I've always considered myself to have
had a good childhood, which seems to suggest that my school days were good
too. Not only that but looking back at those far-off days forty years' later,
I consider them to have been very happy and probably were 'the best days of
my life!'. This Web site was put together in 2001 for two main reasons: as I
approached my half-century, it was strange to believe that my childhood ever
existed! It seemed that my life to date has passed so very quickly yet
very slowly - both at the same time. The research that I have undertaken
while piecing together this work has been cathartic in many respects and has
helped to bring to the forefront of my mind memories which I had originally
thought had long-gone disappeared. The other reason is that Firth Park
Grammar School - the institution which coloured my views and helped me grow
up into the person that I am today - now no longer exists.
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" As we get older, and to use the old expression: "over the hill", velocity of age seems to gather speed. However, it isn't a matter of old age; more a matter of physics. As we grow older we no longer go up the hill against gravity; we are over the peak and are going down the hill with the assistance of gravity! " |
As I wrote these words in 2002, thirty-two years or more have passed since leaving Firth Park Grammar School in July 1970, yet the more I think about the building, its teachers and pupils, morning assembly, school photographs, the tuck shop and school outings, the more I can actually remember and the fresher these memories have become (and with the help of former pupils, are still getting better!)Perhaps the pictures, stories and memories depicted here will help to refresh others' minds and bring to the forefront their own (hopefully) happy childhoods which took place within the grounds of Sheffield's Firth Park Grammar School.
The site is dedicated to my new grandson Harrison. Born in 2002 he is just embarking on his own life journey.
11-Plus Success
I'd always been in the upper sets at my previous school - Carfield Junior School - and so thought I'd stand a good chance of getting through the 11-Plus examination when I came to sit it in the spring of 1965. I hadn't long to wait for the results. I found out that summer that I'd succeeded in this 'filter' examination and that I had been chosen to go to a grammar school instead of the local secondary school where the majority of my friends went.
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King Edward's was most people's number-one choice of grammar school, which in actual fact would have been nearer to reach from my end of Sheffield. I lived at that time nearby to Woodseats in the south part of the city. In fact, the powers-that-be decided that my number-three choice was to be the school where I'd be spending the next five years; and this was the farthest school from where I lived! The summer holidays of 1965 passed and a new episode in my life had begun. My father drove me to school that day in early September; a day that was spoiled by me forgetting my new red cap - from which the school's nickname stemmed: 'the 'Redcaps'. We therefore had to turn around and collect it before embarking on our cross-city run once again. I knew no one in the school as it was totally out of my home area. However, my cousin Michael was starting on the same day too. He lived locally and therefore knew a handful of the new intake of boys. I met up with him in the playground and broke the ice with what for me was probably the most daunting and worrisome day of my life up to that time. Chance had it that all the way through school, my cousin and I shared the same form. |
5 years and counting
Wearing a burgundy-coloured jacket - and of course the dreaded red cap - I wore the standard uniform of all first and second-year students and together, we all looked very smart. I became even less keen on the cap however, when, after walking in the rain wearing it, red dye oozed out and ran down my face, neck and shirt! As interest, the wearing of the red cap became non-compulsory shortly after I'd started the new term in 1965. For third year pupils upwards, the standard uniform changed to a navy blue jacket with stripy blue and yellow tie. Trousers had to be dark in colour and together with shoes, was the choice of the wearer. I suppose that what was the most different for me out of all the elements of the new school uniform was the wearing of long trousers for the first time! At primary/junior school, short trousers were the order of the day, but once joining the ranks of my new grammar school, only long trousers were allowed.
My first form, 1X, had Mr P J Hopper as its form tutor. The class room was situated at the top of the main building - between 'Boris' Hayward's Russian room and the small room used for the exchange of exercise books, to the top of the grand old wooden staircase and then towards the right along a further narrower flight. The room was actually in the attic and so had sloping roofs and a bar-covered window looking down on to the quad. Lockers for students' possessions were situated at the rear of the room.
Away from home
The first year - as most years at the school - passed quite uneventfully. I was neither a thorn in the side of any teacher, nor was I a 'teacher's pet'. I did my work and blended in with the background. The travelling got me down I suppose, as it was the best part of two hours a day spent on a bus, with only one or two pupils with which to pass the time. My very first afternoon (like my first morning) was marred with me standing at the opposite side of the bus route road, not knowing which way the bus was going to come! That's how green I was in those days (and still am to a certain extent nowadays!) The travelling became more and more difficult with the arrival of winter, and the copious quantities of snow which fell almost every week it seemed, all led to transport difficulties. On more than one occasion during that first winter I was caught out in thick and treacherous snow, causing traffic to come to an absolute standstill. Invariably, because of the long journeys, I was late for my morning classes which didn't look too good on the top of my School Report! It wasn't that I could arrive any earlier, as I was restricted to a strict bus timetable and could only leave once my paper round had been completed. My days were long - often starting at 6h00.
Easter 1966 gave me the opportunity of being away from home for the very first time. I went with a group of boys and some of the teachers. Chas Holmes, the Physics teacher, led the school party to Port Erin on the Isle of Man, which was both enjoyable and frightening at the same time. I'd never been away from my parents, but by the age of 11¾ we thought it high-time that I did! We saw a lot of the island the week that we were there and visited most of the towns and places of interest. It's a pity the weather wasn't better, but at that time of the year it was all to be expected, and a highlight of sorts was seeing a mirage of Ireland one sunny evening, as explained by Mr Downing, the metalwork & woodwork teacher.
Oh those Russians!
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I must have succeeded reasonably well after my first year at the school as I was chosen - out of the ninety or so boys in the three first-term forms - to take on Russian in form 2R in the second year. I was delighted by the prospect of taking Russian as a third language (we all had to learn French; Latin was never an option for me) but in retrospect would have preferred to have studied German instead (the three forms - 2R, 2G or 2M signified the specialisation subject - Russian, German or Mechanics *) as they had the option of visiting the Black Forest area of Germany each year. There was little opportunity of the Russian students travelling to the USSR as in those days there was the wall between East and West to partition ideologies and cultures. And on top of that, the famous Gerald Brooke has been arrested and imprisoned some years earlier as a consequence of dishing out banned Bibles in the country's capital. Coincidentally, this young man had been taught by the same teacher - Mr 'Boris' Hayward - and Gerald lived just up the road from me! |
Towards working for a living
After my trip to the Isle of Man in 1966 I never went away with school again and with the exception of but one sightseeing trip to London in 1969, no further visits to other countries or towns followed. School children nowadays just don't know how lucky they are!
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Mr R J Blades was the form tutor for 2R, with Mr R W Ivell form tutor in 3X, Mr J B Smith in form 4X and Mr R Mayhew for form 5A. All my reports were reasonably good but again in retrospect I knew that I could have worked harder than was actually the case. The final term at Firth Park Grammar School was spent revising for the dreaded 'O' levels and CSEs - I'd been chosen to take seven in total, but let myself down as I already had a job to begin upon me leaving school. In those days this was often the case; it was easy to step straight from school into paid employment. I was to begin on 2 September 1970 at the Trustee Savings Bank, Sheffield and by having this job security going for me, I failed to impress either myself or anyone else with my 'O level and GCE results. My days at Firth Park Grammar School were interesting, but anything less than exciting. I just got through the tasks of doing what I had to do and leaving when I'd done my lot. |
The five years spent there - as is always the case when it's too late - I now realise, were underused. I'm sure that I could have put more in and got more out; a philosophy which I adopted when I attended the University of Sheffield some thirteen years after leaving Firth Park. This same philosophy was again put into practise in 1991 when I undertook a course of professional qualifications in Human Resource Management at the Sheffield Hallam University.
Later years
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It's strange that while at an educational institution you spend your time thinking about what you're going to do when you leave. But my own case these last two decades has been to think about which establishment I'm going to join next in my continual search for an ongoing education! From 2004 I lived in central France and renovated a 400 year-old house with which I traded as a Chambres d'Hôtes business from June 2006 onwards. I think that Dr Eker would be very proud of me in gaining a good grasp of the French language and putting it to actual use. Before moving to France I taught computers as a subject to disabled and partially-sighted/blind people in and around the Eastbourne area. Presently I reside in a small town in the Alicante of Spain after having moved here in late 2009. I shall remain here for the next couple of years or so before moving once more to pastures new. |
| ^ Together with my daughter, Michelle |
( * the 'M' in form names 2M, 3M, 4M, 5M represents 'Mechanics'. Boys who did not shine at languages or English in the first year were directed towards the M stream and often ended up taking the GCE for General Engineering Science.)
