[Brighton] Big fire at Blatchington Mill school

[Cheshire Cat]

De Bello Gallico.

"I'm not here to teach you facts. I'm here to teach you to think"

As he slid down in his chair, talking, eyes closed, till all you could see was the top of his head.

Never shouted. The class always silent. Visions of spears, fortifications and battle tactics in our minds.

Great days (some of the few, to be fair. The young religious Chemistry teacher, Chrone (?) hated me, and mocked my slovenly appearance, tie at half mast, and long hair (and attitude). After I got a A in chemistry O level, he blanked me for two years. That level of pettiness, snobbery and parsimony started my inexorable shift towards the left of the political spectrum. From each according to their abilities (and recognised for that). Talent should be spotted and nurtured. It's what I do now. Thanks, Chrone, you miserable ****. I won.

f***ing Vercingetorix........

 

[timbha]

One of the best sport writers around. Nick is his first name.

… and you’d need a degree to spell his surname

 

[ozzygull]

That depends if you stayed for the 6th form…

if you did, you were in the year above me (so in my brother’s year).

if you left in 88 after o-levels, then you were the year BELOW me

Did a year in 6th form, I was in the year that did the first GCSE.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Ah yes, the days of the cane and the slipper. I was at Hove Grammar until about '72. I escaped it myself but there was caning from time to time, plus lifting boys onto their tip toes by their sideboards...I don't mean the furniture - that was a specialty of the maths teacher Jack Liddell. Worst I got (I was a 'good' pupil) was a large piece of chalk from a teacher that smacked me on the Adam's Apple ...not nice.

I left in 71 when I was 15 so we were there about the same time

 

[Guinness Boy]

Did a year in 6th form, I was in the year that did the first GCSE.

You were in my year at Hove Park!

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Ok, who's in this then ? March 1969

Sorry it is so small. But I think you can download it and zoom in.

Think I might have found myself

 

[ozzygull]

Did a year in 6th form, I was in the year that did the first GCSE.

You were in my year at Hove Park!

I was in V form as llV etc

 

[Guinness Boy]

I was in V form as llV etc

I was in “W”. Still friends with a few on FB but not seen anyone in person for a while. My best mate from those days lives in Denmark now.

 

[ozzygull]

I was in “W”. Still friends with a few on FB but not seen anyone in person for a while. My best mate from those days lives in Denmark now.

Same, not with best mate living in Denmark but friends on Facebook. Most seem to be doing well, which is good.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

OK, now you made me check my A level dates...I left school in Summer 1973, so I was a year after you. Did you play in the football team? (that always jogs the memory). And, I don't know who 'Not Andy...' is .

I left in summer 72 and was in 6th form with Not Andy…
some good recollections on here. Williamson (God) never caned me - always had Tabby on hand to do the business. Mother wasn't happy the day he really laid into me and had my pants stuck to my arse with blood. Shame I never stood up to it and complained to the police as an assault - I still don’t know how they used to get away with it. They were hardly setting an example.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Yes, on reflection he was alright. Ross was the Latin God, though. Brilliant teacher.

Ross was the only teacher who could stand at the front of the class, butt on the radiator with his hands behind his back, eyes closed, and do the whole 49 minute period in that pose, reciting every single bloody word from our text books. I only lasted a term in the A stream!

 

[raymondo]

I left in summer 72 and was in 6th form with Not Andy…
some good recollections on here. Williamson (God) never caned me - always had Tabby on hand to do the business. Mother wasn't happy the day he really laid into me and had my pants stuck to my arse with blood. Shame I never stood up to it and complained to the police as an assault - I still don’t know how they used to get away with it. They were hardly setting an example.

Those days were different eh? Caning and being slippered if you mucked around too much in PE. I also remember older lads holding some first years off the squash court balcony by their ankles......really had to avoid them.

 

[The Oldman]

I left in summer 72 and was in 6th form with Not Andy…
some good recollections on here. Williamson (God) never caned me - always had Tabby on hand to do the business. Mother wasn't happy the day he really laid into me and had my pants stuck to my arse with blood. Shame I never stood up to it and complained to the police as an assault - I still don’t know how they used to get away with it. They were hardly setting an example.

I was done byTabrett twice in the 50’s. Both times blood on my pants. Both times mother clipped me round the ear and said you must have deserved it!
Those were the days and I loved my Mum.

 

[Trotty]

There was a twat who taught RI (religious instruction - pompous old bollocks more like) who threw chalk. Can't remember his name. Jack was a notorious prick who, fortunately, didn't teach me. Thomas and Bennett taught me maths. Prick, and lazy bastard, respectively.

One amusing recollection - one lunchtime, one of my pals opened a window of the music hut (our class room - 3L probably) to shout at a smaller boy, using the voice of Poxy Baxter, "Go down to the head master's office". At that very moment, said Poxy had manifested from around the side of the hut, en route to somewhere (probably to inspect a cadaver round the back of the squash courts), black cape flailing in the wind.

"No, you go down to the headmaster's office!", he ejaculated*.

I am afraid to admit that I sniggered. The boy in question, now age 66, occasionally goes to the Amex and we meet up once a year at the Swan. I must remember to ask him how Williamson greeted him. A nice cup of tea and a Bourbon biscuit, I'll wager. Yes.

*Channelling the opening line of one of the Billy Bunter books. Seems apt.

I think the RI teacher was called Hill, used the slipper on a classmates

 

[tronnogull]

I think the RI teacher was called Hill, used the slipper on a classmates

I never knew him to hit anyone. He had a little moustache and we called him Hitler. poor fellow also had to teach sex ed.....

 

[WATFORD zero]

I never knew him to hit anyone. He had a little moustache and we called him Hitler. poor fellow also had to teach sex ed.....

Hitler Hill, remember him well with a board rubber being his weapon of choice although Looby Jones used to do the sex ed.

I remember Williamson smiling while he gave me the cane, Chas Cope, the drinking, sweary History teacher, Willy Pope, Les Hamilton, Krone, Geoff Garland, Ken Garland, Adrian Hilton-Dennis together with the aforementioned Ned Land and Jack Liddell.

Some line up

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Ok, who's in this then ? March 1969

Sorry it is so small. But I think you can download it and zoom in.

Me - second row from back, five to right of centre.

 

[lasvegan]

I remember Poof Brooks teaching sex ed also…

 

[severnside gull]

There was a twat who taught RI (religious instruction - pompous old bollocks more like) who threw chalk. Can't remember his name. Jack was a notorious prick who, fortunately, didn't teach me. Thomas and Bennett taught me maths. Prick, and lazy bastard, respectively.

One amusing recollection - one lunchtime, one of my pals opened a window of the music hut (our class room - 3L probably) to shout at a smaller boy, using the voice of Poxy Baxter, "Go down to the head master's office". At that very moment, said Poxy had manifested from around the side of the hut, en route to somewhere (probably to inspect a cadaver round the back of the squash courts), black cape flailing in the wind.

"No, you go down to the headmaster's office!", he ejaculated*.

I am afraid to admit that I sniggered. The boy in question, now age 66, occasionally goes to the Amex and we meet up once a year at the Swan. I must remember to ask him how Williamson greeted him. A nice cup of tea and a Bourbon biscuit, I'll wager. Yes.

*Channelling the opening line of one of the Billy Bunter books. Seems apt.

Was the RI twat Hill? We ambushed him one day with a waste bin placed above the part-open door jamb to fall on his head as he entered. Not entirely successful and a painful caning followed

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I think the RI teacher was called Hill, used the slipper on a classmates

That was the b'stard. Feeble blustering little shit with a temper. Chalk chucker.

My old classmate, BRO, not, I think, of the NSC parish but an Amex season ticket holder, riled Hill by pooh poohing the existence of 'the tabernacle'. He also upset the physics teacher by dismissing 'atoms' on the grounds that you can't see them so therefore the don't exist. I think BRO was 11 at the time . And a lovely bloke he is, too, in his glorious mid sixties. @monty uk will attest.