Old Boys, Girls and Teachers Guestbook

home > guestbook

home

past

Welcome to the Guestbook
Feel free to add messages relating to the site and the school. The only rules are: real names only, no personal attacks and no unrelated messages (inappropriate messages may be edited/withdrawn without warning).

It would be appreciated if you gave an email address, where you now live and said when you were at the school, but you don't have to.

Plase note that if you click on an email address below you will need to replace ~DOT~ with . and ~AT~ with @ in your email program. The Guestbook presents these this way to avoid email address harvesters collecting your email addresses from the page. I know it's a pain, but it's very much better than the alternative.

Add a message | Search

There are 379 messages in the guestbook
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 38 >>>
Viewing messages 1 to 10

Ed. Forster | ed~DOT~forster~AT~route2~DOT~pe~DOT~ca

The recent comments about the 6th form have sparked some old memories.
I believe that the school leaving exam was known as " The Durham " which I didn't sit, having quit school a bit earlier.
I was standing in line at the fish & chip shop, in the Westoe area, when Bill Hewison & some of his cronies chanted " Forster funked the Durham "
An elderly chap near by thought they had said a different word beginning with the same letter & gave them a rousing telling off.
It was 1942 & the war was in full swing, I must have reckoned that sitting exams was near the bottom of my priorities list. Anyway, that's my excuse.

Fri 9-May-2008 16:22 - PEI Canada

Neale Backhouse '46 to '51 | neale70~AT~telus~DOT~net

Hi Mike
Not having had a personal connection with the British school system since 1951, I hardly qualify to offer an opinion on the success or failure of any course of action which the authorities, in their wisdom, have chosen to pursue. However in the case of our old school, I just can't see it as not having a sixth form. Even though I personally never took advantage of what Mr. Lucas described as a seven year course, I still see the sixth form as an integral part of the grammar school experience. The sixth form set the standards, whether through academics or sports, that the rest of us were expected to follow. To use perhaps an elitist word, they set the tone of the school. So, welcome back sixth form. Maybe there's a Desmond Hubb or a Graham Duncan among you who will remain in the memories, long after school days, of young boys grown old.

Fri 9-May-2008 06:46 - Victoria BC. Canada

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Mike,

Your recent information concerning the intended re-introduction of a sixth form to the school (whatever they choose to call it) is very interesting. Many of the older generation - i.e. most of the contributors to this site - may have acknowledged the apparent attractiveness of separate education for the 16-plus group while having reservations about the effect on the school as a whole. In earlier years it was possible for the youngsters in the lower years to literally look up to those young men aspiring to higher education and clearly being able to take on the staff at the annual cricket match!

In some parts of the country, most notably the area that I have recently left (Buckinghamshire) there is not only selction for Grammar School places at 11-plus by virtue of an examination, but girls and boys are taught in separate schools. These schools (shock, horror in these egalitarian days) include education from 11-plus to university entry.

Have a look at the results at both GCSE and A Level results (for both sexes) to see how well it works.

Given that North Tyneside (repeat North Tyneside) has recently voted Conservative in the recent local government elections do we see the beginnings of a change?

I am sure I am joined by all of the other contributors to this site in wishing the school and its staff well in what will be a very difficult transition. The right decision has been made, I think, - all you have to do is make it work!

Thu 8-May-2008 20:02 - Ruskington, Lincolnshire

Brian Walker | wopsrus~AT~libero~DOT~it

Did you ever see the Monty Python 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch, Ed? If not, Google for it and watch it, courtesy of You Tube. I think that it will remind you of our hard life in Shields.

Thu 17-Apr-2008 12:14 - Valencia

Ed Forster | edforster~AT~route2~DOT~pe~DOT~ca

I've been perusing the photos of the boys at school from the 1930's to the late 50's & comparing them to todays kids, many of whom are obese & each year getting worse.
During the school days of old fogies like me, we didn't have cell phones, TV, computers, or pocket radios. Some had no radios at home.
We made our own amusement & often there weren't enough hours in the day to fully enjoy ourslves.
We walked, ran, played games, or the more wealthy among us, rode a push bike.
I have six great grand kids at school and using my " vast " experience to encourage them to be active.

In one of the photos, only two of the boys were wearing long pants, I think that I was thirteen when first graduating from short to long.
I recall getting an awful ribbing from the older kids.
From still loaded with snow on the island.

Sun 13-Apr-2008 13:56 - P.E.I. Canada

Neale Backhouse '46 to '51 | neale70~AT~telus~DOT~net

Hi Mike
Still on cricket, the recent entries by Bill, Bryan and Lance stirred memories of the great Australian touring team of 1948. After six years of war the time was ripe for a major sporting event and this tour really filled the bill. The whole country was enthralled as the five test matches unfolded throughout the summer months and nowhere was the enthusiasm better felt than in the classrooms of the lower school at the High. We would rush home at lunchtime to listen to John Arlot(et al)dispensing either misery or joy over the predicament of the England eleven. We would listen with deep foreboding as Arlot in funereal tones intoned "And so once again Lindwall moves in from the pavilion end,......and he's bowled him all over the place.". With genuine anguish we tore ourselves away from the radio and headed back to school,only to dash home again at four thirty for more dreadful news. "England are to follow on." The only light relief that Arlot could summon up was to tell us that the flock of pigeons in front of the pavilon had taken flight and seemed to be settling in front of the grandstand.
One of the few joyous moments for Englishmen occured in the final test at the Oval, when the great Aussie skipper Don Bradman made his final appearance as a test cricketer. He was cheered by the capacity crowd all the way from the pavilion to the wicket. Perhaps there were tears in his eyes,as he was bowled out second ball by the English leg spinner Eric Hollies. In Truebrit sporting fashion, he was once again applauded all the way on the lonely walk back to the pavilion.

The Aussies returned home undefeated, with their names etched in memory, well cetainly in the memories of the young boys who lived and breathed by every ball bowled or struck.
There have been other memorable test series, but I would guess, for my generation, none with quite the impact or high drama of the 1948 Aussies.

Thu 10-Apr-2008 05:31 - Victoria BC. Canada

Lancelot Bedlington (1946-51) | lbedlington~AT~hotmail~DOT~com

Reciently while brousing the Google Earth site I focused on the aerial photos of South Shields and was greatly surprised at the many changes which have taken place since my departure in 1962. Many of the places which were formative in my early years and youth are no more - this is only to be expected as time does not stand still. However the most "cutting" change - the one that really brought me up short was to our old school playing fields1 I'm surprised that no-one else seems to have noticed and commented on the loss of the smaller of the two school cricket pitches due to the encroachment of more school buildings. While it is accepted that academic development and achievement are the primary aims of the educational system, and that new facilities are necessary - the lasting character building benefits of early and proper cricketing facilities should not be forgotten.
The size and location of the smaller (primary) playing field was ideally
suited to schoolboy cricket - with its not too distant boundaries and prominent position alongside the school drive. While not shining in junior cricket - as a late-developer having played in nine countries, finally hanging up my boots at the ripe young age of fifty three, I regard the time spent playing and practicing at the nets in the corner of the field (occasionally until it was too dark to see the ball) as the principal lasting legacy of the time I spent at the "Old High School"
The Google aerial photos also show a cricket wicket located between the old rugger and soccer pitches to the left of the school drive, but do not show any cricket boundary line or markings for the soccer and rugger pitches. Perhaps someone could let "us oldies" know if rugger is still part of the curriculum, and whether inter-school cricket is still played on Saturday mornings. Aye Well -- TEMPUS FUGIT !

Mon 7-Apr-2008 19:40 - Ontario Canada

Bryan Cooper | bryglen~AT~bryancooper~DOT~wanadoo~DOT~co~DOT~uk

I wasn't there, but my brother was! Hutton dismissed by schoolboy gave our family endless amusement and pleasure.
It certainly changred my insistence that I had Hutton as opener in games of 'Howzat!

Thu 13-Mar-2008 22:41 - North Wales

Bill Wheel | riverdance~AT~unison~DOT~ie

I wonder if others can recall the visit to the school in c1952 of Len Hutton, England's cricket captain, when he gave a talk on cricket? I remember he invited a number of bowlers from the cricket team to 'have a bowl' at him and one got him out! I was quite envious of the boy - perhaps because Len gave him half a crown for his skills.

Tue 11-Mar-2008 12:06 - County Kerry, Ireland

Neale Backhouse '46 to '51 | neale70~AT~telus~DOT~net

Hi Mike
Desmond Hubb, now there's a name that conjures up old memories. Desmond was the archetypical head boy during our first (maybe two) years at the school, or so it seemed to me. His was a tall and dignified presence around the school,as dignified indeed as some of the masters. He was quiet and scholarly and his manner earned the respect of the whole school.It was almost as though he had read a book on how a head boy should comport himself. He was not a star at team sports, but I remember he ran a very respectable mile on the track.
He seems now, from this distance, very much a product of his time, serious and well mannered, which have now almost become the unnecessary trappings of success. OK,the system still turns out the required number of professionals and people are making scads of money, but when I see some of the grade twelve students exiting the local high school, I'm glad I went to school when young men like Desmond Hubb set the standard.

Fri 7-Mar-2008 04:53 - Victoria BC. Canada

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 38 >>>