King Henry VIII Grammar School

Yes... correct. In my time it was specified for the school you attended. And every school had its own individual uniform. I didn't have a bus pass, but my best friend did, and he never used it because he was cycling mad. So I used his. He went to Bluecoats, and had the letters CE bottom right (presumably for Church of England), whereas the King Henry type just had the letter K... I think. The trick was to cover the school code with your right thumb as you presented it. I was never challenged in all the years I used the pass.

Anybody who travelled to school by bus and is of a certain level of decrepitude will recall bus conductors. One of their number was ahead of his time. He must have been thinking to himself "Forty odd years from now, when nearly everyone has a personal computer in their home, they will reminisce on days gone by. If I am going to achieve a degree of immortality, I need to come up with a catchphrase by which I will be remembered. I know. Whenever a school child shows me their bus pass, I will say, in a nasal voice, ad nauseum - Put It Away." Question Is: Did He Achieve His Ambition? Or am I the sole carrier of his catchprase destined, for as long as I live, to receive strange looks whenever I deem it a suitable opportunity for me to impersonate his intonation and utter the hallowed words - "Put It Away."?

Yes, I can now distinctly remember the first occasion that I heard the bus conductor say "Put It Away" when shown a bus pass. My favoured seating position on the old style buses was upstairs, as near to the front seats as I could get. I would sit down, with my bag on my lap, rather than put it on the floor between my legs. 'Stuff' used to be on the floor. I never knew what it was exactly, but it looked toxic. And it didn't take long, aided by the rocking motion of the bus, before I entered the world of my imagination. Nothing much else registered in my awareness. All I saw was houses and trees as they were passed by. My musings on life's complexities were rudely interrupted by the loud, nasal sound of "Put It Away. Put It Away." I'd never heard it before and having my back turned to the conductor, couldn't see what he was doing. I was hit by a sudden jolt of fear, accompanied by the thought: "Poodidder Way? Poodidder Way? Where the hell is that? My stop is Hearsall Common!" I jumped up to get off immediately, but fortunately managed to recognise the location out of the front window and sat down with a huge feeling of relief. Of course, I soon came to recognise the familiar cry of "Put It Away. Put It Away." To such an extent that it became permanently embedded in my memory. Catchphrases are strange beings. One friend of mine once couldn't go more than five minutes without saying "Rock On, Tommy." Some of them become institutions in their own right, part of the fabric of the culture. In time, the connection is lost with their origins. Just like Bonfire Night. How many people really know what that is all about? I mean 'really'. All the violent history, arising out of our good friend Henry VIII wanting to have an heir, culminating in Guy Fawkes taking his position in the annual calendar, through Bonfire Night.. I don't. Not really. Which got me thinking. What if "Put It Away" stood the test of time? People kept saying it. No one knew who started it. There is just a very vague story behind the catchphrase. Fast forward four hundred years. There is a father, getting his children ready to celebrate 'Poodidder Way Night'. He says "Come on you two. Hurry up. Get dressed in your Coventry City Transport Bus Conductor costumes and put that brown leather money satchel around your neck. Then climb into the wheelbarrow and I'll push you down to the Common." And his daughter replies "Why are we celebrating 'Poodidder Way Night', Daddy?" He answers. "It is a tradition, sweetie. Hurry up, or we will be late. Now, sing it again, with me. 'Poodidder Way? Poodidder Way? But my stop's Hearsall Common! Good. Again. Poodidder Way? Poodidder Way? But my stop's Hearsall Common!" Stranger things have happened!

Just out of curiosity.......... It seems that "my day" at KHVIII (1959-65) wasn't too bad, and things went haywire after that. Was that anything to do with the increases in the school leaving age? I always thought that having big, tough 17 year-olds who didn't want to be there (and probably shouldn't have been) was a recipe for disaster. Does anyone remember the timing of these changes? And could this have been a factor?

I believe school leaving age went up from 15 to 16 '73/'74

The leaving age was raised from 15 to 16 on 1st September 1972, although preparations for the change had taken 8 years.

I know it went up to 16 after I left KH. Youth unemployment was bad then, and I for one was never fooled by that government ploy which had only one purpose - to massage the dole figures by keeping them at school for another year. I've become so disillusioned with government (whatever party) that I cannot even remember whether the Labourites or the Toryites were in power. Nor do I care.

I recall that when I started at KHVIII in 1967 my parents were required to sign a form to confirm that I was required to stay KHVIII until I was 16. So leaving at 15 was never an option. Anyone else remember this?

Beesman, I believe it was a condition of getting a governors' scholarship that they had to agree to keep me there until I was 16. I still have the offer letter somewhere so I will dig it out and check. Slim, I left school in 1971 and don't recall any difficulty in getting employment. I wrote to the council asking for a summer job and, on the basis of a phone call from their personnel officer, was given a clerical job in City Engineers, which I did for a year until I found a job I actually wanted to do. I knew lots of people of my age at that time and none of them were without a job. Unlike now, if you were out of work then it was because you wanted to be.

I dropped lucky on bus passes, because I lived outside the city boundary, and so couldn't have one. The year I reached 11 they moved the boundary and I was about 100 yards inside it. Us Henry lads are a gobby bunch aren't we? Always filling the forum up. I wasn't actually expelled, Herbie told me I could leave now, or be expelled at 4 o'clock, but it was just before my 16th birthday, I don't know anything about those with a free having to stay until 16. I suppose the council might have insisted on it. Mr D.Di mentioned there being about 100 council bursaries, but I don't think there were that many, indeed there were only 130 pupils in my year. I believe there were 6 Governors scholarships and 30 council free places. Certainly most of my class handed in envelopes at the start of the school term. I don't know what fees were in those days, but the junior school had been £33.10s.0d a term. Regarding the change at Henry's, Pig did inform a group of us that we were part of the worst year in the school's history, not bad after 350 years.

I've no idea how many scholarship and free places were available when I started at KHVIII. I passed the 11+ and the entrance exam so I had a 'free' place. I believe you could attend the school as a fee payer if you passed the entrance exam but failed the 11+. Failing the entrance exam meant you weren't considered regardless of your result in the 11+. No idea how it works now. Do all pupils pay, or are there still scholarships?

I can proudly boast that I had a hand in coaching Pete Rossborough in the pole vault. It all started when I turned up one Sunday for training at the Butts with Godiva Harriers, and Duff Reece - the (excellent) middle distance coach - was unable to be there. So one of the field events coaches - I forget his name - offered to introduce us to a different discipline. I distinctly remember that to "plant" the pole, he said we should think of our mothers in law, although at that stage few of us actually had one of those. I managed a height that would embarrass even an ordinary high jumper, but I remembered the advice he gave. So much so that, back at school a few days later, when someone turned up with a pole and a sandpit, I was able to explain the entire technique to Pete Rossborough, and within minutes he was leaping over seven feet. He obviously improved a lot after that, but I take credit for roughly 70% of it.

It would seem that you are correct, Beesman, at least as far as governors' scholarships are concerned. I have found the offer letter sent to my parents by Herbie over 50 years ago. It states: "The parent or guardian of the boy is required to enter into a contract with the Governors' (sic!) to keep the boy at the school until the end of the school year (31st August) in which he reaches his sixteenth birthday." Presumably the council used the same rule if you took one of their places. The letter also states that the acceptance of the scholarship does not affect the right of the pupil to the award of a Special Place by the Local Authority if he should reach the necessary standard. This is presumably because the letter offering the scholarship is dated January, whereas the letter which also offered me a council place is dated four months later. So it seems my parents could have changed their minds later and took the council place, even though the council were aware of the scholarship offer. I wonder if anyone ever did that.

Hi all Without me looking at our forum stats, is this the biggest thread of our forum? Is it like Marmite, you either love it or hate it? I had a reminder today of the performance of our school, as I enjoyed a Christmas meet-up & lunch, with former company finance department colleagues, which included the former company Chief Accountant (my boss) for over twenty years. A year older than me who made a huge success of his education at KHVIII. I was never going to be an academic, but our education was as much for the skills of our ability to manage our own affairs, every bit as much as it was for our ability in doing sums. I have so much to be grateful for KHVIII. In my entire adult life, I have never been out of work. Whilst being full-time employed, I also had fingers in other interests, some of which were just for pleasure, whilst some were good earners. My schooldays were punctuated by orthopaedic surgery, not much of an issue nowadays, but my weakness now is eyesight, which often renders me unable to drive. Even moderating on our forum, with the screen size set to max, I often need the magnifier at hand as it is just now. That does not keep me indoors. My volunteer activities currently occupy a huge chunk of my day to day living, which I so enjoy. As we age, new challenges arise, which as long as we have the gentle light of reason, we prioritise what we can & cannot do, but never give up trying. This then is my thank-you to the institution that I knew as KHVIII.

A couple of weeks ago Midland Red post a picture of my late father Neil David Sears aka Bronco to the King Henry forum. I think that my father will have taught Chemistry at King Henry's. I initially assumed that the nickname "Bronco" was associated with my fathers asthma but in fact I gather it was a play on his surname. Anyway, I would love to hear from any past pupils about my father. I really don't know know how long he spent at your school - so any information will be be most welcome. Thank you, Katy Clay (nee Stears)