Z1205/145

Male. Teacher, private school & state comprehensive school. b.11.12.1932 SIDE A (00mins)Born in Stratford, London. Father was a docker, a checker with the Port of London Authority. Bombing of docks during Second World War. Father's ill health. (05mins)Father was part-time bookmaker's "runner" (one who collected bets for gambling). Privately arranged evacuation to Dorset at beginning of war. (10mins)Mother and sister joined him in Dorset during 1940s Blitz (German air bombardment of London) but they all returned in 1941 and he attended school in East Ham. Brick air-raid shelters. Daylight raids of "doodlebugs"-guided bombs. (15mins)Father was 21 and mother 31 when they married after the First World War. (20mins)Paternal grandparents died before he was born. Maternal grandmother he did know and visited her in a flat in Poplar. Won scholarship to East Ham Grammar School but was evacuated a second time, briefly to Heywood, Lancashire. (25mins)Stayed on at grammar school into Sixth Form and passed a scholarship exam to Cambridge, and was given an Exhibition (grant). Sister passed 11+ exam and went to Plaistow Grammar School. After gaining School Certificate (equivalent to GCE "O" Levels), joined Odham's Press in London. Not many working class children got to Oxbridge (Oxford or Cambridge universities) in those days. He couldn't afford meals in restaurants like the middle class students. (30mins)Rowed at Cambridge. Learned at Bedford School, where he later taught, how many students got Oxbridge places through their sporting achievements rather than academic, in those days. Clear distinction at university between those who had attended Public Schools (private) as opposed to State schools (grammar schools). (32mins)End of Side A. SIDE B (00mins)Studied both classics and modern languages, French & Spanish, for Higher School Certificate. After graduating, did two years National Service in the Army then a one-year post-graduate Diploma in Education, at Merton College Oxford. During the middle term, he did a teaching practice at Bedford School, because he had asked for a school that did rowing. He was offered a job there and took it. Enjoyed Cambridge. Involved in a play-reading society called The Parnassus Club. During National Service got himself on a Russian course at the Joint Services School for Linguists. (05mins)Did not see eye to eye with all the aspects of life for boarders at Bedford School, especially the beating of junior boys by seniors and the Army Cadet Corps. Very good school academically, but not socially forward-going. Began in Sept. 1957 and moved to Redborne (local authority) School in Ampthill in January 1965. (10mins)Redborne was a grammar modern bilateral school (top three classes formed exclusively of those who had passed 11+ exam). County Council was Conservative dominated and the county had few grammar schools and no comprehensive schools, despite the strong comprehensive movement in the country at the time. Most children who passed 11+ went as "Elementary Scholars" to the Harpur Private schools in Bedford. Stayed there for the next 24 years, retiring in 1989. (15mins)Had a free hand to organise his modern languages department, as he wanted, except in matters of finance. School eventually became a fully functioning 11-18 comprehensive school, able to move children around. Then it became a 13-18 Upper School, with the advent of Middle Schools. The CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations were introduced for those not clever enough to take GCE "O" Level (General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level) examinations, including new school-originated Mode III syllabuses were introduced. The final change was the merger of CSEs and GCEs into GCSEs, which every pupil took at the end of their statutory school 4th Year (later called Year 11). (20mins)The National Curriculum was introduced in the late 1980s, specifying what students should learn in all State schools around the country at given stages of their schooling. Prior to that, there was a period of teacher-led initiatives on secondary education; the National Curriculum brought centralised control and more form filling. Thinks he retired at the right time. (25mins)Doesn't feel at home in Bedfordshire. Feels more at home when he visits London or Dorset. His wife died in tragic circumstances-she committed suicide following an incident at an Upper School where she was a temporary teacher. He had to bring up a family of teenage children (the youngest was 9 years old) on his own, which was difficult. Hasn't missed teaching after retirement. Has plenty to do. Once wrote a textbook which sold 36,000 copies. Is now writing a novel. (32mins)End of Side B END OF INTERVIEW Original Interview 60 mins.

28 June 2002

From: 1930 To: 2002

item

teacher, World War Two, air raids over UK, air raid shelters, Cambridge University, rowing, Bedford School, LANGUAGE, National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939, Combined Cadet Force, Redborne School, Harpur Trust, EDUCATION, writer, Stratford, Dorset, Oxford, Cambridge, AMPTHILL