MisterD-Di
Sutton Coldfield
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1216 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 4:41pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 11:12am, Slim said:
I don't remember a teacher called Pip. I think the cooking incident was about 2 or 3 years before my time there, by which time he must have left.
I must have had a relatively tame school life, as I cannot recall anyone ever cooking in a lesson. That might explain why, although we had old wooden desks, we were not allowed to keep anything in them. Instead, we had to keep all our books at home, and bring to school, on a daily basis, the books needed for that day's lessons. And some of those textbooks were darned heavy! I always regarded attending school as a punishment.
I believe 'Pip' Young-Evans retired just before we started there. A friend of mine who is 3 years older remembers him. I think he has been mentioned before in this very long thread.
I distinctly remember a group of us cooking breakfast during one of Slug's biology practical lessons when we were A-level students. It happened in B1 lab, Slug wandered around in a world of his own so he had no idea. We managed to produce beans on toast and coffee and consume the lot. Beans were cooked in a beaker over a bunsen, the toast was cooked on it too. Coffee was boiled in a conical flask. I do accept that it would be far easier to do in a lab, but you still needed a very dozy teacher.
I always thought having to cart loads of books in every day was appalling too, especially when you had sports kit to bring as well. Sometimes you needed 2 bags, and had to lug them on and off 2 buses. There were always piles of school bags dumped all over the place in the school. They should have provided every pupil with a locker but, as I recall, they hated spending money on anything that would benefit any of us. Walker was never an actual teacher and seemed to be far more concerned with the business side of the operation.
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Earlsdon Kid
Argyll & Bute, Scotland
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1217 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 4:44pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 11:12am, Slim said:
I don't remember a teacher called Pip. I think the cooking incident was about 2 or 3 years before my time there, by which time he must have left.
I must have had a relatively tame school life, as I cannot recall anyone ever cooking in a lesson. That might explain why, although we had old wooden desks, we were not allowed to keep anything in them. Instead, we had to keep all our books at home, and bring to school, on a daily basis, the books needed for that day's lessons. And some of those textbooks were darned heavy! I always regarded attending school as a punishment.
What I do remember is the old wooden desks in Tic's art room (105?). In the fourth year, I found that the compartment, supposedly empty, of my desk contained a paper bag with some discarded cheese sandwiches. As the weeks went by, it caused amusement that the sandwiches were still there, becoming increasingly mouldier and smellier. Throughout the year, each week additional foodstuffs were placed in other desks, just to add to the smell and alleviate boredom. Art lessons were never taken seriously, just an excuse to mess about. E.g. when Tic was out the room (a frequent occurrence, as he probably found teaching us boring), one lad announced to the class "and now, for my next trick..." then promptly karate-chopped an open tube of Reeves yellow paint which was on Tic's desk. A dollop of the stuff shot out and went all down another lad's blazer. Tic seemed oblivious to all this tomfoolery. Or he wisely chose to ignore it!
I was in Tic Watsons' art classes, up the stairs at the corner of the quad above the cloakroom and overlooking Warwick Road. We had a bit of freedom of expression session on a few occasions. During one of these sessions I decided to place my blank paper on a potters wheel to create spiral paint patterns. This started well but soon attracted the attention of most of the class resulting in a joint effort with several lads driving the wheel at ever increasing speeds, whilst the remainder deposited globs of paint from various heights onto my spinning 'canvas'. Eventually the painting gave in to the high speed spin and disintegrated over the surrounding area and uniforms. Who ever thought teamwork was boring? |
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Slim
Another Coventry kid
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1218 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 5:00pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 4:24pm, Midland Red said:
Can't recall the number but Joe Soap's art room was along the main first floor corridor - climb the stairs to Piggy Shore's office, turn right, and was along there on the right (ie overlooking the playground, not Warwick Road).
Exactly as I remember his art room in the fuzzers. A large room, it stuck out at the rear of the main building, and was directly over my junior school form room, which also doubled as the junior school hall (the new school hall had not been built yet). Every day, assembly was held there, and our teacher Miss Poulton played the piano. One day, we were all set to start singing the chosen hymn, and on the introduction, she played all the wrong notes, as Andre Previn would say. She quickly realised that she was playing off the wrong page!
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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bohica
coventry
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1219 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 6:20pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 2:06pm, Midland Red said:
bohica: Gasper? Do you mean Jasper, ie J W Watson?
I can't remember his name but he was a thin, bespectacled, oldish chap, always sucking on a pipe. I think he taught me pottery in 110 at one time. |
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Slim
Another Coventry kid
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1220 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 7:15pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 6:20pm, bohica said:
I can't remember his name but he was a thin, bespectacled, oldish chap, always sucking on a pipe.
Sounds like Ben Nicholson, another teacher whose path I never crossed.
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Midland Red
Thread starter
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1221 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 7:28pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 6:20pm, bohica said:
On 2nd Apr 2020 2:06pm, Midland Red said:
bohica: Gasper? Do you mean Jasper, ie J W Watson?
I can't remember his name but he was a thin, bespectacled, oldish chap, always sucking on a pipe. I think he taught me pottery in 110 at one time.
Wouldn't be JWW, then  |
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Slim
Another Coventry kid
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1222 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 9:03pm
Talking of misdemeanours, in the later years, a story circulated that a few lads in another class had been caught, mid-morning, in the centre of town by Herbie Walker, who not only punished them severely, but called their parents to the school to speak to them. (One might ask what Herbie was doing there, instead of being at work, but then he was the head honcho, so maybe droit de seigneur applied).
I daresay the story got embroidered, because word was that one of the culprits' fathers stormed up to the school and had a right go at Herbie, on the grounds of "I'm paying good money to send my son to this place, and you're telling me you're not keeping your eye on the kids... he might have been killed crossing the road - what the heck's going on? That's negligence!" |
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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bohica
coventry
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1223 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 9:04pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 6:49pm, Slim said:
Taff - an odd one. I found him hard to understand. In recent times, I bumped into Pete Jones. When I said, referring to Taff, "let's just say we never saw eye to eye", his riposte was "a lot of people didn't see eye to eye with him"!
Unless he stood on a box nobody could see eye to eye with him. 
He suffered typical small man syndrome and was obnoxious to boot.
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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bohica
coventry
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1224 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 9:05pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 7:15pm, Slim said:
Sounds like Ben Nicholson, another teacher whose path I never crossed.
That name does ring a very distant bell |
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Slim
Another Coventry kid
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1225 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 9:13pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 9:04pm, bohica said:
Unless he stood on a box nobody could see eye to eye with him.
He suffered typical small man syndrome and was obnoxious to boot.
He wasn't as big as Foghorn, but I don't remember him being particularly small. He was certainly taller than Dr K and Maxy.
I wasn't his favourite (I doubt if anyone was). He took delight in putting me down in class, as I struggled to understand economics.
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Slim
Another Coventry kid
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1226 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 9:16pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 9:05pm, bohica said:
On 2nd Apr 2020 7:15pm, Slim said:
Sounds like Ben Nicholson, another teacher whose path I never crossed.
That name does ring a very distant bell
I only remember ever seeing him in the library at lunchtime, puffing on his pipe as he read some journal. We were told he was the careers master. I believe he taught English. Never saw him without his pipe.
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Slim
Another Coventry kid
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1227 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 9:19pm
On 2nd Apr 2020 4:41pm, MisterD-Di said:
Walker was never an actual teacher and seemed to be far more concerned with the business side of the operation.
But he did teach us German language in the first year sixth, for some reason.
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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JohnnieWalker
Sanctuary Point, Australia
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1228 of 1450
Thu 2nd Apr 2020 10:46pm
Students of my era (1959-66) will be sad to hear of the death last October of Bob Long at the age of 71. As well as being a genuinely nice guy, Bob was an all-round sportsman, excelling in rugby, hockey, cricket and golf. He became a GP, and the last time I saw him he was travelling with a KHVIII rugby team in Sydney as their medic - it must have been in the 1980s - sadly they got soundly thrashed by the several Sydney private schools teams they played against. There is an obit in the OC's newsletter.
Bob and I were both in Hales' House, along with such rugby luminaries as Phil and Dave Duckham. When the annual Sevens Rugby competition came around, we were a formidable combination. On at least one occasion we racked up over 70 points in the 14 minutes, at a time when you only got three points for a try! The other teams, having conceded one try, would have to kick the ball back to us, whereupon we would simply get it to any of our fast men - we were all fast! - and sprint across the line to score another one - and another one - and another one!
RIP Bob!
True Blue Coventry Kid 
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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MisterD-Di
Sutton Coldfield
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1229 of 1450
Fri 3rd Apr 2020 3:07am
On 2nd Apr 2020 9:19pm, Slim said:
On 2nd Apr 2020 4:41pm, MisterD-Di said:
Walker was never an actual teacher and seemed to be far more concerned with the business side of the operation. But he did teach us German language in the first year sixth, for some reason.
He did do some teaching of German in his early career but then spent later years working for the War Office in West Germany in some sort of administrative role restructuring the education system there. He did apparently teach some German at KHVIII as well as supposedly teaching RE to 2nd formers. That was a token effort as my memories are of him sending a senior prefect to cover for him more often than not. He had little aptitude as a teacher and no rapport with pupils at all. I doubt he knew any pupils unless they had notable parents. His main interest was promoting the school, so he was really an administrator again. |
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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Woglet
Woking
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1230 of 1450
Sun 5th Apr 2020 9:29pm
My parents always had the highest respect for Herbert Walker. He was appointed in 1950, the other contender was "Piggy" Shore. The Governors were very concerned that the school would be turned into a comprehensive by the City Council and the previous headmaster AAC Burton did not have the best of relationships with the Council. Walker was regarded as a someone who could mend that relationship, which is what he achieved. His outlook was strategic rather than tactical: he left the day-to-day running to his formidable secretary and his Deputy, "Piggy" Shore. He did teach RE to all 2nd formers which was his way of getting to meet the new entrants but regarded his position more as a Chief Executive than just a Headmaster. The fact that the school never became a comprehensive is much to his credit.
On a side issue I remember my mother telling me that he intervened with the Examination Board after the Examiner told my father that he couldn't speak German to "O" level standard ! |
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Schools and Education -
King Henry VIII Grammar School
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