My School Days.

A Memory of New Haw.

The starting point for me was failing the Eleven Plus. This puts most children in a difficult position.
Which school will accept them for their onward education?
Answer:- apply to Fullbrook Secondary School in Newhaw where a grammar stream awaits you. I had no experience of the English education system as such but recognised straightaway we had not been thrown on the scrap heap but that there was maybe a future for us somewhere.
So I joined 1G class in September, 1960. Our headmaster was called Mr Bean. He was, I recall, very tall and quite thin. One of his inspired ideas was to offer Spanish as first Modern Language on the curriculum. This subject was taught by Mr Reed. Some of us didn't take to anything foreign but I lapped it up like milk.
Our Maths teacher was a Mr Drawneek, who for reasons unknown changed his name by deed poll later.
For me, Maths was anathema to Spanish and Music. It ended by my being formally withdrawn from sitting GCE O level in 1965 and that was the end of that. Music was taught by Betty Moult, Art by Mr Paine, English by a constantly changing set of faces until the department stabilised itself.
Mr Blanchard taught woodwork, Mr Collins, Metalwork. Mr Russel Elvridge did Geography, he took no prisoners, I recall.
If a student's attention seemed to be wandering away, a well aimed piece of chalk usually did the trick.
The school dinners were set at five bob a week. Comparing 1960s prices with today's, that was quite a lot of money.
On the pupils side, a few names remembered are Butterfield, Burge, Chun, Sheppard, Erskine. The catchment area for Fullbrook was quite tiny so my daily commute by train from Walton on Thames made me seem like a rank outsider. By the time 1967 loomed up I had no idea whatsoever as to what should become of me after leaving Fullbrook.

After rather a lot of fudging about, a decision to teach Music was eventually arrived at but it did not sustain me continuously for the rest of my life. It kept things going for a few years. Some happy memories, some sour ones too.

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