Woodlands School

If my memory serves me well, we were as first year pupils dressed in green blazers and made to wear a cap.

Was Rollason a little bloke with glasses, and did he drive a Bedford minibus? If so, then he taught, or attempted to teach, me

Not sure, but I think I remember him as quite tall. But then, I was only a short a**e.

Mick, No. My first year of secondary school at the Coventry Technical School in 1953 we wore green blazers and a green cap with a small metal cap badge of an elephant, part of the Coventry coat of arms. When we transferred to Woodlands in September 1954 we still wore green blazers with the same cap as at the Tech. The only difference was the blazer badge which had a letter 'W' in the centre at the top, at the Tech we had the letters 'CTS' where the 'W' was on the Woodlands blazer badge. Also during my time, you wore the green blazer up to and including the 4th year and when you went into the 5th year you wore a black blazer which was infuriating for your parents, incurring the extra cost, as most boys left school at the end of the 5th. I see from later photographs that the blazers were black. I do not know when that changed from green, as I left in 1958.

Yes, I remember Rollason as a small man with glasses who nearly had apoplexy when I told him I didn't believe in God. There was also a religious knowledge teacher called Gough, I remember him as being small and round whose idea of teaching was to write endlessly on the blackboard which we had to copy word for word into our books. I seem to remember he committed suicide by jumping off the Butts building!! I see also an earlier mention of "Fred" Perrens who "taught" maths, quite simply the worst teacher I have ever come across, he ruled by fear and it was only years later that I realised I wasn't a complete dunce when it came to maths, it was just him who couldn't teach - "if the student doesn't learn it's because the teacher doesn't teach".

It's sad that no-one seems to remember the good teachers they had, you know, the ones that went the extra mile to help you, or made their lessons interesting, or even treated you with respect. I know there were bad teachers out there, but some of them must have been at least OK. Or did Woodlands attract bad teachers? PS I was there for five years and saw some very good teachers, while some were just merely good.

As I have said before in this thread, I had a great time at Woodlands. John Keith Corbett (Sooty) was my favourite teacher, had him for 4 years on the trot and he taught me a lot. Also had a lot of time for Colin Dick, Malc Miles, John Atkinson, Ben Hartley, Ron Ravenhall was my house master and I got on great with him, even Clive Bentley was ok.

I think Clive Bentley would take that as a compliment! He's the only one of those you've named who was there during my time.

When I joined in 61, it was his first year and he was in Stringer House. Got to be honest, he was stick happy (must have been getting his own back) but he was ok and over the 5 years I got on well with him.

When I was there I think he retired just before the end of my stint. A lot a teachers were stick happy in the days when they could be, especially those who worked in all boys schools.

Does anyone remember when Leonardo science block was on fire? I was living in Stonebury Ave at the time and could see it from the bedroom window. Walked up onto Broad Lane to join the crowds watching. Do we know if it was arson??

At a guess Mick some time in the 80s, don't know if it was arson.

Found this on the net. The 1990s started badly with 5 suspicious fires in 18 months. Stringer, Gibraltar and Leonardo were extensively damaged. The rebuild of Leonardo in 1992 cost £1.5 million. Despite rewards of £1000 being offered, no culprits were ever found but the school invested heavily in hi-tech security systems.

If I remember correctly, Mick, the cost was excessive because it was a listed building and had to be reconstructed exactly as it was The panels were originally made to Imperial measurements and had to be bespoke-made, as they couldn't be bought off the shelf - we had gone metric by then.

Wasn't one of the metalwork shops on the end of that block?