I left school and went straight into teacher training and did a three year course in the midlands. That was a course to train specialist physical education teachers with some English and some maths so that you could work in a secondary school classroom. That was a sensible balance. My first teaching post was in […]
Education and Training
Reflections on forty years at the chalkface (2012)
The contributor began teaching in the 1960s in Nottingham and spent over twenty years as Head of English and Drama at Stalham High School in Norfolk. The story is a telling account of a teacher's experience of changes in schools and teaching over four decades. On his love of drama, he says: "I've always been […]
Seams and stitches of my life
I was born in 1926, in a village on the borders of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire called Willesley. We moved to Norfolk when I was two and, as my father was a Norfolk man, it was like coming home to him I think. We lived at Great Witchingham and I went to Great Witchingham primary school […]
Teaching and clerical work – full circle (1968-2012)
I was born in London in 1947. At this time my father was still in the army. When he was demobbed we moved to Wiltshire where my brother and sister were born. The first school I went to was the local Catholic school. I think they took children in at an earlier age than […]
Teaching: going full circle – 1969-2007. (2015)
Janet began teaching in 1969 and worked until 2007. She says, ‘teachers are the people who know what their children need and hopefully that is what is happening now’. As I was going through my school career I swore I would never be a teacher as I’d come from a family where there were five […]
The Headmaster (2007)
My father was manager of Rusts of Sheringham during the 1940s, that was groceries and provisions and wine merchants. Their main branch was at Cromer. When I was born in 1929 he was out of work and then he worked for various stores on a temporary basis and then shortly after I was born he […]
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Sculptor (1960s – 2019)
I was born in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and my mother worked for the Post Office and my dad was a television and radio engineer. My dad was very practical, he was good at woodwork and metalwork and was also an amateur artist and he taught me a lot of skills which I was able to […]
The Swimming Teacher (2009)
My name is Mary and I live in Norwich. I was born in 1930, the youngest of four, in Grimsby Lincolnshire, and I left school in July 1944 at the age of 14. It was only a few years after that I think they raised the school leaving age to 15, but it was 14 […]
The Teacher (2009)
I really enjoyed school. We moved into the top class when we were ten so that we would be prepared for the 11 plus exam by Miss C and, because I was one of the cleverer ones, I was taken in hand and prepared for it and fortunately passed. From then on I had to […]