A rather well-built Welshman who impressed me very much at first. He's probably the only Wennington teacher who I recall turning up for lessons wearing a suit and tie --for the first two weeks or so at any rate. Later, his 'uniform' would more likely be a 'sports' shirt with upturned collar (his trademark) or simply a tracksuit top if he had just been teaching Games. I found him to be a very methodical teacher who made good use of 'film strips' (the 'high tech' of the day). He had a system of 'bonus marks' which he would award for an assignment well-done. It certainly motivated us to try harder. He did rather lose my vote with his periodic temperamental outbursts so I tended to keep my distance. He was also not a bad piano player- playing mainly 'standards' from the Ragtime/Early Jazz era. I would have welcomed some 'meeting of the minds' over this because (although Wennington didn't particularly encourage it) I had aspirations that way myself. However, I didn't make the first move and neither did he.
In the Summer Term of 1965, at the end of my fourth year, we had a mumber of interesting 'field trips' for which Ken Jones would have been responsible; a trip to Rowntree's (chocolate) factory in York, a trip to Manchester Airport / an Aircraft factory in Cheshire and finally a trip down a coalmine in South Yorkshire.
Of the Rowntree's trip, I can remember not being allowed to eat anything they showed us on the tour; most of what I saw put me off, but I wouldn't have minded having a go at the 'reject' (mis-shapen) Kit-Kats! At the end of the tour, they ushered us into a 'sampling room' where we were encouraged to eat what we wanted. They used this to gather information on new products (market research, etc.) and to see which lines were likely to be most popular.
The trip to Manchester Airport went off as planned, but when we arrived at the Aircraft factory we were greeted by the sight of all the workers exiting the building 'en masse' just as we were pulling in…. Clutching at straws, I suggested that they must be 'on strike' which turned out to be the case! The tour of the facility still went ahead, but to a deserted factory floor….
The trip to the coalmine was certainly unique. When we were given the details of this, we were told that there would be an age restriction (15 or older) and that it would be restricted to boys only. One slightly indignant girl brought the house down by asking 'What's the difference between a boy and a girl?' when she really meant 'Why the restriction on girls?' The basic reason was that they only employed men down the pit and consequently only had showers, etc. for men. Since the coal dust got everywhere, it was essential to take a shower (very much a communal arrangement) before we left. I can't imagine the outcry that would have occurred in the Mining Community just at the thought of girls being down there! My strongest memory of the trip was on the coalface. The seam was about five feet (high) -many were much less- but that determined the amount of 'headroom' we had. The 'ceiling' looked a bit temporary and was supported by 'pit-props.' One man would would pass along the 'face' with a huge machine which excavated the coal and allowed it to drop into a conveyor. The coal would then be loaded into railway trucks and brought to the surface. We were taken right along the Coalface-within feet of the lethal-looking machine, all the time having to 'watch our step.' It didn't help to have somebody prodding me, occasionally, from behind, but when our guide mentioned that 'We usually lose a man along here every three months' I had probably heard enough! If I had been making the rules, I don't think I would have allowed so many schoolkids in such an obviously dangerous area, but it was an experience, without a doubt.
I tend to think of Gordon and Ken together, since they had a mutual interest in sports and jazz music. In the Autumn of 1965, they formed a jazz band, Gordon playing trumpet and Ken playing piano, with Wennington pupils filling the remainig slots. Gordon is perhaps the staff member with whom I identify the most-in retrospect-though I probably wouldn't have suspected that at the time…..
I first remember him as a somewhat raw, slightly unsophisticated Liverpudlian, with a few rough edges. He had a somewhat 'macho' image (not that the word existed back then) but-when he wanted to- he could 'empathise' with the pupils more than most of the other teachers. I remember that he had once been swimming in the Dales,-in one of those natural 'pools' that can be found at the base of a waterfall. By all accounts he got caught up in a current and could have drowned had it not been for one of the pupils jumping in to save him. I wasn't there myself, but I remember how he sought out that pupil to thank him once they were back at school. He was also, incidentally, more perceptive than he appeared and could be counted on to give some of the pupils a 'reality check' whether it was ordered or not; he did me once or twice at any rate…..
He was fortunate to preside over the move into the new Science Block. The facilities were a big improvement, but a lot of the equipment was not new. I remember him conducting an experiment to produce CO (Carbon Monoxide)-the equipment was so leaky that the experiment had to be abandoned and the room evacuated. It was frustrations such as this that could result in some rather 'colourful' outbursts at times. I may have let him down slightly by dropping P/C as an O-level subject only weeks before the exam. I felt that I needed to concentrate my efforts elsewhere.
Lastly, I remember him giving-of all things- a Sunday Assembly talk. At the time, Wennington was trying to involve as many of the staff as possible in this, to get some alternative points of view. Gordon's talk was relatively simple-he related some of the experiences (including industrial experience) that had led him into teaching and concluded by saying that, as a scientist, he couldn't help observing a 'natural order' in things and that it couldn't just be there by accident. He stopped short of offering any possible explanations……Had I ever-hypothetically speaking- been asked to give a Sunday Assembly talk (as an adult, years later of course) it might very well have sounded a bit like Gordon's.
I remember him as initially rather shy, but a very personable, popular teacher. If a class became too unruly (my year in the third form, for example) he sometimes didn't quite have it under control; usually that meant he could be teaching 'in competition' with the more disrespectful elements in our year. To my surprise, I found that Biology was my strongest subject (alongside Music) under his teaching-I had only done moderately well under Maggie Reese in my first year. He usually kept us up to date with the latest 'Elephant' jokes which were popular at the time, also there were the 'Fred' jokes which may be best left alone after such a long time lapse (they were a bit contrived back then, they might not even be funny now). I should definitely have taken his advice and studied Biology at A-level - I probably shot myself in the foot not doing so.
He was probably about the most entertaining teacher we had. Fresh out of Keele University (where he had been a contemporary of Bamber Gasgoigne -of University Challenge fame), he came across as a bit 'intellectual-waffly' but very contagious nevertheless. It might actually have taken me about 18 months to get used to his style, but once I had done so I was hooked. He tended to focus on the more modern periods of History and part of his secret may well have been that he only taught material that he felt a genuine enthusiasm for himself (for instance, I remember, for O-level, he skipped World War One entirely on the grounds that it was 'boring' even though it was almost guaranteed to come up as a question)
I will always remember his account of working 'freelance' for the BBC World Service-having to assume 2 or 3 different voices in the same programme to create the illusion that the cast was bigger than it really was. He made it sound rather incredible but I can believe it.
I tend to bracket Jack Buckley and David Rothwell together, since they did make something of a team for a while and their teaching shared one or two traits in common, although they probably wouldn't have agreed about that.
Since I had so many musical traits, it was a great privilege to have Jack as a teacher. He didn't necessarily like or approve of what he found in me (as a pupil) at first, but like many good (music) teachers, he took my technique apart and rebuilt it. The quality he shared with David Rothwell was the boundless enthusiasm of his teaching. He also had composers/topics he preferred not to teach (most notably the music of Beethoven, which he had reservations about at the time) but this was more than made up for by the vitality he felt for the material that he did like to teach.
Jack assembled one of the largest O-level Music classes Wennington had known at that time,-- although that did span two years (i.e. two classes) and did include David Rothwell for the first month or so. The following year-since we weren't allowed to move on to A-level work -we formed a somewhat experimental 'Musical Composition' class (to keep the class alive as much as anything else). Most of the assignments involved setting words to music-which I wasn't particularly good at. One week he asked us to pick any Hymn from the Hymn book and give it a more 'up-beat' setting. I gave it some thought and soon decided that this wasn't going to be that easy for me, but I may as well have some fun! I found a suitable Hymn and set it to music without thinking too hard about it, but introduced it with a well-worn musical 'cliché' suggestive of a 'circus act.' When I played/sang it the following week, it got quite a few laughs from the class, but Jack seemed slightly taken aback by it. In retrospect, I would say that while it may have seemed funny at the time, it probably had too much a ring of 'mockery' about it.
His teaching of Religious History had much the same qualities as his Music teaching; he had obviously thought about the subject in depth. He had me thinking about the 'Sermon on the Mount,' for example, in greater depth than I would otherwise have done. He once played us a record of the satirical revue 'Beyond the Fringe' as a substitute for a lesson and I remember him once asking a question to the class on a subject completely unrelated. When quite a few people protested that this 'wasn't taught,' Jack responded that (the School) couldn't teach us 'everything' and that it was up to us to develop a 'natural curiosity' about things and -if I remember correctly- it was this same curiosity that was responsible for him being where he was.
In his last term, he could be found playing Beatles tracks in Morning Assembly. At the time, I remained indebted to his knowledge of Classical Music (which he knew in depth ) rather than this, which was probably already familiar ground to the great majority of the pupils.
Some of the other Music teachers I had at Wennington included Mary Hunt (part time Strings and Piano) in the first half of 1963. Once she noticed the extent of my musical inclinations, she tended to put me on some pretty advanced stuff; still it was OK to be recognised…..(She could later be found playing Viola in the Halle Orchestra). Then there was John Baker, who didn't have me as a (piano) pupil but would write "Has considerable ability but needs to be kept up to the mark" (late 1962 or early 1963)
There was Reginald Lester (part time Woodwind and Brass) who taught me Clarinet. He normally worked at 'Kitchen's' Music Shop in Leeds and had a military background (as a musician). I think I appreciated this the most in him; it set him apart from most other Wennington teachers and gave me a contact with the 'outside world' at times when Wennington seemed 'claustrophobic.'
There was Ruth Glendenning (Strings and Piano) who, though she never taught me, was a great asset to the musical life of the school and an accomplished Violinist. In the Sixth, I had Brian Sunderland (1966-68) and Alan Cuckston (part time 1967-68).
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