King Henry VIII Grammar School

Hi MisterD-Di, These are some great suggestions for merchandising possibilities! I can envisage us doing a pitch in the 'Dragons' Den'. "We have calculated that this thing has more commercial potential than Disney's 'Frozen' and 'Toy Story' combined." To which Deborah Meaden replies "That is ludicrously optimistic. Tell us where you get your sales numbers from." And we answer "No problem. Using matrix mathematics, in which stochastic matrices are square matrices whose rows are probability vectors - - -". Thanks for providing me with an insight into Piggy's information systems. They had drama productions at Henrys? I really must have been sleepwalking through school, as I don't remember that at all. Nor did I know anything about the Fisher and Skermer groups. I also didn't know that a degree of protest was developing about how the school functioned at that time. As I have previously written, I was surprised on entering that it seemed such an unwelcoming and unnecessarily strict place. I think I attributed that to some vague notion that they were trying to turn us into adults and this is what they felt was required. It was indicating that we were very juvenile, that we had to grow up and become more disciplined and conscientious with respect to studies and our general conduct. This was why I likened it to the military, because it felt as if they were trying to mould you into something that fitted an image of what they thought you ought to be. That, I think, is how I construed it, whilst knowing that I was not able to meet their standard of expectation, nor wanted to. But then other former pupils' experiences and perceptions are different and, fortunately for them, they give the impression that they enjoyed school, so it is hard to know quite what to make of it.

I was there from '69-'75 and had a good time. I was never taught by Fisher, we had Crumb Morgan in 2b. Teachers I liked were. Paul Nutt, an excellent fellow Rocky Holland Dave Greatorex Dave Cooper Dave Clarke Dickie Dawson Rod Dunnet, who I am still in touch with. PB Ripon Dave Barclay Fairy Light Pope Harris And though it's not the case for everyone, Droob. I have already said in earlier posts that he was really good to me. Ones I didn't like. Geoff Courtois Barry Kench Skermer Bunny Morgan Fisher And though many seem to have loved/worshipped at his feet, Jeff Vent. I always found him nice to his favourites and awful to everyone else. He never liked me and tried to be sarcy at the reunion dinner with me.

Hello Bags, Hi all Fairy Light you call him, I think his name was William Light. He was an organist friend of mine. Please correct me if I am mistaken. Will Light as I knew him taught physics, long after I had left school.

You are right Phillip. Will was a thoroughly decent guy.

Morning Philip. Yes Fairy Light would be Will Light, though I only knew him by his nickname. It wasn't taken by me to have any sexual connotations. I always believed and still do that it has because his name was Light and taught Physics so some wag had logically called him after Fairylights. He was and still probably is a decent man and although I was crap at science I never encountered a problem with him and liked him. Now where's this bloody decent sunny weather the weather forecast promised me this morning in not so sunny Cornwall?

Hi Bags & thank you all Brill! PS It's just started to rain here.

Do I remember an elderly English teacher by the name of Jenkins?

Bart! E.B. Jenkins!

Thank you MR. I seem to remember the guy was OK and had a bit of a sense of humour, unlike many of the other 'teachers'.

On another note, a neighbour of mine, who is nearly 80 and suffers from Alzheimer's, is an old boy. He can still recite all the words of "We are the school at the top of the hill". I think previous generations had to learn and sing it.

In my day to some it went. "We are the dump at the top of the hump, that Henry the chump did will" Funny I`m 80 and cannot remember the rest of either version. Seem to remember we had to sing it at prize giving in the Central Hall

If any of you 'lads' are the same age as me then you may be aware of those who used to climb the trees in Crackley woods at the back of the convent and wave to us 'young ladies' in our classroom. We counted three of you in one tree once, Even Miss Salt saw you. Not sure if you were reported or not but it was soon stopped. Didn't stop us from looking and waiting though ! We knew who it was - you still had your uniforms on. I think you used to break up a week before us. Those were the days.

The only archive that I'm aware of is what JBV left behind and is (I believe) held at the school. You might want to join the facebook group link or contact Helen Cooper from that site. I have had moderate success in the past by talking directly to the school alumni admin. Link

Those of us who were smokers would use the toilets under the science block as a smoking room. However, numerous raids, led by Jeff Vent had led to detentions for many boys, and we were looking for somewhere more inconspicuous. At this time there was a green electricity box in the fence at the back of the bike sheds, in fact if you go down Spencer Avenue it is still there, though nowadays it has been fenced in. One day, someone opened up the box, and found it was empty. The locks were simple latches, and the 'key' was a triangle shaped blank that opened it. If you had one of these triangle keys then it was a simple matter to open the box, operate the other door with your finger, and you were outside the school fence. Well a few of us started using the method of egress to slip across the road for a cigarette at the back of the Bishop's house just opposite. Obviously word of this spread, but we tried to keep it fairly quiet. One break we were popping across the road for a smoke, the procedure was that last man would lock the door behind him. This particular day, I was last man. Four or five lads went through the box and I came out turned and locked the box. As I turned to scoot over the road I realised we'd been seen, by a man walking up the road. Now, from his point of view, he'd just seen 6 boys come out of a little green box, and his mouth was hanging open. I put my finger to my lips in the universal signal for silence and disappeared for my fag. I've often wondered what he thought.

Hi Disorganised. I remember the green box very well and am pleased to report that it had more than one use! I was not a smoker but I did have an aversion to cross country running and rugby. On games afternoons the procedure was that teachers would assemble everyone in front of the music block area and take registration. Then people would move to their allocated activity groups and whoever was taking that activity would compile a list and take the group to wherever they were going. If you were supposed to play rugby but weren't involved in school teams, there were frequently no pitches available so you were consigned to go running down to Canley Ford and back in wind and rain through muddy woodland. It soon dawned on a few of us that if we could get registered as present but avoid being in any activity group we had cracked it. A quick visit to the aforementioned toilets after registration gave us the opportunity to use the green box exit, hoof it down Spencer Road, across the park and bridge into Grosvenor Road to freedom. Many cold and wet games afternoons were spent in the comfort of a cinema in town. And we were never missed!