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| Reporting Card |
My final year at Wennington was rather different from those that preceded it. The new headmaster, Yogi, was distinctly different in temperament to Brian and had a distinctly different philosophy for the school. The past had been a struggle against teachers, with the headmaster standing idly by; this year I had no real problems with the teachers - I was doing A levels and thus was only studying the subjects I really enjoyed - but the headmaster decided he was going to make my life difficult by imposing his strict discipline upon this still rather rebellious pupil.
I was definitely kept busy during this time. I was studying seriously for A levels in maths, physics and chemistry; I was also studying for A levels in economics and technical drawing and just in case this did not take up all my time I was also studying Russian. On top of my academic work I was still a technician in both the language lab and the science labs.
Despite the pressure on my time I still managed to ensure that I had plenty of time to get up to some mischief. My main hobby at this time was getting drunk. To get around legal obstacles to the purchase of suitable liquids a few friends and myself resorted to buying brewing kits. One of my friends was the swimming pool monitor and was thus given, as a perquisite, use of the little hut at the far end of the swimming pool. This was an ideal place for brewing our boot-leg product. Unfortunately the stuff tasted pretty foul so we would sell it to the fourth and fifth year kids and persuade someone relatively adult looking upper sixth pupil to buy some rum with the proceeds.
There were probably lots of other minor infringements of the regulations that earned me various 'reporting cards' from Yogi and others but nothing that I consider really serious until one incident in the second term brought things to a head. Due to the declining numbers the sixth form was quite small thus there were a number of free cubicles in the sixth form hut. These were taken over by some of the fifth formers. The process seemed arbitrary but in general no-one seemed to mind - except in one case. One girl had appropriated the corner cubicle nearest the centre of the courtyard and I along with a few others - mainly 5th formers - took exception to this and gave her a hard time. Eventually we totally trashed her door; and she reported us. Yogi dragged a group of about three or four of us to his office. Everyone but me denied responsibility ( I was still used to the Brian era when it was not worth lying about such things ) so I got the whole blame. It was just before half term so he told me that I would only be allowed back after half term if my mother could convince him that I would behave. This would have been fatal - although my mother had long since given up trying to physically beat me to death she still had a fierce temper and she could still kick me out.
As it transpired he relented; he was impressed that I had accepted responsibility for the actions of myself and others, and I suspect the science staff pointed out to him that it was not a good idea to kick out one of the few competent science pupils. But it was such a close call that I decided I had better jump before I was pushed and decided to leave at the end of the year. There was another factor; due to the financial problems of the school they wanted to reduce staff costs. As I was about the only one taking A level maths they decided to drop it from the schedule - so I would have had to go into Wetherby for my maths lessons - this did not appeal to me. Thus I left Wennington after six long year - older; a lot wiser; but not necessarily a better person despite getting my best headmaster's report.
So what became of me? Immediately after Wennington I spent a year at a local technical college in London finishing my A levels - I did reasonably well but not spectacularly. I moved on to Essex University to do a degree in "Theoretical Physics" ( I had learnt my lesson with the melted wax incident that I should avoid laboratory work ). I scraped through with just a third class degree. I then went on to North London Polytechnic to do my master's in the "Physical Basis of Electronics". After this I actually had to work for a living. I got a job with a large electronics company which put me, with my two degrees, on the same work as people with O levels - British industry is always complaining about a 'skills shortage' but they do not use the people they have. Anyway after a year or so of this my mother dropped dead and left me enough money to go back to college. I did a one year "Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science" at Birkbeck College, part of the University of London.
Armed with three degrees I still took 15 months to get a job ( I was eventually offered two jobs on the same day! ). I accepted a job in a large London polytechnic as a computer operator - a job that normally goes to people with a few O levels ( plus ça change... ) but was soon moved to the systems' programming team; I also did some teaching to the HND students and 1st year undergraduates.
I really enjoyed the job at the polytechnic but I felt I had to get out of London - there was no way, even back in the mid 1980's, that anyone could afford to buy a house in London. So I accepted a job in Oxfordshire. It was with a small software house and I settled down in my new house for a few years. Just to keep my brain operational I took a number of Open University courses in biology and chemistry and settled for an ordinary degree - part-time study did not really suit me so I did not do the extra courses required for the honours. After about six years with the software house I had got sick of all the egotism and back biting, I had saved up a reasonable sum; so I decided to go back to college for one last degree. I returned to Birkbeck College to do a master's in "Computer Modelling of Molecular and Biological Processes" - this effectively brought together all the courses I had done in the past. I have never done particularly well in any of my degrees but I have certainly made up for in quantity what I lack in quality.
Immediately after this last course I took up a position in another software house but left after just three months. After failing to get another job for about a year I, with some help from some friends, set up as a self employed software engineer. I have been scrapping along in this role for over five years - never doing really well but sustaining a moderate lifestyle and living a quite life; and doing the odd evening class to keep my brain alive.
11th November 2000
Oxfordshire, England
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