we are doing. We say, "None sir, it's a free period." He says, "Oh no, Oh no. Mind there isn't much time left now - carry on."
Actually we hadn't realised that we were supposed to pick a practical subject and we did have proper free periods too.
When we were in the first form we had 30 minutes per subject and I used to be up at 11 at night in tears. The teachers said that from the second form it would get worse and it would be 40 minutes. This turned out not to be true because as the years went on we found ways of doing 'homework' in the crush hall etc. Once we had free periods in the day we often had done the homework before we went home. I was a book monitor for Miss Jackson. She spent a lot of time doing girls' discipline and missed lessons. I realised that she counted the homework books but only marked the top six. She thought they came in random order but I stacked the deck, putting the homework defaulters near the bottom so they gained another week to catch up. I did my homework but proved my theory by putting my book at the bottom. She couldn't understand why at the end of term that my book hand missed her marking pen. I should have charged for this service!
Re English Literature I was at Saltley (1960) when the trial was taking place about Lady Chatterley's Lover. A friend brought a copy into school covered with brown paper with the title 'Treasure Island' written on the front. It was well passed round.Miss Thompson had an MA from Cambridge, as I think did Mr Chippendale. Once when we were in the Sixth Form I and my friend Stephen went to a Shakespeare event at the university with various actors and Gareth Lloyd Evans, a Shakespeare scholar. Miss T. knew him, how well I don't know, and asked us to convey her regards to him - which we didn't, feeling a bit shy.
I don't think there was a written rule about no photography at the time but I never saw anyone else bring in a camera. My camera fitted a blazer pocket nicely and I don't think anyone was aware that they were being photographed.For some reason, the only photos I have are the official school ones. (I do still have my woggle from days in the cubs though, that is even older). Andrew.
Here's a few faces I'm sure you will remember,picture from around 1956....Have been looking through the Saltley threads of the last few weeks and they have brought back many happy memories for me as I was there from 1954 to 1961, certainly so long ago as to make me a real old boy. Perhaps we never appreciated it at the time but the school set me up so well for my future life. Staff at that time included the revered head Dr Lloyd, who sadly died in service. Other staff I recall were Mr Shakespeare, PE and games, Mr Cade the deputy, Mr Bright, geography, Mr Dodds, science, Mr Gibbs, woodwork (I still have the tongue and groove box I made) and Mr Bennett who taught English and could make poetry sing. One maths teacher taught us how to play contract bridge at the end of one term in the sixth form. I was in the army cadet force where there were three platoons as well as a naval squadron. Great fun at camps (Wales and Wellesbourne) and shooting at Lichfield and at the TA centre close to the school. The cadets were slowly disbanded when the new head came, change of emphasis perhaps.
No running or talking in the corridors or in the cloisters around the quads, and definitely no walking on the grass. Happy memories, we knew the rules and stuck to them, although I did manage to get my fair share of detentions!
You must have taken woodwork with Mr Gibbs in a standalone concrete slab building. It was demolished and replaced by a woodwork and metalwork shop. A new teacher, Mr Greaves, took on the metalwork. During the re-building the woodwork was moved into the Domestic Science laboratory. I remember screwing a grinding machine to the floor with coach bolts. As they only screwed into the parquet floor we were lucky it didn't fall over!Have been looking through the Saltley threads of the last few weeks and they have brought back many happy memories for me as I was there from 1954 to 1961, certainly so long ago as to make me a real old boy. Perhaps we never appreciated it at the time but the school set me up so well for my future life. Staff at that time included the revered head Dr Lloyd, who sadly died in service. Other staff I recall were Mr Shakespeare, PE and games, Mr Cade the deputy, Mr Bright, geography, Mr Dodds, science, Mr Gibbs, woodwork (I still have the tongue and groove box I made) and Mr Bennett who taught English and could make poetry sing. One maths teacher taught us how to play contract bridge at the end of one term in the sixth form. I was in the army cadet force where there were three platoons as well as a naval squadron. Great fun at camps (Wales and Wellesbourne) and shooting at Lichfield and at the TA centre close to the school. The cadets were slowly disbanded when the new head came, change of emphasis perhaps.
No running or talking in the corridors or in the cloisters around the quads, and definitely no walking on the grass. Happy memories, we knew the rules and stuck to them, although I did manage to get my fair share of detentions!
Modified to take glow plugs of course. Andrew.They probably went onto trailer-mounted Merlins when they grew up