King Henry VIII Grammar School

On 2nd Apr 2020 11:12am, Slim said: I don't remember a teacher called Pip. I think the cooking incident was about 2 or 3 years before my time there, by which time he must have left. I must have had a relatively tame school life, as I cannot recall anyone ever cooking in a lesson. That might explain why, although we had old wooden desks, we were not allowed to keep anything in them. Instead, we had to keep all our books at home, and bring to school, on a daily basis, the books needed for that day's lessons. And some of those textbooks were darned heavy! I always regarded attending school as a punishment.

On 2nd Apr 2020 11:12am, Slim said: I don't remember a teacher called Pip. I think the cooking incident was about 2 or 3 years before my time there, by which time he must have left. I must have had a relatively tame school life, as I cannot recall anyone ever cooking in a lesson. That might explain why, although we had old wooden desks, we were not allowed to keep anything in them. Instead, we had to keep all our books at home, and bring to school, on a daily basis, the books needed for that day's lessons. And some of those textbooks were darned heavy! I always regarded attending school as a punishment. What I do remember is the old wooden desks in Tic's art room (105?). In the fourth year, I found that the compartment, supposedly empty, of my desk contained a paper bag with some discarded cheese sandwiches. As the weeks went by, it caused amusement that the sandwiches were still there, becoming increasingly mouldier and smellier. Throughout the year, each week additional foodstuffs were placed in other desks, just to add to the smell and alleviate boredom. Art lessons were never taken seriously, just an excuse to mess about. E.g. when Tic was out the room (a frequent occurrence, as he probably found teaching us boring), one lad announced to the class "and now, for my next trick..." then promptly karate-chopped an open tube of Reeves yellow paint which was on Tic's desk. A dollop of the stuff shot out and went all down another lad's blazer. Tic seemed oblivious to all this tomfoolery. Or he wisely chose to ignore it!

On 2nd Apr 2020 4:24pm, Midland Red said: Can't recall the number but Joe Soap's art room was along the main first floor corridor - climb the stairs to Piggy Shore's office, turn right, and was along there on the right (ie overlooking the playground, not Warwick Road).

On 2nd Apr 2020 2:06pm, Midland Red said: bohica: Gasper? Do you mean Jasper, ie J W Watson?

On 2nd Apr 2020 6:20pm, bohica said: I can't remember his name but he was a thin, bespectacled, oldish chap, always sucking on a pipe.

On 2nd Apr 2020 6:20pm, bohica said: I can't remember his name but he was a thin, bespectacled, oldish chap, always sucking on a pipe. I think he taught me pottery in 110 at one time.

On 2nd Apr 2020 6:49pm, Slim said: Taff - an odd one. I found him hard to understand. In recent times, I bumped into Pete Jones. When I said, referring to Taff, "let's just say we never saw eye to eye", his riposte was "a lot of people didn't see eye to eye with him"!

On 2nd Apr 2020 7:15pm, Slim said: Sounds like Ben Nicholson, another teacher whose path I never crossed.

On 2nd Apr 2020 9:04pm, bohica said: Unless he stood on a box nobody could see eye to eye with him. He suffered typical small man syndrome and was obnoxious to boot.

On 2nd Apr 2020 9:05pm, bohica said: That name does ring a very distant bell

On 2nd Apr 2020 4:41pm, MisterD-Di said: Walker was never an actual teacher and seemed to be far more concerned with the business side of the operation.

On 2nd Apr 2020 9:19pm, Slim said: But he did teach us German language in the first year sixth, for some reason.