The British School.. The Rooms and a few memories to go with it ..sorry this a rather long, but once i got thinking i just had to run with it, but im sure it will back memories for a lot of you that went to The British ..lol does anyone else share these memories with me ? or have similar ones ..lol Its the morning that all 11 year old dreads, the day they start big school, i can remember it like it was yesterday. I was proudly wearing my new navy uniform, the first time i wore a tie and seems very strange, i also remember my knitted navy v neck jumper that my mam spent all 6 weeks of the summer holidays making lol, and i had this massive leather satchel that i had off Cherry Pugh i thought i was the bees knees with this as it had some graffiti on it like the bigger girl had ..lol We were all lined up by the wall outside the woodwork room. All shitting ourselves in case we were put into a class with no one we knew. I was lucky i was put with Jane Howells Lynda Gulies and Julie Grinnell all my friend from the Garn school. I was put in the B’s and there i stayed all thought my school life ...no quite dull... but not quite brainy..suited me down to the ground..lol . Shortly after been lined up we were marched off to Room 5 ......Biology room with the late Mr Keri Morgan .as our form teacher .. I can still remember the smell in that room to this day, the smell of those poor dead rat floating in the disgusting liquid, the wooden floor boards although really worn you could still smell the wood. In this room a few months later to my horror i was shown the aborted fetes in a jar that was stored in that locked green tin cupboard, a strange a weird place for a 11 yr old girl .. but the most bizarre thing was, this was the room we use to eat our packed lunch if we didn’t have school dinners , our soggy tomatoes sandwiches and the smell of ether... a big health and hygiene issue id say if that happened nowadays lol ...and OMG yes i nearly forgot ........... Remember those dead frogs we use to dissect too ....yuckkkkkkkk. Now im not sure how the numbers of these room ran but i think they were .. Room 1... end room opposite the art room .. I can’t remember what lesson this room was for ?? Room 2 ..... Woodwork room with Mr Playford or Percy Plywood as we all called him ..didn’t go in there many times cos back then, as the boys did woodwork and girls did cookery, but i do remember having a nose haemorrhage once, and they had me laid out on a work bench, me looking up at all Mr Playfords canoes stored up in the rafters when waiting for the ambulance to come { what canoes had to do with woodwork i don’t know ?} I was a big girl even back then, but i think they took it a bit far insisting i was put on strong work bench instead of a flimsy desk..lol No .. The reason was Percy was the only first aider in the school at the time, and of course there was no sickroom or anything back then, so the woodwork bench it was . Room 3 ...Mr Morgan { Pin } Art room .. this room hold some lasting memories for me, as you walk through the door on your right was the potting area and the kiln and potter wheel , tho i do think this was for Pin’s personal use cos i never knew any one that threw a pot on the potting wheel ...lol do you? This was one of my favourite rooms.. i remember me, Robert Chang, Julie Grinnell, and Sid{ Ann Harding/ Watkins} husband making church windows out of polystyrene tiles , that were then displayed in the assembler/dinning room hall till the school closed many years later , sounds tacky but they did look amazing when they were finished ..i was really proud of this achievement, i think it was about the only achievement i had in my whole 4 years there ...lol Room 4... Mr Morvan the Science room..What a lovely man he was ..i remember the Bunsen burner with a slight smell of gas in this room.. Room 5 ... Biology room ... my form room for my first year in The British Room 6 ... the lovely Mrs Prince and English room, i remember the A’s in my year had Mrs Prince and room 6 as their form room the first year.. i think Mrs Prince was every boys heart throb, i remember all the stories that the boys made up about her, saying ..she was a stripper when she was young.. Vivid imagination they all had..lol, but if it got them though double English who cares lol Room 7..Geography ...Mr H {i do know his name but because of what im going to say about him im not going to put it down } we had Mr H for the first year or so then Mr Crane after Mr H finished ..Mr H was known for running his hands up and down the new girls backs to see if they were wearing a bra ..Imagine if a teacher did that nowadays there would be ructions ...lol Mr Crane now this man had hand like shovels and the worst breath iv ever smelt ...lol a lot didn’t get on with this man but he was my favourite teacher of all.. Room 8... Daisy Jones and History room... not sure but think she used a Jacarei bat or was it a slipper to punish you if you were naughty lol and of course she was the one you go to if you had a period when in school. you weren’t allowed to use the normal toilet if you were having a period lol why i don’t know ..lol .. instead there was this horrible toilet opposite room 9 and if you need a sanitary pad you had to go to Daisy Jones room and ask her for one even if there were other kids in there have a lesson , and she would go to her little cupboard give you the pad in a paper towel and then she give you the dreaded KEY for that toilet lol...... everyone would know you were having a period it was terribly embarrassing ...lol. again i couldn’t see this being aloud nowadays ...lol Room 9 ..this room was in a corridor all of its own, except for that dreaded toilet, this was a strange dark place but it had a lovely hot radiator which every one gathered around in those cold winter play times ... i remember have a teacher in this room .. unsure of her name it might not have been Mrs Jenkins?? Who had just recently married Percy Plywood side kick, a short little man that taught Tec drawing i think? What lessons she took im not sure it might have been RI, not one of my favour subjects perhaps that why i don’t remember much of it ...lol Room 10... in the corridor up around from room 9 a strange bendy place a bit like something from Hogwarts lol , i remember being taught in this room by the famous Mr John Prince {married to the lovely Mrs Prince } now this man was terrifying , he was one of the old school teachers, if you were fair with him, he would be fair with you and i thought he was a wonderful teacher, but he was the one that each and every pupil respected. I remember he had a wonderful wonderful relationship with the boys a year older than me, the late Flicker Brandon Kim Richard and Kim Davis, i think it was because they were good at rugby and had won a few trophies for the school Mr Princes main subject was PE , I think he just took us lot in the B’s in math cos we were so crap at it and they didn’t want to waist the real math teacher time ..lol But im sure this man is etched deeply im many British school kids memory’s .. { we arranged a reunion back a few years ago and everyone we contacted said please try and get hold of Princey see if he’ll come , i did get hold of him but unfortunately he was away skiing the date of our reunion ..just goes to show the respect this man did have off us all} Room 11 .......the Needle work room with Miss Lane , now when she first came to the British i think she knocked Mrs Prince of first place wanking martial for the boys for a few months ..lol cos she was very petite with waist long blonde straight hair and up to the minute fashion style, she was very nice but again like Pin {Mr Morgan and his potter wheel and Percy Plywood and his canoes } she use most of her teaching time for her own means... making clothes for herself. Room 12...Maths Room Mr Williams i think his name was , but we all knew him as Frog lol because yes he did have very similar feature to a bull frog, i for some reason or other always felt sorry for this man i don’t know why..lol i can still see him now with his plaid jacket and those leather patches on his elbows.. he always seemed sad to me..lol Room 13 the Music Room and Edgar Taylor..oh Mr Taylor was a character and a half.with those black rimmed glassed . he was the one that arrange all the school trips {i always wondered did the teachers get free holidays out of this ..lol } i remember going to Austria with the school it cost £40 and £8 of that was spending money ..lol On this trip i shard a room with Julie Grinnell, the late Bev Jenkins and Carol Jefferies sadly both took so young..also sharing with us was the lovely Julie Carter, now Julie has a story all of her own. On her first day at the British school she started going out with Brian Jones and they are still together and happily married to this day, now how wonderful is that ..lol Music as far as i remember was more or less about the school choir, but with both my parents being musical i really wanted to show them i could do well in this subject, because although at the time i didn’t know it but i was dyslexic, and i think everyone thought i was just thick, don’t think there was any test for us so called thicko back then , it was all about the brighter pupils at the British school , and we were just left to fend for ourselves ..lol but alas a music career wasn’t going to be for me either .. as i couldn’t play any instrument, i thought well perhaps i could sing, but no, i couldn’t even do that , Mr Taylor once told me, im sorry Judith but your voice would put Treorchy Male Voice Choir out of key ...lol awww well....lol Room with no number.... the Tuck shop........, i remember running around the school to get to the tuck shop before the queues, pushing and squabbling started to buy my Tomatoes sauce crisps and twix . When i say running around the schoo,l this was because the corridors were so narrow, there was a sort of one way system in place, so difficult to explain but I’m sure all ex pupils of The British will remember trying to dodge the teacher or prefects trying to get to room 8 to room 9 without having to walk around the outside of the school.. this was so bad in the wet weather ,you would get so wet walking from one class to another lol Now from here how the rest of the class room numbers run, im not sure ,but i think it went.. Room 14.... Cookery Centre with Mrs William... a bit of a tyrant she was too , the only thing i can ever remember making was fresh fruit salad the British School signature dish for your first cookery lesson lol ..This class also had a very distinctive smell , not sure how to describe it, it was a warm old fashion kitcheny smell ...lol I remember Rob being made to do cookery because he wouldn’t have his hair cut, and Mr Williams the headmaster, { who was the lovely Mr Heams predecessor,} said if he didn’t have his hair cut and wanted to look like a gir,l he would be treated as a girl and made to do cookery, but this so back fired on the headmaster.. The first week Rob was made to do cookery was the week they were making pasties, Rob cadged all the ingredients off the girls, and made a load of pasties which he gave to all his mate dinner time, him and Brian Jones.. Nigel Parffit... Tiffin.. the late Julian Dawkins love him doing cookery,cos they were getting lovely snacks for free...lol The following week they all chiped in and gave him the money for the ingredients but this time he made cake, and again shared it with the boys who was beginning to think they should grow their hair so they could do cooking..lol on the 3 rd week he was back doing woodwork..lol and he never had his hair cut ...lol Wermy 1.... Headmaster 0......lol Room 15 .. The potting sheds ...with Squanchy Harris, he was a totally loony, i remember him losing the plot a couple of times, there was talk that the poor man had a metal plate in his head iv no idea if this was true or not but he sure acted as if there was something missing..lol ... lucky iv got no memories at all of this place at all , don’t think i ever had a lesson in there .. Room 16 The Canteen Assembly hall ..i think ?? Room 17 The Typing and Short hand room .. a little piti lady teacher i really cant remember her name Mr Jenkins perhaps? now me being dyslexic not understanding letter how the hell was i suppose to understand short hand, it was like an alian language to me so i didn’t do typing and short hand for long ,, how i got out of it i don’t know but i don’t remember having many lesson in this subject .. Now room 17 was in the old house in the school ground , the bottom floor was the Typing Room and the top floor was the teacher staff room, , the upstairs consisted of 2 rooms a large comfortably sort of living room which the stairs came up into and this was the staff room, and off this room was tiny room with a boiler, kettle, and cooker ,this is where all the teachers coffees and tea were made. . When you got to a certain year in school some of the girls out of that year would have the job of making the teacher coffee in the morning , but because this little room didn’t have access to the stair you had to stay in the room when the teachers had their break , i remember hanging out of the little window flashing V’s to all my friends in the yard as a teenager would...lol Opposite this old house were the school gardens, where Squancy Harris taught gardening. my favourite memories of this piece of ground was when a group of boys a few years older than me made a pond and make a giant frog at the edge as a fountain , it took them months to make but when it was finished it was amazing ...lol Room 18.... The Ambulance Hall The Craft Room ..another one of Squancy Harris room ..now for those that cant remember it, to get to this you had to go out of the school gate, cross the road, and it was on the other side of the road ..lol and i remember all the big arranges school fights’ were held behind the Ambulance hall after school , personally i only attended one and that was between Lyndon Felton and Julian Dawkins ..i can’t remember who won but i should imagine the was Felton ...lol Now all i remember about the craft room was raffia and wooden handle knives, what the hell we did with these i do not know ..lol but i remember one day Squancy must have been having a bad day and he threw a knife at Lynda Gulis, she and him were very lucky it missed her , but it put the fear of god into us all, and im sure i must have told my parents about it , as did the other kids but nothing was ever done about it ..lol this man was very strange but i think all us kids realised this and gave him a wide birth from then on... Now as far as i remember that was all the class room of this great school. its so so strange we all hated our time there ,but look back on it with such found memories of both sad and fun time we had .. I for one ,am so proud to say ,i was a pupil at The British School , or should i give it its correct name Abersychan Secondary Modern .....lol As you have read i am dyslexia so i do apologise for my bad spelling and grammar, but it has given me great pleasure remembering all these old memories of 46 years ago ...lol Jude x x x
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 10:59:52 +0000
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