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Saltley Secondary School

Hello brummy-lad, no, I don't know any of those names, but I do remember a trainspotters club being started by, i think, Mr Cherry, and having members from more than one year which would explain why I don't - I think you would have been in a class of older pupils above me.
 
TommoCo said:
Hello Andrew, as a former IK pupil from 1961, I wonder whether catching the 55 bus to school brings back any memories for you?
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Hi. When I started at Saltley, we were still living in Fazeley Street, and moved out to Shard End a short time later. That is when the 55 bus came into my life. Several memories of that route, not all of which should be published, but are still cherished.

Sounds like your teacher experiences will be the same as mine, mostly good.

Hugh Cherry was a good teacher, RIP. As were Mr Cooke, Tilly Thompson, Miss Windsor.

Do you remember blonde Miss Evans, not a regular teacher for me, but sometimes a stand in ? I will not say here why I remember her.

How did your career pan out after Saltley ?

Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
Hi. When I started at Saltley, we were still living in Fazeley Street, and moved out to Shard End a short time later. That is when the 55 bus came into my life. Several memories of that route, not all of which should be published, but are still cherished.

Sounds like your teacher experiences will be the same as mine, mostly good.

Hugh Cherry was a good teacher, RIP. As were Mr Cooke, Tilly Thompson, Miss Windsor.

Do you remember blonde Miss Evans, not a regular teacher for me, but sometimes a stand in ? I will not say here why I remember her.

How did your career pan out after Saltley ?

Andrew.
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Hello Andrew,
my memory plays tricks these days, and I had forgotten that when I started at Saltley we lived in Alum Rock, and like you moved to Shard End later, in our case 1962.
However, Forms IK and 2K we share, and so as you say share teacher experiences.

I don't remember Miss Evans I'm afraid, but have enjoyed reading your and others memories of the staff at Saltley, and can add a few names to those I've seen mentioned. How about Miss Jones, the history teacher, a Welsh lady who someone in the class would get to say that long railway station name (ends in 'ogogog' or something like that) just to hear it spoken correctly; Dr Pennington, biology, and Mr 'Razor' Gillette, Music.
Also, do you remember the teacher - Mr Ainsworth, I think - who told the class about 'Gunkies' (which inspired the publication by certain pupils of, first, 'Gunkies Weekly', which was then followed by 'Gunkies Monthly') and who was taken from the classroom one day, never to be seen again? (this sounds like a comedy farce routine but is absolutely true)

My working life took me into the oil industry (yes, what is now seen as a climate change inducing fossil fuel industry) via a 'multinational' as it was described. How did yours pan out?
 
I suspect your Miss Jones and my Miss Evans are the same person, because the 'ogogog' is familiar.
Dr Pennington I remember because he spelt my surname slightly incorrectly, not a big issue, but when I tried to correct him, he said I was wrong and he was right !
The mention of Mr Ainsworth brings to mind a fairly short man. The rest of your story sounds about right for Saltley.
I remember Mr Gibbs for woodwork, and Mr Hall, the white coated lab tech.
Mr Chippendale for Latin, (which has been surprisingly useful on occasions throughout my career).
Mr Yates for 'Religious education'. I confess I found outside the window more interesting than inside.
Here's a curved ball, how about Monsieur Martin, I think he may have been on some sort of exchange scheme, who appeared in class to teach real French, spoken properly. Only there a short while.

My career led me to qualifications in electronics, then to industry in control systems. Computer hardware and software. Then it stopped being interesting, and we moved into running caravan sites as a retirement wind down. Now properly retired in France. (Thanks Miss Windsor for the good grounding).

Andrew.
 
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Brummie a long time ago said:
I suspect your Miss Jones and my Miss Evans are the same person, because the 'ogogog' is familiar.
Dr Pennington I remember because he spelt my surname slightly incorrectly, not a big issue, but when I tried to correct him, he said I was wrong and he was right !
The mention of Mr Ainsworth brings to mind a fairly short man. The rest of your story sounds about right for Saltley.
I remember Mr Gibbs for woodwork, and Mr Hall, the white coated lab tech.
Mr Chippendale for Latin, (which has been surprisingly useful on occasions throughout my career).
Mr Yates for 'Religious education'. I confess I found outside the window more interesting than inside.
Here's a curved ball, how about Monsieur Martin, I think he may have been on some sort of exchange scheme, who appeared in class to teach real French, spoken properly. Only there a short while.

This thread seems to be quiet about students names, which if OK as they will still be with us and may wish to stay private, but I do remember quite a few. I feel that the initials JG may relate, but just guessing.

My career led me to qualifications in electronics, then to industry in control systems. Computer hardware and software. Then it stopped being interesting, and we moved into running caravan sites as a retirement wind down. Now properly retired in France. (Thanks Miss Windsor for the good grounding).

Andrew.
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Who could forget Mr Chippendale and Mr Gillette?
 
I went to Saltley in 1958. Form 1b. I think it was in my second year that our geography teacher was killed in a car accident and we all went to the funeral. There was a history teacher who had a beard like HenryVIII. An important teacher for me was Mr King who was in charge of the Art Room at the end of the new block. Not only painting and drawing. We also made pottery, worked with copper and enamelling, glazed tiles, linocuts and made some very strange sculptures with old bicycle wheels. Also painted scenery for school plays.

My first journey abroad was a school holiday in Switzerland. It was fantastic. Rail journeys up the Jungfrau, the Ice Palace, Lucerne etc. Happy days.
 
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Tinpot said:
I went to Saltley in 1958. Form 1b. I think it was in my second year that our geogrphy teacher was killed in a car accident and we all went to the funeral. There was a history teacher who had a beard like HenryVIII. An important teacher for me was Mr King who was in charge of the Art Room at the end of the new block. Not only painting and drawing. We also made pottery, worked with copper and enamelling, glazed tiles, linocuts and made some very strange sculptures with old bicycle wheels. Also painted scenery for school plays.

My first journey abroad was a school holiday in Switzerland. It was fantastic. Rail journeys up the Jungfrau, the Ice Palace, Lucerne etc. Happy days.
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Mr King was still there in 1965 when I started, and I remember making lino cuts with him.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
I suspect your Miss Jones and my Miss Evans are the same person, because the 'ogogog' is familiar.
Dr Pennington I remember because he spelt my surname slightly incorrectly, not a big issue, but when I tried to correct him, he said I was wrong and he was right !
The mention of Mr Ainsworth brings to mind a fairly short man. The rest of your story sounds about right for Saltley.
I remember Mr Gibbs for woodwork, and Mr Hall, the white coated lab tech.
Mr Chippendale for Latin, (which has been surprisingly useful on occasions throughout my career).
Mr Yates for 'Religious education'. I confess I found outside the window more interesting than inside.
Here's a curved ball, how about Monsieur Martin, I think he may have been on some sort of exchange scheme, who appeared in class to teach real French, spoken properly. Only there a short while.

My career led me to qualifications in electronics, then to industry in control systems. Computer hardware and software. Then it stopped being interesting, and we moved into running caravan sites as a retirement wind down. Now properly retired in France. (Thanks Miss Windsor for the good grounding).

Andrew.
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I agree, I could not remember the name of the Welsh lady history teacher, it probably was Miss Evans rather than Jones.
Your memory of staff is better than mine..... another to add to the list is Dr Littlejohns, the Head, who I think took over in 1961 from the previous head, who I only knew as 'Wallace' from some graffiti around the school.
I also remember Mr Ainsworth as a short man, and as someone all of the class liked. I don't remember Monsieur Martin, although I do remember an exchange scheme person from America who came into the school as a pupil, and who was accepted and liked by all who knew him.
It is interesting to see that you now live away from Brum, and abroad at that. I now also reside away from the old city, not too far away, in Wiltshire, but will always be a brummie and have brought my children up correctly to know about the great metropolis, and, of course, to support the Villa! (although some folk I knew were more likely to build a radio set than visit Villa Park!).
Happy memories of happy days.......
 
Maria Magenta said:
Mr King was still there in 1965 when I started, and I remember making lino cuts with him.
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Mr King took art classes I attended from 1961 to 1967, and was assisted for most if not all of this period by a young lady art teacher whose name I simply cannot remember. Can anyone remember her name please?
 
Tinpot said:
I went to Saltley in 1958. Form 1b. I think it was in my second year that our geography teacher was killed in a car accident
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I remember that event being announced in assembly, I guess it may have been your third year. Time flies.
TommoCo said:
and, of course, to support the Villa!
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What’s a Villa ? (My primary / junior school was next to the Blues ground).


Maria Magenta said:
Mr King was still there in 1965 when I started, and I remember making lino cuts with him.
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I took the ’science’ route through Saltley. Mr King was a name for me but not taught by him. I sometimes wish that I had been more exposed to the art side of the curriculum.

I did English language and Literature. Language was OK, I still have an interest in language formation and use. Literature not so good, we studied Great Expectations and Grapes of Wrath, I understood the words, but had to struggle for the deep meanings. A lot of exposure to Miss Thompson there.

I also remember early on being offered the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. I was given a trumpet, (what did Saltley have against my neighbours). It was sale or return. I managed to blow it OK, and to change notes, but the return part of the deal soon took effect. I can’t remember who was teaching it, but I am fairly sure it was not Mr Gillette.

Physics was Mr Douce, that subject fitted well with me. Chemistry not so much, I can’t even remember the teachers name. Didn’t do biology at all.

Mr Carpenter joined the staff while I was there, teaching history. I bumped into him several years later when I was doing an evening class at Worcester, and he was on the staff there.

One thing stands out for me. We were being taught pure maths by Mr Cooke, and I was ill at the time he introduced calculus, and missed a couple of lessons. That was a huge struggle because the lesson flow didn’t allow for recap for just one student. That aspect of maths has been very important in my career, so perhaps being forced to catch up fixed it firmer in my head.

Other memories of Saltley. Mr Shakespeare, The sports field. Long jump into the sand, OK. High jump so so. Hurdles, no, and no again. Javelin, I was dangerous. The school game of rugby, running up and down the edges, OK, but I was too gangly for a scrum. Sports generally, low priority.

Andrew.
 
Maria Magenta said:
Mr Bennett was on the point of retirement when I started at the school so he didn't teach me, but I remember seeing him in the corridors, with his beret and gown.
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I have a vivid memory of Mr Bennett being invited by Miss Thompson to read to the English Lit. class a passage from a poem being studied - T S Eliot's 'The Waste Land' - 'Tilly' had described to the class that, although he was nearing retirement, a great orator like Mr Bennett could bring words to life.
Mr Bennett arrived with a copy of the newly reissued 'Sun' newspaper in his back trouser pocket (this was, as explained by Mr Bennett, the Sun newspaper as reborn and well worth a read - but this was was before it was bought out and taken over by Mr Murdoch}. His reading of the last few lines of 'What the Thunder said' have stayed with me all my life, (and Mr Bennett did arrive sporting a beret, gown, and corduroy trousers on that occasion too!)
 
TommoCo said:
I have a vivid memory of Mr Bennett being invited by Miss Thompson to read to the English Lit. class a passage from a poem being studied - T S Eliot's 'The Waste Land' - 'Tilly' had described to the class that, although he was nearing retirement, a great orator like Mr Bennett could bring words to life.
Mr Bennett arrived with a copy of the newly reissued 'Sun' newspaper in his back trouser pocket (this was, as explained by Mr Bennett, the Sun newspaper as reborn and well worth a read - but this was was before it was bought out and taken over by Mr Murdoch}. His reading of the last few lines of 'What the Thunder said' have stayed with me all my life, (and Mr Bennett did arrive sporting a beret, gown, and corduroy trousers on that occasion too!)
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It sounds fabulous.
 
TommoCo said:
Hello Brummy-lad, I also remember the school trainspotters club visiting north of Brum, again I think under the guidance and leadership of Mr Cherry. The one place that sticks in my head is a visit to Crewe Works, where we were shown lines of partly-built Brush Type 4 diesels, D1500 and up (now class 47). At the end of this visit, the foreman came over and gave us the fleet numbers of all of the locos being built there at that time, and said that we had seen all of these locos. It must have been 1962 or 63 at the latest. Do you remember this trip too?
As another small point, Mr Cherry joined the teaching staff at Saltley in 1961, and was initially form master to class 1K (Kendrick). I know because I was a new boy (fag) in that class, and I remember Mr Cherry saying it was his first day at the school too...happy days....I also remember Miss Windsor (our French teacher) who took us (the entire class) to the picture house behind New Street Station (the Jacey or The News Theatre) to see a French film and hear the language spoken,...happy days....
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Hello folks,
Bit of a late catch up from me here. Miss Windsor was my first form teacher. What a lovely gentle soul she was. I was only about 4 foot tall and a young 11 years old but she was always kind and considerate.
Mr Cherry had the smoothest slicked back hair you could wish for. I think hair grooming was his second subject. Does anybody remember his method of discipline? He would call out the "offender" and make them face the class while he pinched and twisted the cheek of their backside. I never suffered the indignity myself but plenty did.
 
Hi, just joined the forum after reading the posts. I was a contemporary of Maria Magenta, and remember appearing in one of the school plays with her. It was the School for Scandal. I too had experience of teachers believing they knew my name better than I did. Miss Thompson frequently added an R to the middle of my name.
 
thaichemist said:
Hi, just joined the forum after reading the posts. I was a contemporary of Maria Magenta, and remember appearing in one of the school plays with her. It was the School for Scandal. I too had experience of teachers believing they knew my name better than I did. Miss Thompson frequently added an R to the middle of my name.
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Hello thaichemist. That's very intriguing! :)
 
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