Bablake Schools

On 26th Feb 2013 12:28am, Bentley said: Here's a staff photo from about 1956 or 1957. How many can you identify?

On 16th Feb 2013 4:18pm, Rootes66 said: Have just read Steve's memories of Bablake. I was an exact contemporary, though I don't remember him, so he must have been in different classes. I started in Shell Y (I've no idea what that meant) and the following year went into the G stream for German (3G/4G). In sixth form I did sciences (L6M, 6M, U6M) and then did engineering at university. Some of the teachers I had were the same as Steve. Had Galsworthy for physics and later "Bud Bandy" through to sixth form. For chemistry, we had John Lawrence, a very long associate of Bablake who ended up as school archivist until he died a few years ago in his seventies. In sixth form I had L C Philpot and finally John Hamlin. Of the various maths teachers, my "favourite" was "Jock Falla". "Walker, 25 perrrcent boy, pretty pooerrrr stuff boy!". On the whole the science teaching was pretty good and it did fire up my interest which was just as well as I'd been pretty mediocre at primary school and only just managed to scrape into Bablake on the 11 plus by one mark I believe. The stuff they taught there was totally boring. I was only interested in trains and making things. Here are some more recollections of Bablake that I posted earlier on the King Henry's thread. Probably should be here really: It's certainly entertaining to hear how bad the teachers were 40 years ago. Relationships between teachers and pupils, particularly teenage boys, were very polarised. The assumption is that all the problems were with the teachers and the pupils were blameless. I suspect the boys were far from perfect and really wound up some of the teachers who weren't good at controlling things. I can't speak for the ethos at KHS, but as I went to Bablake from 59 to 66, I can confirm it was far from the perfect place Mr D Di has suggested, in the early years at least. I had some good teachers there, but there were others who frightened the living sh** out of us. There was a German teacher who threw the board rubber at us with considerable force, and, if he didn't think the homework was good enough, threw the whole pile of exercise books en-masse at the class. I remember on one occasion trying to give the German for 66 (sechs und sechszig) and got tongue tied. Result: after-school detention. The headmaster in my first three years was Eric Seaborne who operated a report card system. You had to carry it around with you like a driving licence, and your misdemeanours were recorded on the card. Teachers and prefects could do it. After every three endorsements you had to go to the head, and after nine you qualified for Saturday morning detention. Each entry was graded from W (warning) up to "ringed H" which was straight to the head for a good tanning. There didn't seem to be any restriction on hitting pupils and I remember once having my head deliberately banged against a light switch in the corridor for nothing much. I was a bit of cheeky so on so, it has to be said. Incidentally, you could also get C (commendation) though that was a mixed blessing as it branded you as a swot. I did get some commendations from "Lavatory Jack" the music teacher (J Wolseley-Charles), partly because I was the only one who didn't take the p*** out of him! The education in the 1960s at Bablake was OK for mainstream subjects, but there was little choice and very little encouragement to broaden interests. Mine was music, but there was virtually nothing doing. As Mr D Di said, the differences today are like entering a parallel universe. Our children went to the local comprehensive here in Fife and the range of curriculum options, and other things like music and art, were a million miles from Bablake in the 60s. I'm sure it's very good today. Finally here's a photo of speech day in autumn 1964 in the Methodist Central Hall. Ted Burrough is doing his address and Van Hee (Van Flee as we called him as it looked like a puff of wind would blow him away) is at the far end of the row behind. The guys in the front row next to Burrough I think are school governors, and the guy behind Burrough may be Mr Chinn who was in charge of the local education authority. I'm looking extremely youthful at the end of the row, two behind Van Flee. I think this is a press photo from the Coventry Evening Telegraph. Interesting Steve still has his school scarf. Mine fell apart long ago. I do remember Hammonds, in The Burges opposite the old Grammar School, and being measured up for the regulation grey three-piece suit. Amazingly (for Coventry) the building is still there today, but Hammonds are not!