King Henry VIII Grammar School

You are right about the initials bohica, the biology teacher you're thinking of was called Middleton. We all called him Clem as an obvious reference to his initials. He used to travel to school on a very tasty classic British motorbike. That made him okay in my book!

Several of our correspondents refer to boys being caned but I don't remember anybody being caned between 1962-67. Saturday morning detentions seemed to be the popular punishment of choice in those days. I once had 12 consecutive Saturday morning detentions. Was that a record?

Probably. I never got one personal dt, either a normal weekday one, or a dreaded Saturday morning. I hated the place so much, I wanted to spend the least amount of time, i.e. my life, at the place. I felt like that about school ever since the age of 4 or 5. There was so much to do in the big wide world, instead of being forced to do time-wasting activities and being bored witless with chalk and talk. I was therefore careful to plan any misdemeanours, and not get caught. My name was banded round the staff room as a suspect, but they could never prove a thing. I seem to recall that a Saturday morning was for a serious offence, just short of the whack, suspension, or expulsion. Actually, I was told, having left the place, that my name was read out in assembly by Piggy. Some idiot of a prefect reported me on my last day (he was a right snob); I thought he wouldn't recognise me, but he either did, someone snitched, or he wrote down my registration number. Needless to say, I didn't attend the Saturday morning as I knew nothing about it.

I have posted before on the subject of the 'Saturday morning detention', pointing out that the staff must have hated being there every bit as much as we did. I have no records to back this up, of course, but as to 12 consecutive Saturdays, I can say for certain that I would routinely be placed in 'Saturday' for a whole term, so if there were terms which lasted longer than 12 weeks, I would say that I probably would have grabbed that record. I do not recall anyone else mentioning this, but there was a disciplinary technique known as 'Headmasters Report'. Each week, you were issued with a sheet of paper bearing a table; one box for each period of each day. At the end of a lesson, you approached the teacher to sign in the box, indicating your attendance. The teacher could also put 'BS' (barely satisfactory) or 'NS' (not satisfactory) in the box. Then at breaktimes, we paraded in front of Taff to show our sheets; one instance of 'NS' put you in Saturday detention, as did two instances of 'BS'. Good idea, you might be thinking, encourages good conduct and satisfactory effort...I'd almost agree with you. Except that you fellow ex-Henry's people know just how petty, mean and vindictive the staff there could be. I would generally have racked up a 'BS' midway through Monday, and a typical weekly total might be five 'BS' and two 'NS'. On one occasion in Taff's study, he pointed out that if I carried on the way I was going, I'd be in Saturday every week... to which I remarked that he might just as well put me in Saturday every week, as I had no control over what the staff wrote on my report sheet. He immediately called my bluff, got out the detention book, and gave me a season ticket! I wonder if he thought it through? Because after that, I didn't even care what people wrote on the sheet, since it would not affect where I would be spending my Saturday mornings! At the start of the new term, I wondered if this would be remembered - I needn't have worried! Automatically on report, and straight into permanent Saturday! Question: Was the punishment a consequence of my rebellious behaviour, or was my rebellious behaviour a consequence of the punishment? Nearly Forty years later, I still do not know the answer to that one!

Vtopian: I do remember this system from Herbie's era too, although it seems it had evolved into something more sinister by Taff's day. A friend of mine who lived in the same street as me was put on 'Weekly Report' by Herbie as he was prone to do as little as possible and was seen as a rebel who wasn't bothered. He would show me the form on the way home and seemed quite proud of having to go through the process! As I recall, he had to get the form signed by every teacher on the last lesson of every subject every week, so the assessment was over the whole week, not individual lessons. Then he had to report to Herbie's study at breaktime every Monday, the form having been (supposedly ) signed by a parent. Any negative comment resulted in a stern word from Herbie but there was no formal detention as a result of it.

I had Taff for a year in the sixth, and from day one we never saw eye to eye. I gather he became head some years after my time. God help the place. I'll rephrase that: "I call upon the powers of the universe, in other words the laws of physics which appear to govern the universe, to help the place".

Taffy became Deputy Head after Piggy died and after Herbie went, not sure if he retired or died, A guy called Cook became Head. I never had a problem with Taffy, but that may be due to the fact that we lived in the same street in Kenilworth and so I knew him and his somewhat wimpy son that way. Strange to say there 3 other lads from Henry's who lived in the same street as well. There were a few of the teachers who lived in Kenilworth. 'Arsey' Chapman, lived not far from us, well nowhere's that far from anywhere in Kenilworth. 'Bugsy' Leachman lived near the town centre. Dave 'Doc' Greatorex who was a friend of my Dad's when they'd both been at the University of Warwick, my old man was the Electrical Superintendent. So I was on a good footing with him from the get go and anyway he was a young beardy hippyish guy who got on well with everyone. There was the young teacher who took me for Biology in my last year, whose name I think was Mike Kerr and he was as sound as the proverbial pound. One Saturday evening Nick Dodd and I were having a pint in the back bar of the Clarendon Arms and in walked Kerr with his girlfriend. We almost choked on our beer as we were both 16 at the time, but he didn't bat an eyelid. Just said hello to both of us and bought us a pint each and invited us to sit with them, which we did for the rest of the evening and quite a few beers. Sound bloke. I am sure there were a few more but think of them offhand. I think 'Froggy' Irwin lived in Leamington because we used to see him on the bus in the morning upstairs enveloped in a fog of fag smoke, never acknowledging anyone.

I'd be interested to find out what sort of misdemeanours gave rise to a Saturday morning detention. I got one for smoking in the bogs. Was sent by Jeff Vent to Piggy, in order for him to give me a lecture on the perils of the weed. A strange decision, really. The Saturday morning was hosted by Moaner. I can't remember what it entailed. Possibly community singing en Francais. What other transgressions warranted the Saturday appointment?

Joe Soap gave me a Sat morning for talking in class. I didn't bother going and never heard another word about it.

Hello all, I was an inmate from '68-'75 and hated most of it. There were some awful teachers there especially the older ones who used to drone on from a text book and inspired no enthusiasm in their subjects at all. Courtois once grabbed me by the lapels and tore my blazer, a few weeks later I was at a rugby match with my dad and Courtois was there. I told my dad who he was and he had few words with him, after that things were cushty. The good guys, and this is only my opinion, were Bunny Burrows, Isaiah Dunn, Doc Greatorex, two other chemistry teachers, a big yorkshire bloke and another called Cowman/Cowburn, Bawler McGawley and Fairy Light. The knickname Fairy was in no way derogatory and I think came about because of a notice asking for fairy lights etc to be donated to him. Thinking back I suppose that was a spoof duh. He was my form teacher one year and we had a whip round and bought him a tankard, it was very tasteful and had a nude woman as a handle! I wonder if he's still got it.

I had just the one Saturday morning detention during my time at KHVIII. It was for writing my own unfit notes for games. Sitting in a warm classroom on a cold, wet January afternoon seemed infinitely preferable to running through Canley Ford and pounding the pavement of a rain lashed Kenpas Highway. A pal and I got away with it for several weeks as we were experienced forgers, having watched Donald Pleasance in The Great Escape! We had our parents handwriting off to a very passable level. However another youth realised what we were up to and decided he didn't fancy cross country running one cold afternoon. Unfortunately, he merely ripped a sheet out of his maths book and wrote his note in his own handwriting. The fact that his handwriting resembled a drunken spider crawling across a page didn't help much either! All notes were double checked that day and we were rumbled. We were hauled up before Piggy where we admitted to only this one occasion. A Saturday morning detention was duly imposed upon us along with a posted letter to our parents (which I intercepted and destroyed) in which Herbie ranted about our heinous crimes. I think I told my parents I got the detention for going on a roof to retrieve a football.

I never had a Saturday morning detention, which was something of an achievement considering some of the things we got up to at KHVIII. My associates and I were adept at keeping our heads down and avoiding any scrutiny most of the time. I was always otherwise engaged on Saturdays so a detention, or being selected for a school team, could have been disastrous. I always thought that Saturday detentions were reserved for serious offences, or serial offenders. I seem to recall that Piggy would dish them out if people 'cut' detentions, as he called it if anyone failed to turn up. I was never a smoker but find it incredible that he would lecture anyone about the evils of the weed. If you went into his office you had a job seeing him across the foul haze between the door and his desk. Beesman, maybe a warm classroom was better than Canley Ford, but a nice warm cinema was preferable to both. I'm sure we educated you to the more creative ways of escaping games afternoons at some point!

I had a few Saturdays, shared most of them with Spud, because he was in for a whole term's worth. I got one for wagging French, when I rather unfortunately ran into Droob on Spencer Park. Got another for being caught smoking by Joe Soap, though he never actually told me I had a Saturday, just gave me a lecture about lighting up as soon as I was off the school property. Didn't know I had one until Pig sent for me. I got one for swapping lessons with one of my mates, I went to his maths lessons, and he went to my French lesson, I don't remember why now, I think it was a bet. Probably something to do with Gez Hind and Charlie Satchwell. I got one for fighting someone, which annoyed me because he only got a Tuesday. What you did depended on who took it. So Foghorn had us copying some book, then ripped it up at the end without reading it, "You waste my time, I'll waste yours." Rod Menhenyk (probably spelled wrong) let us do our homework, which made a change from doing it on the bus. Jeff Vent had us helping with a stock take in the book cupboard. The worst though was Herbie who had us reading passages from the bible, which he considered would focus our minds on our faults.

Sounds like you may have been a tad careless, D1, if you had that many Saturday detentions. Associating with Spud Murphy probably didn't help! The names of Gez Hind and Charlie Satchwell ring a bell too. Charlie played for my football team in the Youth League for a while, as possibly did Gez. I was fortunate never to get rumbled for wagging games, via the 'green box' route. I do remember one lad doing it and running straight into Herbie on the corner of Spencer Park. I never got caught for wagging lessons either. I think you may be the first to mention Menhenick, although I don't think he was called Rod. His initials were MEJ Menhenick and I seem to recall him being referred to as Jim. A decent bloke with red hair and beard, and a good sense of humour. He lived in a dump of a bedsit in Regent Street. He taught us English in the 6th form and it was a very rare case of any lessons at KHVIII being enjoyable. I wonder what happened to him.

Disorganised, It seems as if the Saturday detentions were inconsistently applied. I got involved in a couple of scraps, as I think they were called, and received no punishment at all. A teacher (can't recall who) broke up one and marched us down to the gymnasium saying that if we wished to continue we could do it there, under Boxing Rules. That was probably because he saw me kick the other lad. In my defence, he attacked me without any warning. The cad. Unsurprisingly, we turned down the invitation. In the other one, I got a tooth knocked out, courtesy of an elbow in the face. A teacher, Economics bloke, was informed of my loss and, bizarrely, asked to keep the tooth, quote "as a souvenir". When I got home, the dentist was contacted and he claimed that, if it was fully intact, he could fit it back in, so my parents tried to track down this teacher in order to retrieve it. By the time we got the tooth returned, I was told it was too late to do anything. I've recounted this tale to other dentists and they tell me that the reinstallation process can't be done, no matter how soon after it is knocked out, so I suspect my dentist was sniffing laughing gas when he told us that. Anyway, on neither occasion was any sort of detention handed out to either combatant, so I don't understand why you got a Saturday for your fight. Thinking about it, I can't recall any sort of School Rule Book, which told you what punishment you would receive for breaking them. Probably because it would run to more than 1000 pages. With respect to your 'swopping lessons' Saturday detention. Harsh, perhaps, but fair!!!