Memories Of Stockingford Junior School

Ken Bond - 'From Mixed Infant to Failed Scholarship'

Ken Bond - March 2006

"I was born during the miner's strike of 1926." "The majority of local men were employed in either collieries or brickworks, so times were hard, and things had barely recovered and begun to settle down, when further disruption to family life occurred with the outbreak of World War II in 1939. However, there were new employment opportunities and my father found work in a Coventry aircraft factory instead of Stanley's Brickworks."

"I had a happy childhood and around the age of four or five found myself in the Mixed Infant Department of Stockingford Council School. The Head Teacher was Miss Hutley, although the person I recall most vividly was Miss Bishop, who possibly was Deputy Head. She was a long-serving and highly respected member of the school staff who lived locally in retirement until around the year 2000."

"At the age of seven I moved up to the Boy's School which was in the same building as the Girl's School, but they were two separate establishments, each with their own Head Teacher. At the end of a narrow corridor there was a connecting door (locked I believe) which I never knew to be opened. There was similar segregation in the playground with a brick wall separating boys from girls. Likewise with P.E., boys and girls were kept strictly to their own end of the playing field."

"Approaching school from Grove Road there was vehicle access along the front of the school but the only cars I saw there were those of the Head Teacher (who lived at Caldecote) and one other teacher who lived at Fillongley. All the other staff either lived locally and walked, or came up from Nuneaton on the Midland Red bus, got off at the top of Grove Road and walked from there (sometimes accompanied by a pupil or two who lived nearby). Before I leave Grove Road I must mention an important individual who lived there. Mr Bowers was the caretaker, who occasionally could be seen shovelling coke through a grid in the playground, ready to stoke the boilers down below. After school he would go round the classrooms with his wife, sprinkling the floor with wet tea-leaves in order to sweep up the dust (of which there was quite a lot)."

"Entering the Boy's School up the stone steps (with the word 'Boys' carved above the door) to the left was the Head Teacher's office and to the right the cloakroom - simply rows of pegs where we left our coats and also changed for P.E. (just taking off one pair of shorts and putting on another, plus a pair of plimsolls). A row of hand basins (cold water only) lined the wall under the windows and that completed the facilities. When I arrived in the Boy's School Mr Joshua Axon had just retired as Head Teacher and been replaced by Mr Ernie Randle. He was a firm but fair Head Teacher and was probably rather more approachable than was usual for his time."

"My first teacher in the Boy's School was Miss Henderson (no married women teachers allowed at that time). She was Scottish and, amongst others, she taught us the Skye Boat Song. She also introduced us to poetry. I recall 'The Green Linnet' by William Wordsworth, a fragment of the first verse has stayed with me:

'In this sequestered nook how sweet
To sit upon my orchard-seat
And birds and flowers once more to greet
My last year's friends together'

Another favourite a year or two later was 'Cargoes' by John Masefield. We all enjoyed the last verse:

'Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days'

"In the top class, having learnt and recited the set poem, we were allowed to choose one ourselves. Looking back I realise how wide-ranging was the educational spin-off from learning a few poems. In those two poems alone stood the gateway to an appreciation of Natural History, Geography, History and Industry - all of which our teachers developed in other lessons. Throughout the school we were encouraged to read and to use a dictionary and encyclopaedia. The resulting extension of our vocabulary was shown in improved written work."
 

Ken Bond is on the back row, on the far left

"The top three years were called 'Forms' as opposed to the lower classes who were designated 'Standards'. What the purpose of the distinction was I do not know - certainly we did not perceive any."

"Form 1A was taken by MR L F Bennett (known as 'Basher'). He was the youngest of our teachers at that time, having trained at Loughborough, and specialised in P.E.. I was useless at P.E. but he usually found something sympathetic to say in my annual report. Ernie Simpson however was brilliant, and when we had lugged the box out from under its shelter in the playground, he would run up, fly over it or turn himself into a little rubber ball and do a forward roll over the top. Ernie was the younger of two brothers and their father was a baker and confectioner with premises in Arbury Road. Ernie had another skill however, and if the weather was too wet to allow us outside, the teacher would find some useful activity for the class. Occasionally, Ernie would be asked to tell a story and he would go out to the front and tell, with great enthusiasm, the story of a film he had seen ('Picture Palace' in Short Street - no television!) or a book he had read."

"Len Struebig lived near Ernie in Arbury Road where his father was a hairdresser. Len would tell us how his father taught him how to shave a customer by lathering and shaving a balloon without bursting it. Len did not follow his father in the business however, but after wartime service in the Navy he eventually became curator of Nuneaton Museum."

"Mr W L Smith taught Form 2A and was also responsible for science. I remember that he taught us 'Archimedes Principle' simply because he used a piece of apparatus (principally of brass) contained in a glass case. Perhaps he would have been pleased if I had also remembered the principle itself, and any practical use for it! He also taught 'Boyle's Law' which I do vaguely remember and we made electro-magnets and constructed electric bells (of course at that time they were not in universal use, and none of us had one at our door). At that time he also happened to be the Honorary Secretary of St Paul's Parochial Church Council and prior to a meeting he would write out an agenda on the blackboard for us all to copy. He would then select the best ones, and issue them to boys to deliver. I had to make sure that my writing was up to scratch because Mum was on the PCC and it would never do to take home someone else's work! There was a by-product of this of course, because we learnt something of how the business of a meeting was ordered, and how a meeting was run."

"Mr Sydney J Briggs ('Sammy') taught Form 3A (the top class) and also specialised in History. He paid particular attention to English, both spoken and written, so most of us could converse without resorting to the slang then fairly common locally. He gave us an insight into elementary trigonometry, using simple apparatus to calculate the height of a school chimney. He also gave us practical instruction in gardening, having first taught us how to make a 'cropping plan' for our small plots, situated within the school grounds at the corner of Cross Street and St Paul's Road. Sammy had served in the Great War and had a slight limp, rumoured to be the result of a war wound. Classes changed rooms depending on the subject taught. There was a communicating door between Sammy's room and a class whose teacher was not noted for his discipline. When it was time to change lessons, Sammy would get rid of his class by another door, and then theatrically throw open the communicating door, stand well back and shout 'Come in the zoo!'. They would respond and enter noisily. He would, of course, control them during his lesson. But next year those self same boys were in his class, and as they assembled in the playground before lessons, each class would move off with their teacher. When it came to 3A Sammy would tuck his cane under his arm and say 'Forward the Guards!' and those lads stuck out their chests and marched - they were 'Sammy's Guards' and proud of it. Years later, doing an in-service Certificate Of Education, I was taught the theoretical aspects of the Psychology Of Education. I reflected - yes the theory is alright, but Sammy got there first and did it practically."

"Secondary education in the locality was catered for by King Edward VII Grammar School. This was a fee-paying institution whose pupils were principally sons of local businessmen. There were however, a few scholarships awarded each year on a competitive basis. When it came round for my year group to attempt the test, about five of us were selected as potential candidates. This year however an additional hurdle was introduced in the shape of an 'Intelligence Test'. Three of us weathered the storm to go down to Queen's Road School to sit the written paper. I alone survived and it was with mixed feelings that I went alone to the Grammar School to the Head Master's study, his cap and gown hanging near the door, and a serious looking stranger sitting at his desk posing a variety of questions (NB no prior suggestion of what might happen had been indicated and coaching for interview certainly did not exist). I did not relish the thought of leaving my school friends and having to travel daily by bus to Nuneaton and back. I failed the scholarship and continued happily at Stockingford Council School until leaving as Head Boy, aged fourteen."

"As I gained experience in industry, through part-time study I gained appropriate qualifications (including a degree) and I thank Stockingford Council School for developing my vocabulary and instilling in me curiosity and persistence which continue to serve me well."