King Henry VIII Grammar School

Transition was Mrs Gates, LPA the fragrant Miss Hammersley, UPA Mrs Collins, 1A Mr Kennedy. 1B was Mr Adams, don't remember LPB or UPB, Headmaster was Foster.

LPB was Miss Poulton, UPB was Mr Dobson.

Miss Poulton taught me in the last year at prep school, I'm thinking 65/66. I think we called her polecat (how innovative!) and I remember I had a crush on her. Was it Mr Foster was Head Teacher? Perhaps John Foster?

She taught me in LPB in 1963. She also played the piano in assembly, which was held in our classroom as it was the largest room in the junior school until... the following year when Hockleys completed construction of the junior school hall. You are correct about her nickname. I did not have a crush on her. She had the opposite effect on me - enough to put a male off the opposite sex. She was very strict, and would slap boys hard on their bare legs in front of the class just for being not academically gifted, often resulting in tears from said boy/s. Rumour had it that Gillian Poulton had a twin sister. PW Foster was the head. I think his forename was Peter.

Hello, From my reflection in the fifties, LPB was the second intake class for new starters, please correct me. The room was also used for the prep school assemblies. The piano was in there, the teaching desks were all at the far end. Transition was the earlier starting class, who then moved into LPA. Please don't give me lines. It might have changed during ten years.

That's very much my recollection, Philip. I skipped Transition as I was too old when I started, i.e. 8 not 7. It seems all those in Transition automatically went into the top class, i.e. LPA... ? Presumably, then, all those who did not attend Transition could only start in LPB, as I did. Or maybe I was considered one of the duffers. After all, I didn't do brilliantly in the entrance exam, only achieving a fee-payer's place, not a free place nor a scholarship. I remember spending a thoroughly miserable Saturday morning in the main school hall. We had to study a short passge about the life and works of James Brindley and his canals. Then we had to answer what I considered was a lot of pointless questions. I'd never heard the name James Brindley, so honestly answered that I thought it was all fiction and that James Brindley had never existed. But, having said that, as the football commentators say, one of my schoolmates from my class in Moseley junior school accompanied me into LPB. He was not thick. He was sickeningly good at all subjects, top of the class, several stars ahead of everyone else in the star race, top marks, good at sport just to rub salt in... so he was promoted to UPA the following year. Mrs Collins was the form teacher. She lived a few houses up the road from me in Lake View Road. I went on into UPB with Mr Dobson. With his gruff voice, he came across as strict. I only got lines once. I've never forgotten that my peg number was 65, although I never needed a peg number! To be fair to him and Mr Adams the following year, I don't remember anyone being physically hit, as we had been in LPB. Our form room in LPB was used for junior school assembly. I believe the prep school was Dr Swallows opposite the Memorial Park.

Hello Slim, I've always used the term Prep school, for the junior school, knowing that their was a prep by the memorial park. The one by the park may have been boarding at one time. I knew Mr. Adams. Mr Gains was the junior school head in 1953. I can still smell the polished wooden floors & the blue painted cast radiators. They were steam heated. Thank you for sharing. As I've previously shared, my favourite subject was dinner hour, next in line was the tuckshop windows. They were operated by the caretakers, a married couple. Can't remember the names.

Mr and Mrs Grimes ran the tuckshop while I was there. At my friend's school, Bluecoats, the head was a Mr Grimes.

I hated school dinners for two years. Then I did sandwiches. I was always better at luch than at pointless academic waffle, to wit the rainfall in Borneo in June, July and August to the nearest tenth of an inch. They never mentioned the S&P 500. That would have been useful to me.