King Henry VIII Grammar School

Wasn't Laird known as 'Moaner' or was it 'Mona'?

It is interesting to read testimonies of more positive experiences at the school. I speculate that part of this is due to having a good bunch of friends. But here again, the school system tampered with this possibility thanks to the streaming system and 'promotion' and 'relegation'. When we inhabit larger social groups we engage in the process of finding our place amongst certain people with whom we have more in common. You then establish yourself and providing that you are reasonably okay as a person you can create friendships. This can take some time. What the school did then was to make a judgement about whether you were suitable for that class, based solely on academic performance. Never mind that you had been in the same form for a couple of years. I got relegated and then had to try and find my place amongst blokes who had established friendships - or try and maintain contact with my old form mates. I ended up with a dilution of neither one, nor the other. Why did they do this? What purpose did it serve? My conclusion was that I had been written off and my replacement in the class was being given a 'better opportunity' (the school's opinion, not mine) because, presumably, he had more chance of passing a greater number of 'O' Levels than myself I can't recall the relegation process, but I think I'm correct is saying that you are told your new form and you just have to get on with it. How this impacts on your morale was not a consideration to the school. The way I construed it was that I was being labelled 'a failure', with no opportunity to present any case as to why I was failing. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When I consider my academic achievements after leaving school, their judgement as to my abilities was lamentable and farcical. And from my experience, this judgement impacts on who you think you are, as a person. It starts to erode your sense of self-worth. It is a subtle effect. I didn't notice it at the time because, apart from school, I had a reasonable life. It is subconscious. I started to doubt myself in other areas of life. Okay, that was for me to deal with, but what was frustrating was not being afforded any opportunity to explain myself in an environment in which I could feel confident that a prospective listener might actually give a damn. I suggest that this is not good person-management, or whatever we want to call it. Coming from a school with a good reputation, it is pretty poor. Obviously, it didn't mess up my life, but when I assess my school experience, it is a significant factor that I believe was avoidable and which contributes to my negative assessment. And my sense of gratification in sending it up which, hopefully, has provided a few smiles to others.

In my year there was a large group of us that knocked about together mainly from the B and Beta streams but also included some of the more sports inclined A and Alpha streams. I was demoted from the B stream in the third form to the Beta stream from then on and the only difference it really made was that there were smaller forms, in Beta1 which I was in there were 17 of us and I think 18 in Beta2 divided alphabetically and I made some new good mates. I think the music had a lot to with our bonding rituals in the early 70s. Prog and Hard Rock fans tended to stick together and Bowie and Roxy Music fans who we considered a bit strange had their own mates, though there was some crossover. I was considered a bit strange in that sphere being the only one who loved Soul music as well as Prog and the rest. Funny that no-one ever asked to borrow my Isley Brothers albums. You got demoted or relegated for coming bottom or second bottom in your form at the end of the year and after the exams. May have extended to the bottom four but I can't remember. It only happened in the first two years in my time and then you were where you were. I don't think I was written off but they had maybe realised that I was never going to stop mucking about and it was better that I didn't distract a larger audience in class. Who knows. It also helped if you played sport well. I was crap at Rugby, but was one of the first to take up the Holy Hockey Stick in errrrrrrr 1972 or 1973, whenever Rod Dunnett got the game adopted by the school. I used to love the last two periods of Friday afternoon when Rod Dunnett would come and get me from class to send me round school with messages for Saturday's players. Since there was a 1st and 2nd X1 it always took me until 3-55 to complete this task. As I've said before I enjoyed school. Plus living in Kenilworth was a bonus too.

That was Liddiard

Hi Bags, With regards to the impact of relegation, perhaps it comes back to Philip's point earlier, about our own ideas as to 'success' and 'failure'. Or Kipling's advice 'to treat those two imposters just the same'. I don't know how old Kipling was when he wrote the line, but I''m guessing that it wasn't thirteen. In addition, it is one thing to say it and another to actually live it! Alternatively, as you suggested, there is the 'mucking about' possibility, which is probably how I was assessed, although I didn't know it. I liked your ideas on musical taste as bonding ritual. (Now the 'not to be taken seriously' bit) Bernard Cribbins, anyone?

Ah yes indeed it was Liddiard. So who the hell was Laird? Don't recall him at all.

I think you were there a bit later than me, but I don't recall boys being automatically promoted or relegated if they finished in the bottom few positions as if it were some football league. I was in the A stream throughout my time there, and started comfortably in the top half for a couple of years. As I became more disillusioned I sank into the bottom half but was never in danger of relegation as far as I know. As I had a governors' scholarship it may have been something they couldn't contemplate, of course. The major reshuffling came when advancing from 4th form to lower 5th, when the top streams, A & alpha, split into a science and a language stream, L5Sc & L5L. If you found yourself in L5B or lower, you progressed into the upper 5th the following year, whereas the others went straight into the 6th form following O-levels. I can only remember one lad, who was really struggling, being moved from 2A to 3B. In truth, he shouldn't have even been at the school, but I'm sure his parents were well off and influential. The idea of there being 'dotted lines' on a league table could have come later, it sounds like the sort of thing Taffy James would have loved. Interesting point about sporting ability being a factor for being in A-streams, and something that I never recall as an issue. I studiously avoided sport at school. Being a big lad, I feared being picked for rugby and made out I was hopeless. Football was my sport and my weekends were involved in that. I wonder if anyone else thought it to be the case that sporty types were put in top streams. Incidentally, I do remember there being a teacher called Laird. He was one of the younger new intake that started to replace the retiring old guard in the late 60s. I had no dealings with him and can't remember what subject he taught.

I started in 1969 and left in 1975. In the Second form I dodged being relegated/ demoted by the skin of my teeth but they got me at the end of the Third form. There was no relegation or promotion in the years you were in hereafter, only the first two years. In my time there was A, Alpha, B, Beta in the Second and Third form. The Fourth form was A, Alpha, B, and Beta1 and Beta 2. As you said in the Lower Fifth the was LVL and LVSc, LVB and then the two Beta Streams. Upper fifth was UVB and again the two Beta stream but you were divided up into Sets so your Form designation had no real meaning since you never met up as a Form for the whole school year. In my time the bulk of the 1st XV came from the B and Beta streams with a few from A and Alpha. Sporty brainiacs were few and far between, they tended to be regarded more as swots. I don't mean that in a derogatory fashion but just that they were the cleverer kids and we knew it. I am wondering if Laird was a beardy young English teacher?

No, it was Frank (?) Liddiard they called Moaner, for some reason. He never taught me. He was there all the while I was there, but we never exchanged one word.

No he never taught me either. I remembered it was Liddiard once it was pointed out to me. What the hell did he teach?

Laird was a new teacher who arrived when I went into L5L, so he taught German. He was at KH for at least 3 years, by which time I'd done A level German, so I had him for 3 years (in a manner of speaking). He was an excellent teacher who knew his subject well and could put it across. He used to smoke fags. He never got a proper nickname, but occasionally he was referred to by one or two lads as Face Ache, owing to his facial expression, demeanour, and general attitude to the boys. No other teacher rivalled him for sarcasm. In my last year, a younger boy whose family I knew said he had the nickname Froggy Laird, as he taught them French. I shuddered, knowing this was completely wrong, as RJ Irwin had grabbed that name years before. Laird's initials were JNL. I had the greatest respect for him, as I was there to learn German. I believe he left not long after I left. Perhaps he thought his comments about me had overstepped the mark, and that I might come back to sort him out!

FJL was head of modern languages. And he played the piano in assembly once when ERS was away.

Moaner used to bring a small suitcase into his French lessons then pull objects out of it one by one and ask us what they were. We had to reply in French of course. Every time he did it there seemed to be an old sock in the suitcase for some reason. But as a result, even after all these years, if a Frenchman were to ask me what I am wearing on my foot I would be able to reply, "il est une chaussette monsieur".

It was also possible in the years prior to you. I was amongst a number "relegated" from 2A to 3B in 1959 and I recall some going down from 4B to L5D a couple of years later

Froggy Laird! Perish the thought! Froggy Irwin had been there probably since before the relief of Mafeking, wearing that threadbare brown corduroy jacket, so there could only be one Froggy. I was only ever taught by Moaner Liddiard briefly while someone, probably Willy Rose, was off sick. He was another scruff, I only ever saw him in the same pale grey suit covered in chalk dust. I don't recall him playing the piano in assembly, although I avoided going to it wherever possible. The only time I remember Ernie Shaw not playing piano, he was replaced by Jerry Dammers. Fair to say one had a rather more productive career than the other!