The Almondburian July 2023

The ALMONDBURIAN

(Opposite):

This water-colour painting of the Schoolhouse and Library was painted in 1976 by Stanley Chapman(1925-28).

The ALMONDBURIAN

Editor: Roger Dowling July 2023

magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

A word from your Chairman

WALTER RALEIGH

APRIL saw the handover to the School of the new seating area ) in the Big Tree Yard: you will find a brief report on page 48 of this issue. It was a project which took far longer than expected because of Covid but I feel it was well worth waiting for as it provides another useful social area for our

ever-expanding School. May I again thank all those who played any part in the concept particularly Ian Rimmer for his support, Chris West for producing the drawings and Tony Hyland (Premises Manager) who with his team made everything happen.

You will remember that for a number

The

of years the Society has been anxious to update our computer records of all those who have attended King James’s Grammar School and more recently King James’s School. Present-day Data Protection rules had restricted the details that School was allowed to provide, so we appeared to be at an impasse. However, earlier this year the body charged with administrating the Data Protection Act gave us further advice on the issue, and the good news is that the School is now being allowed to pass on basic details of students who attended King James’s without the threat of Ian, our Principal ending up in Armley Jail!

However, School is only itself allowed to keep students’ records until the former students have reached the age of 25, which means that the School has only been able to let us have the records of pupils joining the School since 2009. Our present records (which date back to 1900) go as far as 1997, which leaves a gap of some 12 years from 1998 to 2008 still to be filled. Our Treasurer Keith Crawshaw has come up with the idea of using old Presentation Evening programmes which all had a list of students receiving GCSE certificates. (Of course, there may still be a few omissions as some students may have left before Year 11). However, it gives us a real opportunity to largely complete our records. We now have almost all the lists ready for putting on our database and hope that by Autumn it will be another project ticked off.

Similarly we are hoping to update all the new noticeboards we installed in the School in 2017 with the names of Head

Boys, Head Girls and winning Houses. It might also be appropriate to update the list of Heads and put Ian Rimmer’s name on the Role of Honour.

Talking of Head Boys I was looking round a local Garden Centre recently when I was approached by a couple who said “Hello”. To my shame my wife recognised the couple before me: it was Jonathan Dyson and his wife Michelle. Both of course are members of the OAS otherwise I wouldn’t be mentioning this meeting! I didn’t teach Michelle but Jonathan (KJS 1985-90) was an absolute delight. Always immaculately turned out and such a polite, well spoken student, he was Head Boy in 1989/90 before going on to Huddersfield University and then having a wonderful career as a key central defender for Town from 1990-2003.

On a similar theme, I was in a Tapas Bar in Honley when I was approached by a woman. I could say it happens all the time but believe me it is such a rare occurrence that I thought it might be of interest to some students and former staff. She was Ann Heafield, Head of English at KJS around the turn of the century, (2000 not 1900!) She was a wonderful member of staff and was quickly promoted to the role of Assistant Head. Unfortunately she only stayed in post a couple of years before she went to Australia with her partner: KJS’s loss and a gain for Oz. She had a stellar career in Australia, as I would have imagined but is now retired. She regularly returns to Blighty and often stays with friends in Honley before visiting family who live in Mansfield. It was lovely to see her and I wish her well in her well deserved retirement. n

Membership

ANDREW HAIGH

SINCE the previous membership report in November last year, we have been delighted to welcome two new members to the Society: Ian Smith (1961-69) of Oakville, Ontario, Canada and Dennis Randal Fisher (1954-59) of Almondbury.We have been saddened to learn of the deaths of Richard Grenville F Harrison (1957-63), Peter Eric Fisher (1956-62), Martin J Wood (1961-69), David Robert Guest (195761), Tom Rockett (1957-64), John Goodall (1953-60) and Derek Law (1947-54).

Please remember that subscriptions for 2022-2023 fell due on 1st September. Most members now pay their subscription by standing order, which makes life easy. If you

are one of the few who do not pay by standing order and you have already sent your £10.00 subscription for this year, thank you very much for being so efficient!

If you do not pay by standing order and you haven’t recently made a payment for this year, then you will receive a letter with this magazine pointing out that your subscription is not up-to-date. In this event, please send your payment without delay. It does make life much easier if you pay by standing order so, if you can complete the updated standing order mandate that accompanies the letter and return it in the envelope provided, that would be even better! Alternatively, you may renew online, using PayPal or a debit or credit card, by visiting www.oas.org.uk/membership.php.

Old Almondburians’ Society Calendar

GOLF (GOTHARD CUP) (contact Robin Merchant robin.merchant@oas.org.uk)

Sunday, 9th July 2023 at Woodsome Hall

FOUNDERS’ DAY SERVICE

Friday, 24th November 2023

ANNUAL DINNER

Saturday, 25th November 2023

Dates of Executive Committee Meetings 2023

Executive Committee meetings are currently being held at 6.00 pm in the ODH at School, with a Zoom link for those unable to attend in person. Any member of the Society who would like to attend one of these meetings will be made most welcome on the following dates:

Monday, 4th September

Monday, 2nd October

Monday, 6th November

Monday, 4th December

If you would like to join us for any of the above meetings and are unable to attend in person, then please e-mail the secretary Andrew Haigh at andrew.haigh@oas.org.uk to request login details, an agenda and any other documents.

From the study

One cannot exaggerate the negative impact of the Covid-19 on schoolchildren, says Principal IAN RIMMER. He reports on a new initiative to restore normality to the classroom.

SURELY every one of us should have some ambition; and is it too much to ask people to show good character? Well, sadly, traits that one may have taken for granted a few years ago have been severely affected by Covid, one of the many hidden costs of the pandemic.

As of today, 226,622 death certificates in the UK mention Covid-19. Yet far more people have been impacted socially; for some isolation and loneli ness have been exacerbated, for others an NHS wait ing list has got longer.

For many chil dren, the very fabric of their society has been challenged beyond perception. Not only may they have lost family members or have them living with longCovid, their innocent, unerring confidence in the world that surrounds them has been severely tested. I was thinking of using an ‘earthquake mag nitude 9 on the Richter scale’ metaphor, an event predicted to hap pen once every 300 years, ripping through our consciousness. But I think a snow globe image is more represen -

tative; more childlike and symbolic of happy times. Now, imagine shaking it violently for a few moments; we all know what happens.

I am not a psychologist, but I am a pragmatist and I have seen the very essence of what children construct their lives around shaken to the core. Children thrive off familiarity and certainty, repetition and routine; how else do we learn languages, times tables, how to ride a bike …good behaviour! And that is how schools function at their best. So, when those routines are broken, repeatedly, and when all that is familiar is taken away, there will inevitably be conse -

I invite the reader to think about occasions when you have been required to do something you haven’t done for a while - like opening the bonnet of your car, for example. It’s surprisingly difficult when you haven’t done it for some

And then chuck in a few more curve balls for good measure, such as changing schools and redeveloping the site

and the course has suddenly become extremely challenging for our children! But do not be fooled into thinking that this is a situation in which King James’s finds itself uniquely. Quite the contrary; the headteachers’ union, the Association of School and Col lege Leaders (ASCL) has been collating evi dence from schools up and down the land and seeing a very famil iar story played out time and time again*. As it says in the article, “ … this is a difficult topic. The last thing we want to do is give the impression that pupils are running amok. Most young people are respectful, polite and abide by the rules. … The issue here is whether poor behaviour is more prevalent and worse, why that might be the case, what impact this may have on institutions and individuals, and how it might be addressed. ” It goes on to say, “The government, predictably, has little to offer in the way of anything that is useful” . And so it is a case of “ … schools and colleges being left to pick up the pieces of a series of complex societal issues” . So how are we picking up the pieces?

As a first step we asked staff, and students, for their thoughts on the type of student we would like to see, and they would like to be, when they leave our doors at age 16. There was a sur -

prising degree of commonality in the thoughts of the two groups, with words indicative of the times coming to the fore: ambitious, successful, independent, resilient, caring. Having thought a little more deeply about the messages being given through these words, it became clear(er) that what we were talking about was a fundamental desire to be academically successful and thus to take back control of their own destinies; perhaps an inevitable consequence after being at the total mercy of a pandemic. But also to develop good behaviours, both in terms of learning and social interaction.

But these habits and behaviours need to be modelled and practised repeatedly. Of course, some may find them more intuitive than others, but fundamentally good habits are precisely so because they have become routine. And thus we have come up with two new curricula: Ambition and Character . These do not take up valuable curriculum time, but will be ‘taught’ alongside, ideas being delivered during assembly and tutor time, and opportunities being provided ‘out of hours’. Why Ambition and Character? Because Ambition + Character = Excellence or to put it more succinctly, at KJS we are going to ACE it!

Within the Ambition curriculum *https://tinyurl.com/46a72yz6

we will aim to create an environme nt in which all students are encouraged to ‘think big’ in order to raise the level of ambition and establish a schoolwide sense of ‘why not me?’ To achieve this, we will provide high-quality experiences and opportunities for all. This may include a cultural trip for every child in every year group, a revamped Rewards system that has some value (to a 21st century child), enhanced student leadership opportunities, with various student committees covering issues of interest to them, and performance academies which will encourage participation from all but will enable those elite performers to excel.

And in our new Character curriculum we will aim to make explicit “how we do things at KJS” in order to raise standards in a fair and supportive way. To achieve this, we will be setting clear behavioural standards/routines, expected of all (staff and students). This may include making explicit (once again) what constitutes good behaviour

at KJS, re-establishing good learning habits that have become disjointed, rebuilding parental links that have become inevitably more distant through Covid, providing training for staff, some of whom learned their craft during the pandemic (can you imagine how nigh on impossible that must have been?), and others who have simply got out of their good habits too!

So that’s the plan, as it currently stands, to ACE it at KJS . But for this initiative to be a success all stakeholders must buy into it, and gaining staff and student buy-in presents a whole new set of challenges that must be overcome.

If and when we achieve that, perhaps the snow in the globe will finally begin to settle. n

l The impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of schoolchildren has been widely reported. On page 9, Assistant Principal Abbi Terry , the Senior Mental Health lead for King James’s School, reports on ways in which the School is responding to the challenge.

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For this initiative to be a success all stakeholders must buy into it.

Classroom commentary

Schools everywhere are struggling to cope with student mental heath issues. King James’s School is no exception, reports Assistant Principal Abbi Terry.

Ihave recently qualified as the Senior Mental Health lead for King James’s School which was a course that has been funded by the Department for Education. They recognised that mental health is at crisis point particularly after the pandemic and wanted to enable school staff to be able to support the school community.

At first, I saw this as an amazing opportunity and was glad that for once, it seemed that our government were taking this seriously. I also had personal reasons for wanting to take part in that I also struggle with my mental health (something I am very open about) and I have had to learn that it is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life. I see it as a strength and my perspective has changed because of it. I would say that I am a more compassionate person with empathy, because of my experiences and as hard as it was to deal with, I would never change it.

Why now? What is going on?  I am sometimes asked why there seems to be such a big issue with mental health now compared to the past. Admittedly when I was at school back in the 1980s–1990s, there was rarely talk of mental health. If it was ever mentioned it was because someone was a ‘nutter’, a ‘psycho’ or ‘mad’. Looking back at my life as a teenager I do now recognise that I did have signs of poor mental health then and should have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Maybe if that had happened, and I had had treatment at the time, I wouldn’t have become one of the 25% of adults in the UK with a diagnosable mental health condition.

Mental health: a big issue for young people

1 in 6 children aged 5-16 were identified as having a mental health problem in 2021, a huge increase from 1 in 9 in 2017. That’s five children in every classroom.

83% of young people with mental health needs agreed that the pandemic had made their mental health worse.

Suicide was the leading cause of death for males and females aged between 5 and 34 in 2019.

The number of A & E attendances for under 18s with a psychiatric condition has more than tripled between 2010 and 2019.

Source: NHS Digital/Young Minds

I would argue that it is a mistake to argue that mental health issues simply didn’t exist in the past. They did but they just weren’t discussed because it was such a big stigma to do so. Yes, we are currently in a mental health crisis but the positive of it is that the shame of it is being challenged. People can and do talk about how they feel now with honesty and candour. The missive ‘it’s OK, not to be OK’ is incredibly powerful and it is vital that this continues to be adopted.

Damaging

messages such as ‘boys don’t cry’ and about keeping a ‘stiff upper lip’ do not apply as much now and that can only be a good thing as we look forward to the future while looking after the young people in our care.

Facts about mental health in the UK and at KJS

l Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health issues in the UK

l Younger people are more likely to suffer from anxiety

l Women report higher anxiety levels than men

l At KJS, the top three issues that pupils are referred for support are anxiety, anger and self-harm.

The onus is increasingly on schools

The Department for Education approved course taught me to audit provision in school, how to look for support elsewhere and how to make the most of services that

we can access.While this was useful to me, it also made me worry that the onus is now on schools to provide mental health support and care to our young people. This is a huge concern as staff are not trained mental health specialists.We are very lucky as a school that our Principal Ian Rimmer recognised the importance of employing a school counsellor and so we have one member of staff with the proper qualifications. The rest of us though, do not have this, and I am beginning to suspect that schools are being expected to plug the gap.

CAMHS

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is a nationwide NHS-run service with a number of staff including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, psychological therapists and mental health link workers. Unfortunately, the waiting list for young people to be seen is around 21 weeks and schools are expected to try and support

them while they have a mental health crisis. There are also additional concerns that CAMHS have been forced to raise the threshold of how ill the young person is before they can be added to waiting lists. This means that King James’s School staff (as well as school staff all around the country) are having to deal with more serious issues such as self-harm, depression and suicidal thoughts. I am not laying blame on organisations like CAMHS – they are also on their knees, and I know that Thriving Kirklees (The Kirklees arm of CAMHS) (see panel) are desperately trying to do their best.

In the 20+ years that I have been teaching, I have never known anything like it. When I first started teaching the focus was only on students that were taught, planning and delivering lessons and getting decent results. Now, school staff are not just

What we are trying to do about it

We have started working closely with the Kirklees Mental Health Support Team (MHST) as a MHST School. This began in March 2022.

The MHST is a partnership between Kirklees Council, Northorpe Hall and the NHS who provide a team of educational psychologists, parent and community workers and clinical staff who work with students in crisis on a one to one basis.

So far, we have been supported with:

l Counselling services for young people

l Staff training including Mental Health First Aider training for 6 members of staff and ELSA training. ELSAs are Emotional Literacy Support Assistants who have received training from Educational Psychologists to support the emotional development of children and young people in schools.

Thriving Kirklees is the local arm of the NHS-run Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). It’s a partnership of local health and wellbeing providers, working together to support children, young people and their families to thrive and be healthy.

CAMHS offers assessment and interventions for children and young people (including those with learning disabilities) who have persistent and significant difficulties with mental health issues.

l Upcoming training includes selfharm training and ACEs and Resilience training (looking at Adverse Childhood Experiences and what we can do to help young people be more resilient).

teachers, pastoral leaders or associate staff anymore. We are now social workers, counsellors, therapists and parents to many of our young people. It is an impossible situation, and I don’t have an answer to it.

The only thing that we can do is keep doing what we are doing and hope for the best.

Annual Dinner 2023

Saturday, 25th November

Get your tickets NOW!

WE’RE looking forward to another Old Almondburians’ Society Dinner on Saturday, 25th November .

The ticket price this year is £35.00 and an application form for tickets is included with this issue of the magazine. Alternatively, you can purchase tickets online at www.oas.org.uk/buydinner.php. Please be aware that when the Annual Dinner is held at the School places are limited, so early applications are recommended.

There’s still plenty of time to organise a reunion of your year at

Founders’ Day

Following the success of last year’s Friday afternoon Founders’ Day Service, this year’s Service be held on the afternoon of Friday, 24th November at All Hallows’ Church, Almondbury. The procession up St Helen’s Gate will leave the School at 2.00 pm.

l Watch www.oas.org.uk for further details as they become available.

the Dinner and such occasions are always enjoyable. So those with a special anniversary this year – members of the classes of 1948, 1953, 1963, 1973, 1983, 1993, 1998, 2003 or 2013 for example – will be particularly welcome!

BACK AT THE SCHOOL

Looking after an elderly building

ALISON HARDWICK (KJS staff )

We all remember the ancient parts of our School with fondness – but do we realise how much they cost to maintain? KJS Business Manager Alison Hardwick has the task of balancing the books.

EACH year, as an academy, we can submit two bids for Condition Improvement Funding (CIF) to the Department of Education. The success or failure of these bids is determined through a points-based system; the points are assigned according to several priority factors including the amount of capital a school is prepared to contribute itself. A consultancy firm is used to help with the bid writing, tender process and project management of the works.

To increase our chance of success, the KJS governors agreed to contribute the maximum amount of 31% towards the

cost, to obtain 6 points towards the scoring system. As a result, for 2022/23, we were somewhat surprised – but delighted – to learn that both of our bids had been successful.

However, this did cause us some consternation as the capital works would cause some disruption to the smooth running of the School! This meant that they would require careful management. They would also require significant capital funding from the School.

The two bids were:

1. Fabric Repair/Window replacement works

Total cost £160,000 with grant funding of £104,000; cost to School £56,000 .

I’ve been the Business Manager at King James’s School since January 2004. Prior to taking up the role I spent eight years at Lindley Junior School as Senior Administrator.

My role involves managing the School budget. Project management also falls under my remit which includes helping to write and submit the annual bids to the Department of Education for capital expenditure. I’m also responsible for health and safety, reporting to the governors’ Audit & Risk Committee.

Since joining King James’s, I have helped to manage the conversion to academy status in 2012; Health & Safety during the pandemic; working across a split site and the construction of the new 10-classroom block.

I have two grown up sons, three lovely grandchildren and one cat. My hobbies include hiking, dancing and travel.

(Above) A ’botched’ window repair from the 1970s (left) and its new replacement (right) (Below) The historic window to the ILC/Library was in danger of complete collapse before its painstaking restoration

2 . Heating Replacement works

Total cost £275,000 with grant funding of £190,000; cost to School £85,000.

The School’s contribution, amounting to £141,000 in total, meant that our reserves would reduce significantly. However, it was deemed to be a good investment as the original old house section of the School would be preserved for many years to come. In addition, with new energy efficient heating our energy bills should see a reduction in future running costs.

The heating works commenced in June 2022 and were completed in December. All pipework and radiators in the old house were replaced, all the way down to the science labs. Pipework was run at high level along the main corridor which meant that asbestos underneath could be totally encapsulated. Two problems solved in one!

Due to the specialist nature of the windows, which had to be custom made, this project was delayed until January 2023 and completed at Easter. Windows were replaced in the staffroom, room 20, ladies staff toilet, room 7, Taylor Dyson office and the ILC and all restored to the original design, to meet with the listed building status. The large window in the ILC was fully replaced too, carefully retaining the stained-glass panel for posterity.

We have submitted further bids for 2023/24, one for further window replacements and the second for a replacement fire alarm system for the whole school. We wait with bated breath for the results which are due in early May.

Premises ManagerTONY HYLAND worked closely with Alison on the successful bid. He adds: Many of the windows in the older part of the School were in very poor shape, and some bodged repairs had been carried out in the 1970s when the future of the School was uncertain. The large window in the ILC (Library) was actually bowing and in serious danger of collapse.

Urgent work on the heating system was required because much of the pipework was concealed under the ground and encapsulated in asbestos. The work to replace it with a new high level system all had to be undertaken outside school hours, which was a huge challenge.

The next major project will be the replacement of the School’s fire alarm system, which is far below current-day requirements. It will be another massive project which will require careful management to avoid disruption to School activities.

lTony Hyland was born in Dublin. He joined King James’s School from Almondbury High School and became Premises Manager following Keith Ramsden’s retirement last year. For two years he was a professional golfer and for 12 years he was an officer in the Irish Garda police force.

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S P OT T E D

b y A l m o n d b u r i a n s

CORONATION SPECIAL

Spotters: James Clayton, Dave Bush, Roger Dowling

Have you spotted anything in print or on social media that has amused you or given you food for thought? If it’s worth sharing, send it to us: spotters@oas.org.uk.

SPOTTER’S MUG

MULTIPLE CORONATION IN NORFOLK

TYPO ON MEDAL? (Most newspapers)

no - it was ‘a trick of the light’)

Learning on the job, the Reliance way

The Editor visits the Lepton-based Reliance Precision Ltd to see a well-run apprenticeship scheme in action.

IN the February issue of The Almondburian Abbi Terry wrote of the importance King James’s School rightly attaches to giving students guidance on future career opportunities. I was therefore particulary pleased to be offered a tour of Reliance Precision Ltd , the Lepton company with which the School has worked closely over many years.

Many Almondburians will be old enough to remember when the firm was called Reliance Gear Company and was located at the junction of St Helen’s Gate and Dark Lane. For cross-country runners it was a particularly welcome sight, as it marked the end of the School crosscountry run as one turned left at the end of Dark Lane for the final welcome downhill stretch back to the School. It always seemed strange to find a manufacturing company in such a country location, though it would not have seemed odd 150 years earlier when Almondbury played such a major role in the area’s woollens manufacturing industry. The site was the original location of St Helen’s Mill (also known at one time as Alexandra Mills ) and was once prominent in the manufacture of fancy woollens. By 1900 it had become a four-storey mill with 36 looms, but with the decline of the industry it suffered the same fate as others in the area and fell into

Reliance Gear Company moved into the former St Helen’s Mill premises in 1959.

decay. The premises were purchased by Reliance Gear Company Ltd in 1959.

The company had originally been set up in 1920 when it took over the gear cutting and engineering company Byrom, Jury and Co in Moldgreen. It acquired new premises in Union Street, Huddersfield; an early product was an innovative washing machine, patented in 1936.

In 1955 the company was purchased by Max Selka, whose parents ran a highly successful textiles business in Bradford. Mr Selka decided to break away from the textiles industry and it proved a shrewd move as the new company went from strength to strength in the years that followed.

In 1970, the firm set up a second company Reliance Precision Manufacturing (Ireland) Ltd, based in County Cork. By the 1980s the shortage of space at St Helen’s Gate saw the company purchase Rowley Mills where it set up a new laminar flow cleanroom for the manufacture and assembly of specialist equipment for

the mass spectrometry industry. Major extensions at Rowley Mills enabled the company to move all its operations on to the single site in 1995, and the company formally changed its name to Reliance Precision Ltd in 2005.

Today, Reliance Precision manufactures a vast range of high-precision products for the analytical instrument, medical and aerospace defence industries.

Max Selka acquired the company in 1955 and spearheaded its growth for over 60 years. He died in 2016 at the age of 92.

Training is the responsibility of Training School Manager Robert Farrell , who himself joined Reliance as an apprentice back in 1986. The company takes on four to six apprentices each year and seeks motivated applicants with a genuine interest in engineering and a real drive to learn more. Applicants are required to have five GCSEs at grade 5 or above (or equivalent) including Maths, English and Science, and be com-

Innovation: the Reliance washing machine of 1936

Rowley Mills, Fenay Bridge: major expansions enabled the company to consolidate all operations on a single site from 1995.

puter literate. Apprentices are on the company payroll from their first day.

It’s a four-year programme. In the first year, the apprentices undergo foundation training; in Year 2, they move around the various parts of the business, spending a month in each department. The final two years are then spent in their chosen specialist areas.

I met four current apprentices who joined Reliance from King James’ School: Archie Barraclough (KJS 2015-20), Maegan Green (KJS 2016-21), Leon Tomlinson (KJS 2016-21) and Lucie

Harding (KJS 2017-2022). It was evident from our chat they were all enjoying working for a company in which they clearly have great pride.

Newest recruit Lucie is enjoying moving around the various parts of the company whilst studying for her Level 2 Certificate in Mechanical Engineering.

Current KJS apprentices (left to right): LeonTomlinson, Lucie Harding, Maegan Green, Archie Barraclough

Leon, now in his second year, is specialising in mechanical assembly. Maegan applied to become an apprentice in the middle of the Covid-19 lockdown and had the unusual experience of undergoing most of the process online. Part of the 2021 intake, she is currently on her business wide rotation, experiencing a month in each department, including Design Engineering, Quality, Inspection, Milling, Turning and the Apprentice Training Facility (looking after the new apprentices).

Oldest of the four apprentices is Archie, currently in the third year of his apprenticeship. Winner of last year’s Year 2 ‘Apprentice of the Year’ award, Archie

has chosen milling as his specialism and works as a member of the production team on the computercontrolled milling machines. He attends Kirklees College one day a week, where he is studying for his Level 3 Diploma in Advanced Manufacturing Engineering.

Rob Farrell has no doubts that a well-run apprenticeship scheme is a productive and effective way to grow talent and develop a motivated, skilled and qualified workforce, and my visit to Reliance Precision led me to the same conclusion. Whilst it is understandable that many school leavers will hope to go on to university, it should not be forgotten that there are many with practical skills and interests who would derive greater benefit from the sort of training that only a good apprenticeship scheme can provide.

What’s more, apprentices are earning money from Day One rather than living off a student loan to be paid off at some indeterminate point in the future. Parents might therefore see advantages from their viewpoint of a potentially reduced dependency on ’the bank of mum and dad’… n

‘Apprentice of the Year’ in 2022: Archie Barraclough

And then there were eight! REUNIONS

CHRIS FRY (1957-1964)

Our school group has been meeting informally snce 1995.We’ve lost a few members over the years - but we still have a good group of stalwarts.

IT started with a chance encounter in New Street in the mid-seventies. I was living in Huddersfield at the time and bumped into former classmate, Tony Hirst. We reminisced about our schooldays and our former classmates and decided to join the Old Almondburians’ Society and go to the annual dinner. There we met up with several others of our school year (1957).

We continued to attend the dinner for a few years until we realised that not only

was the dinner becoming more expensive but that the format of the evening with speeches from on high, etc was not what we wanted: we just wanted time to talk to each other over a meal and a drink or two. We decided therefore to discontinue going to the dinners but to continue to meet as a group once a year in town. The School kindly helped us to track down others in our year and our first grand gathering took place at The Head of Steam at Huddersfield railway station in, I estimate,

Christopher Fry (right) left school in 1964 to follow a languages degree course at what is now Portsmouth University, a PGCE course at Nottingham University and an MEd at Manchester. He focused on teaching English as a Foreign Language and worked in Turkey, Uganda and Singapore before returning to the UK to teach ethnic minority children and to set up and run TEFL teacher-training courses in Coventry where he now lives. Chris is twice divorced and has four children. He is pictured here with Richard Harrison and Ian Greenhalgh.

November 1995 with about 15-20 former schoolfriends.

We repeated this for several years until someone suggested we should double the number of get-togethers in Huddersfield to twice a year, once in April and the second in October.

The next development was, in addition to these two gatherings in Huddersfield, to have two ‘in-betweeners’ but that these take place somewhere betweenYorkshire and the Midlands in view of the number of people who now lived south of Yorkshire. Therefore, in addition to Huddersfield, we have met in Sheffield, Derby, Burton-on-Trent, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham.Three of us even met up in Budapest one autumn!

Despite the passing of time, several interests have kept us together. Firstly, a good sense of humour, recollections of our former teachers and schoolmates plus a good thirst! Perhaps it’s because of our age, we were part of the seventies’ Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) generation so our venues unwaveringly include real ale pubs.

Our Huddersfield trail has usually included The Head of Steam, The Kings Arms, The Grove, The Plumbers Arms, The County and The Rat and Ratchet (not necessarily all in one trip!)

Our numbers have inevitably shrunk over the years, some because of a reduction of interest in meeting up but also we are all getting old (c. 77 now). Regrettably several have passed away or have a debilitating health problem. The good news is that we still have seven or eight stalwarts. n

David Coupland,David Eastward

David Tomlinson, Richard Harrison, Richard (‘Jasper’) Hardcastle

We also mourn Tom Rockett

whom we frequently bumped into in one Huddersfield pub or other and Tony Booth. Get well soon: Tony Hirst

Our most recent meeting at The Canalside, Nottingham in February 2023: (l to r) Ian Greenhalgh, Roger Hey, Fred Barber (Royds Hall guest!), John Oswin Smith, Mike Harburn (standing) John Collier, Chris Fry. Apologies for absence: Stewart Watmuff

Back to the drawing board

Roger Sykes (1946-1953) revisits some of his favourite drawings

Idrew this in 1950 when I was in 4 alpha, so it was one of my fairly early efforts and it shows in the style of the drawing. It may be that I drew it mainly to record its existence - it was clearly a very fragile window and I was probably concerned that it might not survive a game of football played in its vicinity! Actually, the School may have had similar concerns, as I vaguely remember it being covered by chickenwire mesh.

Of course, the mullioned stonework was also quite fragile and it is pleasing to read (see page 13) that much time and money is currently being spent on restoring the ancient stonework around the older parts of the School.

l We cannot confirm that the window was protected by ‘chicken-wire’ in Roger Sykes’s day, but today a perspex cover extends over the whole window area. The Schoolroom (now known as the ODH) was built in 1848 and the stained-glass window (1859) was put in at his own expense by Alfred Easther, headmaster from 1848 to 1876. (Ed)

Old Schoolroom (ODH) window

Jenny Sanderson

Six of the best!

ROGER DOWLING (Editor)

Caning in schools was an accepted part of school life until it became illegal in the 1980s.This special Almondburian report looks into the practice and asks if it was ever the best way of imposing discipline in the classroom.

, so the occasional caning was not regarded as a matter of -

‘ul

Itil the practice was finally banned in all UK state schools in 1987. I therefore thought it might be of interest to investigate how often such canings took place and for what reasons. Fortunately, it has always been a requirement for any such canings to be properly recorded in a book retained for this purpose, and we are fortunate that three ‘punishment books’ for the peri od 1951-1984 survive in the school archives. (There is also a ‘Report Book’ that was briefly in use in 1978/79 list ing unspecified non-caning punish ments).

like our correspondents, find it shock ing that any canings took place at all. Attitudes towards punishment of children have changed enormously over the past 75 years. In the home, smacking with the open hand was common to a degree that would shock many parents today and ’spare the rod and spoil the child’ was the unspoken principle in many homes. Schools were deemed as acting

ster unwise enough to admit to his parents that he had been caned was more likely to be told “it jolly well serves you right!” than

ened on how best to maintain discipline in the home, and rightly expect the same when

Corporal punishment at KJGS was required to follow general guidelines drawn up by the

ried out from 1952 were carried out by the Headmaster (Harry Taylor) until he retired in 1973 and by his successors from 1973 to 1984. (Occasionally, as reported by our correspondents, corporal punishments falling short of actual caning and involving the use of a slipper or plimsoll may also have taken place; however, these were not recorded in the Punishment Books). In 1974 (the year when girls first entered King James’s when the School briefly became a Sixth Form Col-

ishment (see opposite page). By this time, it

would appear that Kirklees was beginning to go cold on the whole idea of caning (‘…many Kirklees schools are now conducted without any recourse to corporal punishment’) and it was stressed that it should be reserved for ’very grave’ offences. Strangely, there is no guidance at all to what should be regarded

as a ‘grave’ offence – this was left entirely to the discretion of the head teacher. We shall see later if these rules were followed at King James’s.

The canes

One of the canes used at King James’s (see

photograph) survives in the archives. They were supplied by Huddersfield/ Kirklees Education Department who presumably retained a suitably trained buyer for this purpose. The manufacture of canes was once big business and one supplier of ‘Handcrafted Corporal Punishment Equipment’ described his products with enthusiasm. The crook-handled rattan cane (as used at King James’s is 32" long and approximately 3/16" diameter and was described as ’the classic swishy cane dreaded by all schoolboys’. Fortunately the School never acquired a ’Senior School Cane with easy-grip straight handle, 33" long and 1/4" diameter’. According to the makers: ’even the ’hardcases’ fear this cane!’

Canings were usually administered to the seats of the pants, although it seems that in some cases offenders were offered the alternative of a caning to the

The Punishment Books

Having provided such clear guidelines, requiring head teachers to record carefully any instances of corporal punishment, one might have expected the Education Department also to provide an official book for this purpose. But surprisingly this does not seem to be the case and King James’s used standard-issue exercise books with hand-drawn columns providing space for date, name of offender, form, number of strokes of the cane, brief description of offence, and the master’s initials.

The canings

I began by totting up the total number of

pupils caned from 1952, the first year of Harry Taylor’s headmastership and 1984, the year when caning ceased (see Chart 1). I was immediately puzzled by the vast differences from year to year, ranging from a massive 72 canings in 1963 to just 7 in 1970 and 1971.

In a school of around 350 pupils, 72 canings seems an extraordinarily high number, though of course there were a number of repeat offenders: one troublemaker made no fewer than five guest appearances before at last mending his ways. But even so, there are some 50 individual names which still seems very high. So who were the troublemakers? I examined the canings class by class and the findings are shown in Chart 2. Step forward the rebellious members of 4A and 4 Alpha! I checked with a current OAS member of the 1960 intake in the hope that he might remember what went wrong, but he shared my puzzlement. Perhaps the School

simply wanted to ’clamp down’ in that year, for reasons unknown? Suggestions from readers will be very welcome.

But in fairness 1963 was clearly an extraordinary year; the average over the whole period 1972-1984 works out at 37 canings each year, which is around one caning per school week.

The offences

As might be expected, the most common transgressions can be categorised as general misbehaviour – causing a disturbance, making excessive noise, ‘tomfoolery’ (a favourite Harry Taylor word), throwing paper pellets and so on. These offences usually earned two strokes of the cane.

More serious were offences like bullying, ‘cutting detention’, and general cheating in tests and disobedience: these could result in three canings.

Four strokes of the cane were only earned through more major offences. One day, a group of eight fourthformers received an arm-aching total of 32 strokes for ‘gambling on horses and cards; another group of eight fifth-formers received similar retribution of unspecified ‘mischief night hooliganism’. Under-age smoking was clearly an ongoing issue, regularly attracting four strokes of the cane.

‘Six of the best’ was, as might be expected, reserved for what were regarded

as the gravest offences. There are only three instances in the whole period of the punishment books and they provide a useful pointer towards the big disciplinary issues of the day. One, in 1954, was for a fifth-former ‘smoking on bus after school’: no doubt the concern was as much about bringing the School into disrepute as the under-age smoking itself. Another pupil received six strokes in 1958 for alarmingly ‘producing a knife in fight’, and in 1961 a pupil (clearly a bad ’un who had a few months earlier received four strokes for ‘theft’) received a further six for truancy.

How serious?

Earlier in this report I referred to the Kirklees Council policy document of 1974 which specified that corporal punishment should only be used for ‘very grave’ offences. As these are not defined, it was left to each school to make its own judgements.

Before that date, back in the Grammar School days, my impression is that caning was used somewhat more readily than this rule would suggest. Whilst the use of caning for offences mentioned earlier like drawing a knife or committing theft was clearly ‘grave’ by any measure, the Punishment Books list canings which, judged today, look somewhat harsh. Did ‘trying out new master’ really warrant three st rokes, when the

‘Six of the best’ was reserved for the really serious offences.There are only three instances in the punishment books.

master should have really been able to look after himself? Likewise, four strokes for ‘drawing pin on seat’?

It is only fair to report that from 1975 onwards, strokes were reduced in number even though the number of canings remained much the same. Three strokes became the maximum per offender, and single strokes – rarely used in the Grammar Schools days – became common.

Punishment after caning ceased

Caning at state schools in England formally came to an end by Act of Parliament in 1987, though it had already ceased at King James’s by 1984. There is no evidence that school discipline suffered to any extent and life has continued since then using less extreme punitive measures.

All the more surprising, then, were headlines in the national press in 2017 claiming that King James’s School in Almondbury was ‘Britain’s strictest school’ where pupils were – shock, horror! – not even allowed to ‘roll their eyes’ or ‘raise their eyebrows’.

In 2014 the Department for Education had issued new guidelines to headteachers and school staff on ‘Behaviour and discipline in schools’ and were required to draw up a ‘Behaviour Policy’ to promote good behaviour, self-discipline and respect; to prevent bullying; to ensure that pupils complete assigned work; and to regulate the conduct of pupils.

In due course it became apparent to the School that staff were experiencing increasing challenges from some students – sometimes supported by their parents – when reprimanded for minor

misdemeanours.

The School therefore introduced 40 simple rules (not one of which was particularly surprising or extraordinary), to clarify to pupils the standard of behaviour expected of them.

But it was the silly season for the press and a copy leaked to the Huddersfield Examiner was rapidly picked up by the national press, giving the School an undeserved reputation for excessive strictness still recorded for posterity in Wikipedia. The rules still remain in force, and discipline is all the better for them.

King James’s School today

To bring the story up to date, I asked Principal Ian Rimmer what other steps they take to maintain discipline around the School.

“Behaviour always will be an issue, irrespective of the school, because at the end of the day you are working with children, not robots” said Ian. “Children have different personalities, different backgrounds, different life experiences and different values which all lead to different behaviours.

“At King James’s today we replace the rod with a lot of talking, followed if needed by detentions at lunch and after school. We also have an ’Isolation Room’ where children study separately from their peers, for a part or whole day, and we also work collaboratively with colleagues in other schools to use their Isolation spaces too.

“Finally, we have suspension from school and ultimately Permanent Exclusions. We also rely a lot on support from parents.”

Conclusions

The evidence of the Punishment Books is clear: King James’s was a traditional ‘caning’ school until the practice ceased in 1984. At around an average of one caning per week, the frequency does not seem at all excessive for the times, though the reasons for the occasional ’bad year’ like 1963 remain unclear.

But those readers who deplore the practice will, I think, note with approval the more enlightened pastoral approach today towards teaching in general and discipline in the classroom in particular.The School is surely all the better for it.

On a lighter note, I conclude this report by recording an entry that raised a smile. Four members of 3 Alpha each received one stroke of the cane for ‘stealing plums from School garden’.Then, immediately below, is the name of a fifth classmate who received the same punishment with the comment: ‘By request – thought it unfair that his name had been omitted’.

Harry would have been delighted at this demonstration that there is indeed honour amongst thieves. n

Difficulty: gentle

Each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 to 9

QUIZ NIGHT 2023

Hat trick for ‘The 60s’ team?

Reporter/participant: RICHARD TEALE

For the third year in succession,‘The 60s’ team triumphed over their Quiz Night rivals. But was this only because of an ‘audacious’ player transfer?

IT was strangely quiet when we arrived at the Woolpack on the evening of 24th May, with not many pub regulars but a good scattering of Almondburians. The fears were that the holiday season and imminent half-term had accounted for many of our regulars but four teams settled down to take up the challenge in the upstairs room.

‘The 60s’ team was missing its stalwart

member, David Sinclair, and their hopes of retaining the trophy looked in doubt. However, Doug Norris spotted Les Orme in our proposed team and made an audacious transfer request which Les fell for. This explains our team’s name of ‘Ormeless not Gormless’

Keith Crawshaw presided as quizmaster and once again had spent much time and effort in devising the ten-round for-

Proud winners: (l to r) Les Orme, Doug Norris and Jez Whitehead receive the winners’ trophy from OAS chairman Walter Raleigh

mat. After he explained the rules and scoring system (including buzzer rounds without buzzers) we got under way.

The first round was ‘6 are Not’. Eliminating 6 from lists of 16 to identify the top ten garden birds, the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales and ingredients in the Coronation quiche recipe. No-one could claim to be an expert in all these diverse subjects.

Round 2 was ‘Faces’ – putting names to the faces of 16 celebrities in the news in the last year. Obvious ones were Ken Bruce and Neil Warnock, less so were Burt Bacharach and Ben Wallace.

Then came the first ‘Buzzer’ round on general knowledge. Guessing answers

was not advisable as wrong answers resulted in minus points.

Round 4 was the ‘Memory Test’ –studying a composite map of Huddersfield and its landmarks (expertly sketched by our quizmaster) for 90 seconds and then remembering the ones named in black.

The last round before half-time was ‘Where are We’ – matching a list of towns to their locations on a map.Why were they on the Lancashire side of the Pennines though?

Kicking off the second half was an old favourite ‘Insects’ – matching the names of twelve of our six or eight legged friends to their photos. Would you know a red-tailed bumble bee?

Round 7 was ‘Logogistical’ – name the organisations from their symbols. Some were obvious (RAF); some were obscure (Wisden – cricket).

And so on to another ‘Buzzer’ round on general knowledge. When was the breathalyser law introduced?; choose from a list of four 1960s dates (it was 1967).

Round 9 was identifying ‘TV Box Sets’ from a series of 12 screen shots. Doc Martin was easy, Reacher less so. Was there a chance of teams getting into a quiz winning lead in the home straight?

The final round was ‘Events of 2022’ – a mixed bag of questions. Which Van Gogh masterpiece had tomato soup thrown over it in the National Gallery? (Sunflowers).

The final scores showed the gap between all teams to be only 21 points but ‘The 60s’ team (albeit not quite the same team this year!) emerged as winners yet again. Credit also to the ‘Semi Scots’ team for recovering from last place after six rounds to second at completion. After last year’s win I compared ‘The 60s’ continued success to Manchester City and this year they have both repeated their success!

The trophy was presented by Walter Raleigh who also thanked Keith for maintaining a high standard of questions in a fun and entertaining quiz. We had slightly fewer participants this year – next year we must perhaps choose a date when more competing teams can attend and rise to the challenge. n

Heads down: (l to r) Les Orme, Doug Norris, Jez Whitehead, Sally Starbuck, Dave Bradford, Walter Raleigh, Richard Teale, Michael Storry, Dennis Taylor, Jacqueline Haigh, Kay Belk, Mike Belk (standing)

Photos: Andrew Haigh

CROSSWORD by

Hérisson

Entries to the Editor (address/email: back cover) by 30th September 2023. Prize: 12 months’ free OAS membership

l The winner of Crossword by Hérisson (March 2023) was David Sinclair

ACROSS

8. Dead cute, dizzy but not dumb. (8)

9. Tribute for leg you broke. (6)

11. Watery beer (not tea) produced here, maybe. (7)

12. Playwright holds a rope on boat. (7)

13. Allusion evens out too. (4)

14. Thus penned by Callas in distress – her sort of music? (9)

17. Amend/emend a shame. (6)

19. Bella, Nick and Sally evacuated 12. (6)

22. Grain once ground into foolishness. (9)

23. 11 harbours vessel. (4)

27. Hangs around ruined Estoril. (7)

28. Tea with a smile causes annoyance. (7)

29. Significance of abstainer in paperback. (6)

30. She inspired ring games round moon. (8)

DOWN

1. 12 band with old chancellor. (9)

2. 12 problem with headless chickens (6)

3. Island and French 12. (5)

4. Crecy clearly shows the way to be green. (7)

5. Shoddy Putin claim – take time out about town. (9)

6. Luke, perhaps, on letter. (8)

7. Hérisson’s posh car had initially appeared at the Nativity. (5)

10. Dad’s into S & M – shudder! (5)

15. Prevent meteor breaking up pressure monitor. (9)

16. Plant monster has unending rage within. (9)

18. Friend with determination in 12. (8)

20. Drop or crumble losing pass. (5)

21. Spies in conciliation service are plants. (7)

24. Conflict, then short break for 12. (6)

25. Milk shake with toffee topping for 12. (5)

26. Half of Oklahomans go crazy for 12. (5)

Farnley Lines

USUALLY I face the prospect of finding something of interest to write about with trepidation. My muse is often reluctant to be summoned and when eventually she shows herself she remains somewhat shy.

Not today. Life since last I wrote has been dominated by my treatment for aggressive prostate cancer. However, even here I am hesitant for some could view it as self indulgent and others will have had similar or more serious experiences which have not been broadcast. I shall therefore, attempt to write about my own by discussing or describing wider issues.

The basic details are that in addition to my three monthly hormone injections I attended the Velindre Cancer Hospital in Cardiff for 20 sessions of radiotherapy which were spread over five weeks; bank holidays, weekends and a machine breakdown explain the extended period. The actual treatment lasted for only around six minutes on average but a 52 mile round trip, the compulsory water intake, delays and frequent awful driving conditions on the M4 meant around three hours each time.

Not that I ever had any cause to complain. The staff were outstanding in every respect. There are seven machines operating usually from 7 am to 7 pm with 15 minutes allowed for each

DAVE BUSH

patient; simple to calculate the thoughput. And then there is the chemo section in another part of the building!

I was grateful that son Alan and daughter Catherine were able to take me a few times and particularly delighted that granddaughter Anna accompanied me on my final visit. This meant she was able to video my ringing of the sessions-completed bell located near the exit. I wonder if any other hospital has anything similar. When the bell is rung those in the reception area - and they can number around fifty – burst into applause. I returned to thank them and was greeted with supportive calls. All very moving.

Let me elaborate on the wider issues referred to earlier. I was told the radiotherapy machines cost between one and two million pounds each. Even more sophisticated ones are becoming available inevitably at even greater cost. Advances in so many other areas of medicine gather pace. As the population ages, we all want bodies of 20-year-olds. OK I’ll settle for 50.

The point I wish to make is that no matter how much money is pumped into the much maligned NHS it will never be enough to satisfy Joe or Josephine Bloggs’ demands. We have to accept certain limitations and be grateful; I certainly am. As for the re -

sults of my treatment … again I must be a patient patient.

Badminton

Inevitably there have been side effects. With a glass of Rioja and a rich imagination I can summon up a formidable list. The principle one is fatigue. In the garden or at the allotment it’s usually ten minutes’ work and five minutes’ rest. However, I have missed only one badminton session. I should add that I play a very gentle game or two having chosen a lively partner. My preferred one has been Lee. A very talented sportsman he had an operation for a deep seated brain tumour before Christmas. He returned to play quite regularly until recently. He is now undergoing a prolonged period of both chemo and radiotherapy and we shall

not be seeing him for some time. He is 31. Health matters into perspective and all that.

I have been chairman of Porthcawl Badminton Club for nearly 20 years, mainly because nobody else will take on the role. Over the last three months we have been confronted with a real problem. Too many players! One week 26 turned up. Something had to be done. A pegboard has appeared, games are played to fifteen rather than twenty-one and there is a waiting list to join. We now have a club shirt

Ringing the bell: the ‘sessionscompleted’ bell at the Velindre Cancer Hospital in Cardiff

which features our logo. The latter I believe is brilliant. It was produced by Viv Thomas’ son, a graphic designer. I mention Viv, as I have done previously, to let readers know that I still pick him up every week at the age of ninety two ….and a half.

Teaching today

Even though at times I try to avoid matters educational it is very difficult to do so. Our badminton club captain Alex Saunders works in a very, let us say euphemistically, ‘demanding’ school in Barry. He is a delightful and dedicated young man but has been off school for some time, the result of a nervous breakdown. His wife teaches in the same school. Threats of physical attacks on her have been made to him by one pupil in particular. The support he has received from senior management has been almost non-existent The school is now in special measures and a new head brought in. He is gradually returning to the classroom. I mention this as I am aware how difficult it has become

Badminton Club captain Alex Saunders (right), with fellow players Peter Greenwood and Will Mitchell. Alex taught at a school currently in ‘special measures’ in Barry but is only gradually returning to the classroom after suffering a nervous breakdown: a reminder of the pressures many teachers can face today.

to recruit staff at all levels especially in Maths and Science. I remember King James’s Principal, Ian Rimmer, relating how few candidates there are for headships these days. Hardly surprising when one reflects on the ever increasing pressures. Gender assignment and now AI to contend with. Will it never end? It’s a far cry from having to decide in my time if black footwear was shoes or trainers.

Big Tree/Little Tree

Re-reading my contribution to our very special magazine it has all been somewhat negative. Let’s finish as always on a lighter and more positive

note. Firstly Little Tree. A simple but delightful ceremony to commemorate its planting and I was very proud to see my name on the list of donors. The controversy over the demise of its predecessor, Big Tree, still rankles. I realise that it would have had to go in order for the new laboratory to be built. Yet when I read once more in ‘No Beating About The Bush’ how underhand were the machinations to ensure it was felled soon after my retirement, I still boil.

Dream on: a statue in St George’s Square in honour of Neil Warnock? After their ‘great escape’ the Terriers ended the season 7th from the bottom of the Championship. [Correction: 18th from the top. Ed]

Arise, Lord Warnock!

That was only partially ‘a lighter note’. To football with my beloved Lincoln City finishing in the second highest position in forty years. A minor achievement I hear all you Huddersfield Town fanatics shouting, compared with The Terriers’ Great Escape. I have never been a Town fan but having so many friends who are, inevitably I followed their fortunes very closely. I hear there is a move afoot to replace the statue in St Georges’ Square of Sir Harold Wilson with one of temporary manager, Neil Warnock . He succeeded; while Sir Harold failed – in his desire to join Almondbury Grammar School.

Stop press

I have just received the latest results from a blood test. They show that my Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) level has dropped from 37.8 to less than 0.1 – in other words ‘normal’. Naturally I am elated. I still suffer side effects, but this is not unusual. The hormone injections will continue indefinitely but the prognosis is excellent. I’m so grateful for all the kindnesses shown by fellow Old Almondburians. n

Heritage Day 2023

THE School will again be open to the public on Saturday, 16th September , as our contribution to this year’s national Heritage Weekend event.

This year’s theme is Creativity Unwrapped , and it has the objective of celebrating the stories and work of the experts and enthusiastic amateurs who add that something extra to all aspects of our daily lives. We are hoping that the School Orchestra will be taking part, to celebrate 25 years of Kirklees Music School. The School will be open from 10.00 am - 2.00 pm, and senior

students from Year 11 will again be acting as guides.

We’ll announce further details, when available, on a new ‘Heritage Day’ link on the OAS website www.oas.org.uk/heritage_day.php.

The Almondburian and Issuu

THE Old Almondburians’ Society has now become a subscriber to the world’s largest digital content publishing and marketing platform Issuu .

This has made it possible for us to make all issues of The Almondburian in its present form (since 2009) available in flippage style fully

Every copy is fully searchable.

embedded on our website on a common platform.

THIS SPORTING LIFE:FOOTBALL OR SOCCER?

A Yorkshireman in America

CHARLIE STARKEY (1968 - 1975)

Things often look different when viewed from afar.We invite our man in the US to give us his personal perspective on some of the topics and issues of the day.

IN the interests of full disclosure, I am probably the least qualified person to write a piece about sports. Not American, not British, nor any blasted country’s. I’ve made my share of sports graphics for TV shows and documentaries, even designing a cartoon character named ’Kid Kegler’ for a teen bowling show, but my sporting CV is otherwise woefully lacking. (Does watching Ted Lasso qualify?)’

‘In my day’ we boys were taught that the purpose of sports was to promote healthy competitiveness, teamwork, discipline, and sportsmanship. On the contrary, what played out in the gym and on the playing field frequently resembled scenes from Lord of the Flies. Physical Education lessons provided a socially acceptable outlet for unfocused adolescent hormone-fuelled energy, including an opportunity to sort out various unresolved classroom rivalries. As for faculty members, the canny scheduling of postlunch double games periods – especially those all-weather cross country runs to Castle Hill and back – ensured our Form Masters a long relaxing coffee break in the carcinogenic atmosphere of the Teachers’ Lounge.

It’s been four thousand years since I

last slouched down St Helen’s Gate, canvas duffel bag slung nonchalantly over one shoulder, apprehensively anticipating yet another daunting PE period. Destined never to represent Siddon House in anything resembling a sporting endeavour, being a dreaded ‘last pick’ for team games was serially demoralising, souring me on participating in sports for the rest of my school days and beyond.Young lads could be cruel, and so could gym teachers. Not every student is built to hurl a shot put with ease or spring effortlessly over a rickety vaulting horse, but I was also a cack-handed catcher. At least I performed well in the hundred-yard dash, a proficiency which also came in handy whenever the good-natured secondary modern lads on my council estate stopped to admire my natty grammar school attire. The most egregious crime of all, however, was having zero footy skills.

Somewhere between the bottom of the Bunk and nearby Arkenley Lane lurked King James’s very own Grimpen Mire*, otherwise known as the ‘third team pitch’ where We Who Were Rubbish at Football were obligated to half-

(*The peaty Dartmoor deathtrap in Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.)

heartedly kick around a ball once a week. Frank Worthington would not have been impressed. Needless to say, none of us made the gargantuan leap to Leeds Road stardom. Years later this boggy morass was eventually reclaimed for track and field use and its notorious past finally put to rest.

I can’t claim to be a connoisseur of The Beautiful Game, but as a music fan I do understand the comparable joy and camaraderie of fans singing and shouting and sometimes crying together en masse. It’s a kind of emotional purge or catharsis for those who can’t imagine themselves lying on a therapist’s couch. I’d occasionally watch Match of the Day when my home team was featured, which wasn’t often, except during Town’s brief 1970-72 sojourn into the First Division. An unpleasant consequence of being thus elevated was the frequent visitation by hordes of overly enthusiastic supporters from rival top teams. Riding the rails in those infamous ’70s Football Specials, they’d descend upon our town centre to cause havoc and to generously donate their Doc Martens laces to the local constabulary. Not content with mere fan taunting and pitch invasions, notorious hooligan firms later grew ever more violent, planning skirmishes with impressive military precision

both at home and abroad – sometimes with deadly consequences. Unlike Europeans, American sports fans tend not to export their violent rivalries overseas. They leave that to their nation’s professional armed forces.

Which noun is considered correct, football or soccer? Britannica defines soccer as an abbreviation of the term ‘assoccer’ or Association Football, although that name seems to have fallen out of favour in Britain while in America the opposite is true. The game’s popularity across the Atlantic has slowly gained traction in high schools since the 1980s, especially after the successes of the US Women’s National Team, and is likely to ramp up again when America, Canada and Mexico jointly host the 2026 World Cup. (The United States hosted the Men’s World Cup in 1994 and the Women’s in 1999.)

American Football

‘Football’ in name only, America’s namesake national sport also features eleven players a side, but that’s where any similarity to the UK game begins and ends.

Former soccer player and manager Jimmy Hill made over 600 appearances presenting Match of the Day on BBC televison

Originally known as ‘gridiron’, it’s closer to rugby than soccer but with more teeth. The game is played with an oval (or ‘prolate spheroid’) laced-up leather projectile resembling rugger’s own ‘quanco’, everyday terms with which even casual fans are surely familiar.

Football’s steroidal gladiators are built like tanks with shoulder pads more prominent than those of '80s soap actresses, have biceps wider than my thighs, and wear crash helmets for protection. Instead of two halves, the game is split into four quarters that can last forever so players take a commercial break whenever someone drops the ball, which occurs about every three yards or seven seconds. This helpful diagram explains how a simple play stratagem works:

in these here United States is the Super Bowl, involving the winningest (sic) teams in American football. (Super Bowl: sounds like a brand of toilet cleaner, doesn't it?) Across the country fans throw daylong parties and wash down bucketloads of KFC™ chicken wings with six-packs of Coors™ and Bud Light™. The mostest winningest team will then be feted with a big parade back home, their mayor declaring a citywide hangover holiday.

Its popularity outside of the US has prompted the creation of an International Federation of American Football and several UK leagues, culminating in the British American Football Association’s own Britbowl championship. Heck, I only recently discovered my hometown university fielded a team named the Huddersfield Hawks, although I believe it’s currently on an extended hiatus.

Super Bowl

The biggest annual televised sports event

The 32 teams of the National Football League (NFL) are divided into the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The top teams of each conference battle through a gruelling series of playoffs to compete in the Super Bowl, a prestigious event which first took place in 1967. This February the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs faced off in Super Bowl LVII. American fans like getting their money's worth and, for many, higher-scoring games deliver more nail-biting excitement than European soccer’s mere handful of goals per game. In US football a touchdown can occur across the entire 160-foot width of the ten-yard end zone. By comparison, one might argue that it takes more skill for a soccer player to shoot/head/dribble a ball into a 24-foot wide goalmouth defended by one intrepid keeper.

I must admit I didn’t actually watch the big game but I did make a point of catching Puppy Bowl XIX. For the uninitiated, Puppy Bowl is a pet-foods-sponsored pre-game special featuring adoptable puppies cavorting around a miniature football field. In a contest of high drama Team Ruff came back from a huge deficit to tie the

game in the fourth quarter but Team Fluff clinched an 87-83 chew-toy vic tory in overtime. The rules, such as they are, are sort of arbitrary, but it’s great fun to watch and compared to their human counterparts significant ly fewer canine competitors end up in traction.

The homosapien Super Bowl Sun day halftime show has grown into a TV mega-event all itself, affording an opportunity for the featured performers to sell a shedload of iTunes downloads and concert tickets. 2004’s notable musical interlude spiked viewers’ attention when Justin Timberlake ‘accidentally’ initiated fellow singer Janet Jackson’s famous chesticular wardrobe malfunction, resulting in MTV being barred from producing further halftime concerts. This year, resplendent in a bright red boiler suit and baby bump, the main attraction was Rihanna. With fourteen Billboard number ones and nine Grammys to her name, she led the obligatory troupe of synchronised dancers through fifteen minutes of her greatest hits. Puppy Bowl (sponsored by Subaru™ motor vehicles and Bissell™ carpet cleaners) offered up an even cuter Kitty Halftime Show (courtesy of Arm and Hammer™ cat litter) highlighting the exemplary achievements of animal res-

More fun: ‘Puppy Bowl’ features rescue dogs cavorting around a miniature football field.

cue and adoption agencies. Eye-watering amounts of cash were shelled out by advertisers during the game, some blowing $7 million or more to air a single thirtysecond commercial. The big budgets attracted big movie stars: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Sylvester Stallone, Will Ferrell, Kevin Bacon, John Travolta, and Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul – reprising their Breaking Bad roles –were hired to hawk snack foods, beer, trainers, cars, and a myriad of other consumer products.

Sports that aren’t football

Saturday afternoon TV in Britain was once dominated by the BBC’s Grandstand and ITV’s World of Sport. I doubt if today’s TikTokkers could even begin to imagine the nail-biting excitement of watching a billiards tournament broadcast in monochrome over 405 interlaced scanlines, only marginally less enthralling than listening to it on the radio.

As an armchair non-sportsman raised in a car-free household, I uncharacteristically developed an abiding interest in watching motorsports, including mo-

tocross or ’scrambling’, the Isle of Man TT races, and Formula 1. (One Christmas I even asked for a Monaco Grand Prix board game: roll a six and roar past Jim Clark and Graham Hill at the Casino turn!) TV cameras even documented the tweedy weekend pastime known variously as ’trialling’ or ’hillclimbing’ where deerstalkered Sebastians and Tarquins would attempt to propel vintage English roadsters up steep slippery hillsides. This typically British pursuit required a passenger to vigorously bounce up and down to encourage the vehicle’s forward momentum in navigating the rutted, muddy slopes.

Towards the end of BBC’s Grandstand a clattering teletype machine would announce the afternoon’s football results in real time while presenter Frank Bough earned his keep by reading them aloud. At home in front of the goggle box, Biros at the ready, tens of thousands of hopefuls marked off their Littlewoods and Vernons football pools, only to have their jackpot dreams cruelly dashed. Concluding that neither logic nor the invocation of a deity could improve his chances, my dad occasionally handed me his pools forms with a resigned “Here, you have a go, son”. To my knowledge, neither of us won so much as a penny. Football pools were more or less consigned to history after the National Lottery was established in 1994

Although technically illegal, sports betting was endemic in the United States, particularly at horseracing and professional baseball events where the malign presence of organised crime syndicates grew to influence or ’fix’ the outcomes. Eventually it occurred to the government that “if we legalise gambling we can tax it like we do everything else.” This began, no surprise, in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1949, and currently 30 out of 50 states allow sports betting, a business generating over seven billion dollars in annual revenue.

Blighty businesses have historically backed home football teams, advertising their wares in match programmes and on billboards, and after a 1977 decision by the Football Association shirt sponsorship was approved for team kits, procuring additional revenue for cash-strapped teams by slapping logos all over their uniforms. (What’s next, tattoos?) How times have changed. Stadiums themselves are named after corporations, and international investment companies and billionaire tycoons hold stakes in half of all Premier League clubs. By comparison Huddersfield Town’s major shareholder was, until recently, a Yorkshire greetings card magnate (Dean Hoyle). This spring Town became the latest English club to be owned by an American consortium. It remains to be seen if this development will have a positive im-

The Saturday afternoon Grandstand sports programme was broadcast on BBC1 from 1957-2007.

pact on their troubled run this season. Society has a habit of granting celebrities almost heroic status. With the media giving their opinions disproportionate gravitas, should athletes be encouraged to express political opinions or just shut up and play? The issue of politics in sport is nothing new, going all the way back to the 1936 Olympics. During the 1968 Mexico Games two American medalists courted controversy by raising their fists on the awards podium in support of the burgeoning Black Power Movement. Unforgettably, the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict spawned a horrific terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics. America boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan, which led to the Eastern Bloc boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In this century (crikey, I’m old!) US footballers took the knee during the playing of their national anthem in response to the death of George Floyd, a black American suffocated by a white policeman who knelt on his neck during

an arrest. Basketball players wore shirts with the quote "I can’t breathe" after Eric Garner was asphyxiated by officers in New York. Many European sportspersons followed suit in solidarity.

A contentious debate sprang up in March when the BBC suspended presenter Gary Lineker for posting a controversial tweet on social media, comparing the Tory government’s policy towards seafaring asylum seekers to that of Nazi Germany. I doubt migrants arriving in small boats have succeeded in overwhelming the NHS or caused the British economy to falter –politicians appear to have done a fine job of that already. Still, as a Yorkshire expat living three thousand miles away in a nation built by immigrants, perhaps I should keep mum on the subject, especially as the state of Texas is experiencing a crisis of its own at the Mexican border.

Baseball

Which other sport is as big in the US? Second only to football in America is baseball. Baseball is essentially rounders played with a bigger bat. As with football, helmets are necessary because professional pitchers are capable of throwing the ball at over 100 mph. There are three basketball leagues: the professional National Basketball Association, the women’s WNBA, and the National Collegiate

American football players in ‘taking a knee’ during the national anthem to protest against racial injustice

Athletic Association. ‘March Madness’ is the season when college teams compete to win the NCAA Championship: televised games rake in millions, and the non-professional players can benefit from endorsement deals that use their name, image, and likeness (known as ‘NIL’).

At the end of a regular season the top Major League Baseball (MLB) and National League (NL) teams battle it out for the World Series trophy. Although only US teams take part they actually have the nerve to label it the ‘World Series’. Go figure, as they say.

Having produced charismatic players such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jackie Robinson, baseball has frequently inspired Hollywood biopics and even musicals (Damn Yankees and Take Me Out to the Ball Game). Big stars took the lead in The Pride of the Yankees (Gary Cooper), Field of Dreams and Bull Durham (both Kevin Costner), The Natural (Robert Redford), and 42 (the late Chadwick Boseman). 1992’s hit A League of Their Own told the fictionalised sto ry of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. (Even casting Madonna could n’t screw that one up.)

jors’. The great Jackie Robinson broke the colour bar when he became the first black MLB player, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

A bit of trivia: there’s an eccentric regional variation of the game played in Savannah, Georgia, called Banana Ball. Games are limited to two-hours and can include a batter on stilts and the wearing of kilts. Savannah Banana games are sellouts and regularly pull in millions of views on social media.

Health concerns

Sports are a big deal in US schools and colleges, taking up a significant portion of their budgets. It can seem like academic achievement takes second place, yet for many underprivileged students athletic scholarships offer otherwise impossible opportunities for advancement. There can be a downside, however. To compete against stronger opponents, kids often feel pressured to take performance-enhancing drugs to increase muscle mass and endurance. Many of their professional role models do, so where’s the harm? Unfortunately, the abuse of anabolic steroids by both teenagers and adults has been proven to cause a multitude of long-term health problems.

This being the United States of America, it should come as no surprise that ‘colored’ Americans were initially forced to form their own baseball leagues. The negro leagues, as they were known, became very successful but after World War II their popularity declined after the top players were gradually integrated into the ’ma- The World Series Trophy

Football is described as a ‘full contact sport’ for good reason, along with rugby, ice hockey, and of course Quidditch™ except that most injuries can’t be cured with a magical healing spell. It’s not only boxers who suffer job-related blows to the head. Internationally re -

spected neurosurgeon Henry Marsh has been quoted as saying “There’s convincing evidence that even minor head injuries cumulatively cause damage,” with repetitive concussions clinically linked to personality disorders, depression, and earlyonset dementia. Taking safety precautions is literally a no-brainer.

As if that wasn’t sufficiently disconcerting, the premature deaths of six Philadelphia Phillies baseball players have been linked to toxic PFAS chemicals found in their stadium’s Monsanto Astroturf™ after each fell victim to glioblastoma, a rare brain cancer. Monsanto promoted their synthetic grass surface as being cheaper to maintain than nature’s own but it’s rougher to play on, causes more injuries, and is made from ‘crumb rubber’, aka. recycled tyres, which contains volatile organic compounds. In addition, a report from the University of Washington State cited an unusually high incidence of cancers among the women’s soccer team who played on the same kind of artificial turf. NFL players and US soc-

cer teams are now pushing to ban its use.

It’s a Knockout?

Successful athletes are viewed as role models for youth, yet they’re frequently given a pass when they break the rules. That sends a dubious message to society that under certain conditions ungentlemanly behaviour is to be tolerated. But lest we forget, we’re only human and aggression is encoded in our DNA. We live in a violent world and some sports merely reflect that. With international tensions spiking in the shadow of Russia’s ‘special military thing’ in Ukraine and SinoAmerican rivalry over Taiwanese independence, we should consider rebooting the old It’s a Knockout game show. Superpowers would sort out their problems armed with custard pies and water balloons instead of reducing each other’s countries to rubble. If not Knockout, then how about a cricket tournament instead, the game of gentlemen? I’d be all for it, watching with tea and scones from the comfort of my armchair.

l The Kansas City Chiefs were the Super Bowl LVII victors. In that momentous day’s other news: dessert lovers celebrated National Plum Pudding Day, the late Charles Darwin celebrated his 214th birthday, and the world kept on spinning.

Poisoned by turf: the Philadelphia Phillies Veterans’ stadium was demolished in 2004.

Inauguration of new ‘Big Tree’

FORMER Head Girl Evelyn

Surman formally ‘launched’ the new Big Tree seating area at an informal ceremony on 17th April. The tree was kindly provided by Evelyn’s parents in support of the Global Tree Planting Project launched by Cambridge University’s Newnham College, where Evelyn is currently studying.

“This area we are in today has been known as Big Tree Yard for many years, though the big sycamore there had been around much longer,” said OAS chairman Walter Raleigh.

“The tree was first recorded in 1859 at the 250th celebrations of the Royal Charter and it was possibly at least 50 years old then. So when it was sadly cut down in 1997 it was probably over 200 years old and had lived through the Battle of Waterloo, the death of Nelson at Trafalgar and even the introduction of Income Tax.

“So today we have a new tree and a

new seating area and we hope that both will last as long as their predecessors.

“I should like to thank all those who generously donated towards the cost, Chris West for designing the seating, Paul Greenaway who did the building work, Alison Hardwick and Keith Crawshaw who helped co-ordinate the project financially and premises manager Tony Hyland, who kept the project alive throughout very difficult ‘Safeguarding’ times. It was a great team effort.”

Cutting the ribbon, Evelyn Surman said how great it was to be back at King James’s, which she had left in 2019 to take up her studies, via Greenhead College, at Newnham College. “The College recently celebrated its 150th anniversary by launching its Tree Planting Project, and I hope that the newly-planted ‘Big Tree’ here at King James’s will serve to strengthen links between our institutions.”

l A short video of the ceremony can be seen on our website at oas.org.uk/videopage.php

Left to right: Ian Rimmer (KJS Principal), Walter Raleigh, Evelyn Surman, Graeme Carby, Richard Taylor, Michael Powner, Alison Hardwick (Bursar), Patrick O'Brien, Seb Mitchell, Mei Rivett, Ros Farrell, Abbi Terry

Evelyn Surman cuts the ribbon

A plaque nearby records the occasion

OAS chairman Walter Raleigh

Roger Dowling

So why not an OAS Gliding Section?

DAVID SLOCOMBE (1965-1971)

I was introduced to gliding as a school cadet and my interest was revived in later life. If I can do it, so can you…

CALL it a muscle memory if you will, but when David Bush (Twig) demands homework, in the form of articles on hobbies (November 2022), how is one expected to resist?

Every year, amongst reports on Old Almondburians’ Badminton, Tennis and the Gothard Cup, there’s one glaring omission: a gliding section.

Let me explain. At the age of 13,

three of us from 2 Alpha – Lawrence Morgan, Richard Stanley, and I – joined 59 Squadron of the Air Training Corps in Huddersfield.

Richard didn’t stay very long, but Lawrence and I very soon experienced the thrills of gliding and powered flight. Gliders in 1967 were neither fast nor particularly advanced but from a winch launch to around a thousand feet, the

Chief Flying Instructor at London Gliding Club Andy Roch checks out DAVID SLOCOMBE (left) on his instructor course. David left King James’s Grammar School in 1971 to join the sales team at Trinity Garage, Huddersfield. His subsequent career was spent entirely in the motor trade, working for such prestigious companies as JCT600,Alfa Romeo, Perry Jaguar, Dixon Motor Group and Bauer Millett. Most recently, he has been running a brand centre in Leeds for the Arnold Clark Group. David’s eminent customers over the years have included Sultan of Brunei, George Michael, Jack Taylor – and a certain D A Bush, currently resident in Porthcawl.

Sedbergh , and Kirby Cadet Mk III gliders could stay aloft for five to ten minutes, cruising over RAF Linton-on-Ouse at a stately 28 miles per hour.

As a cadet, my most memorable flight was at RAF Bruggen in Germany in 1970, with a Lightning fighter pilot who, after the standard 1,000 ft winch launch, flew a loop and then landed in what remained of the runway from which we’d just taken off. It was to be my last glider flight until 1997. Powered aircraft followed – and then marriage and mortgage put an end to my flying.

On leaving KJGS in 1971, I gained a place at the National College of Air Traffic Control at Hurn Airport near Bournemouth. Despite enjoying training, I was not suited to the operational world of ATC and left in 1973. I literally drifted into the retail motor industry, and have been there ever since, the high-

lights being over 30 years with the Alfa Romeo brand, and fourteen years with Ferrari, Aston Martin and Lotus . Working on stands at the British, Scottish, and Geneva motor shows, as well as regular factory visits, have provided a life of play with pay.

In 1997, looking for a novel venue for a marketing event, I dug out a leaflet inviting me to an evening at Burn Gliding Club near Selby. For the event I had in mind, it looked like a very promising site. A visit that weekend resulted in a guided tour by an instructor and a promise to take my proposal to the committee. A phone call followed and the plan progressed. We took 20 cars, a minibus, a chef, and 60 customers to Burn for a highly successful day, selling seven Alfa Romeos , feeding everyone and doing almost 200 test drives. And 42 people flew –including me, twice.

Pilot’s-eye view: below is Eggborough power station, then undergoing demolition

Upon returning home, I believe I did mention the business aspect briefly, but then rabbited on about gliding sufficiently to prompt my wife to buy me a week long residential flying course in Shropshire, and a year-long subscription at Burn starting on 1st September. I went solo on 27th December.

If ever you’re worried about broaching a plan involving spending money to your loved one, fear not. I’m a survivor of “darling, we need an aeroplane” not once but twice in the years which followed. Apparently, I’m worth it, as my wife Jan likes the man who comes home after flying: supposedly, I’m much more relaxed.

So to the present. I qualified as an instructor in 2021 and since then I’ve

been instructing and giving air experience flights at both Burn, and Sutton Bank. In 2022 I carried out 250 flights; despite the cold temperatures, we do fly all year round! 2023 will see a few of us working to gain extra ratings onto our licences before we merge them with the power pilot community in the Autumn.

For me, this means taking the aerobatic instructor rating, and also moving onto a much more modern radio licence than the one I gained in 1971 that featured morse code as one of its constituent parts!

Remember the 28 mph cruising speed of those 1967 machines? My current glider is capable of a top speed of 156 knots, or 182 mph.

Burn Gliding Club near Selby: the fleet includes a tug for towing gliders and a motor glider

Amongst the 30 types of glider I’ve flown, the MDM Fox stands out. This trainer from the former East Germany was used by Soviet Bloc air forces to train fighter pilots without burning expensive jet fuel. The Fox is capable of both plus and minus 9G, during which the seven strap harness leaves the kind of bruises that make my wife laugh as I shower later. Apparently, I looked like a Union Jack!

So, is the Gliding Section an elite organisation? The answer is a most definite no, with pilots able to go solo at the age of 14, and continue for as long as they hold a driving licence. My mentor from

my early years still flies aerobatics at 85, and regularly disappears for up to five hours on cross-country flights.

An idea of the modest costs of gliding might be helpful. Membership of a gliding club typically costs £300 to £500 a year and gliding training is provided free of charge. At my club, renting a glider for a flight costs around £11 for the winch launch plus around £40 per hour for the use of the glider.

Currently, gliding records stand at 77,600 feet for altitude, and over 3000 kilometres in a day. During my time in gliding, as many as eight of the world championship gold medals, from a total of eleven, have been held in the same year by British pilots. We are also lucky to be able to roam the skies above Yorkshire, surely the most beautiful county, with few geographical restrictions other than major airports and their surrounding control zones.

My best flight last year? Definitely the out and return from Sutton Bank near Thirsk to Castle Howard via Byland and Rievaulx Abbeys, Helmsley, Pickering, and Ampleforth School, with my wife Jan.

At the moment, the OAS Gliding Section –me – is looking for new members. I hope you may be tempted! n

With son Jonathan, enjoying our first flight together

The day a teacher lost control

From: Peter Tracey (1956-1963)

ANOTHER very fine edition of The Almondburian , very much appreciated. I look forward to the next edition which you say will include an article on Corporal Punishment!

I remember the atmosphere of discipline in my days at KJGS, largely imposed by formidable personalities. But I still cannot forget or forgive some of the actions of one or two of our ’masters’ then.

I became a teacher myself and determined never to inflict the pain or humiliation I witnessed at my school, on others in my charge.

One incident left a large impression on me as a young lad, and in truth it affected my whole approach to teaching later in life.

The incident in question occurred one afternoon during a difficult lesson, with our form of lads being harangued by the teacher about a text that was difficult and in which, to be truth, there was very little interest or enthusiasm. The teacher was clearly getting frustrated and exasperated at the listless lack of response, and sarcasm was on the rise.

No-one wanted to contribute to the lesson, as I recall. The teacher found no common ground there. It was a bit of an embarrassing impasse, until one of our class muttered something to another that caused a small titter to ripple down the row.

The boy in question was one of the slightest in build. He was a reluctant student at the best of times and rarely offered any contribution to classes. He was happiest at the end of each day when he could get out and enjoy running, at which he was excellent, and often represented the School.

The teacher hauled him to the front and belittled him in no uncertain terms. The poor lad had nothing to say. What could he say? The teacher was failing in the class. We all knew it. He knew it. We wanted it over. And then an explosion of anger in which the teacher swung a heavy hand across the lad’s ear, sending him tumbling into a desk. It was quite vicious and certainly violent. Tears followed and then a red mark.

I remember being frightened, and certainly glad it was not me. The bell rang soon after, and there was a merciful hasty release. The teacher never recovered the respect of the class, and lessons thereafter were always awkward.

When I qualified as a High School teacher some 10 or more years later, and began work in Newcastle, there was, in the staff room ethos there, still a tolerance of physical chastisement , not to say bullying. But that one incident involving my friend in class had left a mark, and I am happy to say that I learned a lesson from the failed lesson.

Teachers do sometimes face very difficult situations. With up to 30 children in a stuffy classroom, with a topic that might not be as interesting as they would like, it can be taxing in the extreme to keep them all engaged and on task. But that is what teachers are supposed to do, and be trained for. Corporal punishment or physical bullying has no part to play in a child’s education. Discipline by force of

personality, structure, suitability of materials, variety, engagement, involvement are far better tools than the rod.

Some say, of corporal/physical punishment that “It never hurt me”. The lad in question above got out of school as fast as he could. I don’t know what his job/career path was. But his treatment at the hands of the teacher that day did hurt.

Whitley Bay,Tyne and Wear

Corporal punishment? Not the school I remember

From: John Eastwood (1950-1958)

Ialways receive my magazine with a slight flush of excitement and put off whatever I was intending to do to have a quick browse preparatory to a couple of hours of close reading. Always interesting and stimulating, in this edition you have excelled.

Dorabella is a minor masterstroke. It’s such an amusing novelty and Froufrou Eastwood similarly ignores her scratching post preferring our upholstered furniture, imports her garden captures to be released indoors and disappear under our large Edwardian sideboard, and drinks from the tap exactly as in the photograph. Your article on my good friend John Sharp’s all consuming hobby does justice to  his lifelong commitment to the design and construction of various powered gearboxes and transmissions, compact enough to fit in working models. This is little, if at all, short of genius and has rightly earned him a worldwide reputation.

George Beach never taught me, but as a member at both junior and senior level of the School chess teams I had frequent

contact with him. I was saddened by what I inferred from David’s article that he felt his father had not been held in high regard by some students. I never understood why he was given the pejorative nickname by some and certainly not by the chess fraternity. He was approachable and friendly and introduced me to a game which I still enjoy. Modesty does not prevent me from saying that having learned my chess in ’The Small’ at lunchtimes, I was a member of all conquering School teams travelling to all parts of the West Riding and do not recall us ever losing. I reached the Huddersfield under 18 semifinal, and the School won the Sunday Times national schools championship in I think 1957. It would have been David’s uncle John who came about that time to play a simultaneous game with some twenty of us in the Library, where all home games were played. All this down to George, so for David I have to say we held his father in very high regard. I was also in his scratch orchestra of 1957 when we played part of Haydn’s ’Surprise’ symphony at the School fair, and George hand wrote

out my part for the saxophone.       I had left the School in 1958 while Simon Thackray did not start until 1965. I find what he writes disturbing. He says ’corporal punishment was prevalent and condoned and administered from the top down’. He describes a school ’where bullying was rife’ in a ’climate of fear that prevailed’, ’that there was a climate of fear that existed in KJGS in the 1960s –created by those who freely administered corporal punishment in all its different forms’.

This is not the School I remember, but, of course I had left by then. In the

course of my work as a teacher in schools between 1962 and 1990, before and after the abolition of corporal punishment, before and after the raising of the school leaving age to 16, I never came across anything like what Simon Thackray describes. Such corporal punishment as there was involved limited authorised teachers, a formal punishment book and its use as a last resort, often as an alternative to suspension from school. Perhaps by the time Simon Thackray went to KJGS, the teachers I knew when I was there had left to be replaced by a different breed.

Sowerby Bridge,WestYorkshire

A working Meccano steam engine

JOHN SHARP ’s article in T he Almondburian (March 2023) on Meccano reminded me not only of my own enjoyment with an early set, acquired by my father (probably secondhand) during the 1940s, but also of the much larger collection inherited by my wife from her father, and dating back to his youth in the 1920s.

Among the prize pieces, now a delight to our grandson, is a Meccano steam engine. Although his preference is for Lego, with which he builds replica two- and four-stroke engines, complete with gears, clutches and

turbo chargers (all powered by suction from a vacuum cleaner), he also delights to fire up and run the steam engine. Here is a picture of him with it. Thanks for yet another interesting Magazine.

Royal Leamington Spa,Warwickshire

From: Professor Edward Royle (1955-1962)

In praise of George Beach

From: Douglas Kaye (1949-1957)

WITH the exception of David Beach, I probably knew George better than any other pupil that he taught.

I was quite good at Maths, and was advised by a mathematician (independently of AGS) to study double maths in the sixth form. Maths had never been taught as a double ‘A’ level course at the School, but Harry Taylor, presumably with George's concurrence, agreed that I should go ahead.

George had never taught double maths before, which he frankly admitted. I spent three years in the sixth form, being taught one-to-one with George, at the end of which I read Maths at University.

Teaching one-to-one is not easy, particularly if the tutor is learning much of the material as he goes along –  as George was.  It was only much later (as a professional mathematician) that I realised how much work he had done for me and what he had contributed to my future. I owe George Beach everything.

We were the fortunate generation, we working class lads were not expected to go to university, let alone spend thirty years teaching in one, George made that possible for me.

His nickname belied his character. I found him kind and generous, both in his manner and with his time. We got to know each other very well. He was a polymath, a gift to any school.

At the time of the Suez crisis, he said that he was a ‘conchi’ during WW2, That

was a brave thing to say when the whole sixth form were gung ho and we'll show Jonny foreigner – until Harry Taylor took a special lesson and made us see sense.

I was 19 when I left AGS, George invited me and my girlfriend to tea.  He lived near the Cambridge Road swimming baths at the time.  His wife had made a banquet.

Three years later, after graduating, I married Brenda (same girlfriend) and he briefly came to my ‘Stag Do’ at the George Hotel.

The last time I tried to contact him was in the late 80s, I think he may have been in hospital.

The last phrase in David’s article is: ‘ he loved his family and his school, doing his best for both’.

He did his best for me, and I have never forgotten him and his efforts on my behalf.

Thank you George.

Marple Bridge, Greater Manchester

Obituaries

John Anthony Goodall

(KJGS 1953-1960)

Almondburian with many interests and talents who devoted his life to education John Goodall , of Marsden, died on 26th August 2022 after a lengthy period of ill-health.

Born in Longwood, John’s life was shaped by the Pennines and a deep love of the Yorkshire countryside. His father Jack had trained with the RAF at the start of World War 2 and didn’t return home permanently until 1946. Injured in the war, he sadly died in 1955 when John was 13.

John passed for King James’s Grammar School in 1953, and he thrived in the academic setting, absorbing all aspects of school except for Mathematics and Sport. He often commented that Sport must have skipped a generation as his father had been a true sportsman as, later, were his children and grandchildren.

He passed his ’A’ Levels in 1960 in English Literature, History and Geography (distinction) and was awarded a Borough Scholarship. His initial thought was to study Geography at Birmingham University and for his interview he hitched a lift there, arriving very late at night. The driver thought it best to drop the 18-year-old off at the Police Station, where he was accommodated in one of the cells. When the Inspector made his initial rounds at midnight, he came across John and said he’d take him home and let him sleep in one of their spare beds. Next day, fed

and spruced up he set out on his way for his interview.

In the event, he turned down the Birmingham offer and decided to study Geography at the London School of Economics joint school with King’s College in London. Having been awarded his BA(Hons) at LSE he went on to Leeds University to study for a higher degree, choosing to carry out research into the immigration of Indian and Pakistani men into West Yorkshire.

ln 1965 John became a lecturer at Bradford University and made some close friends who remained in contact with him throughout the rest of his life. He loved teaching adults on Open University courses and joined Nottingham University as a Resident Tutor in Lin -

coln, running a wide range of courses for adults and taking several Open University Summer Schools in Durham University.

John missed the Yorkshire hills while he was in Lincolnshire so he returned to work in West Yorkshire. There, he was employed by the former West Yorkshire Authority and subsequently Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. However, he decided that local government wasn’t for him and, beset by physical and mental health problems, accepted early retirement

To fill his time, John attended Asian Cookery and photography classes and also learned Russian. He was invited to go to Estonia and Russia to help students at teachers’ Training Colleges with their English language conversation.

John and his wife Heulwen often opened their house at Marsden to accommodate Pennine Way walkers and people visiting Last of the Summer Wine country. and they entertained thousands of Bed- and-Breakfasters. He also joined

many choirs over the years and he was delighted to be invited to sing with the Huddersfield Methodist Choir when they performed Handel’s Messiah in a packed Huddersfield Town Hall.

He was also an enthusiastic traveller, with trips all over Europe, India and the USA.

Apart from his love of languages and singing John loved photography and designed cards and gifts for many. He won several photographic competitions.

He also wrote a large number of poems, having one published in the Siegfried Sassoon Journal. Many of these were funnier as he grew weaker, and he shared each new limerick with his carers and nurses thus ensuring they all left him with smiles on their faces.

In addition to his wife Heulwen, John leaves two children and three grandchildren.

Our thanks to Heulwen Goodall John Anthony Goodall, born 10th February 1942, died 26th August 2022 aged 80.

Martin John Wood (KJGS 1961-1969)

Warm-hearted intellect who became one of the UK’s top divorce barristers

Martin Wood died in hospital on 12th March after a long, painful illness. It came as no surprise to learn he’d spent his last hours listening to Barbara Streisand. At a packed thanksgiving service in Hubberholme Church in Wharfedale three of her songs sounded out. Her portrait rested on the coffin. All of us there – local people, hotshot lawyers, schoolfriends, family – knew

we’d never meet anyone else with Martin’s unique mix of warm heart, powerful intellect, gloriously cynical wit, immense courage… and lifelong obsession with “Barbara”.

After school and Cambridge, Martin became a barrister on the Northern Circuit specialising in family law. Fellow lawyers soon talked about him in awed tones as “the best on the circuit”. Cham-

bers Guide to the Bar described him later as “a phenomenal advocate”. For the celebrated family lawyer Marilyn Stowe, he was a “consummate barrister” because of “his charm, his peerless advocacy” and a “surprising lack of aggression” which disarmed his adversaries. “He doesn’t make enemies; he makes friends. I have never once heard a bad word spoken about him.”

Martin was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. He put on a show of witty cynicism like his literary hero, Oscar Wilde. We’ve had so many arguments together over the years, especially on politics, and I can’t remember ever winning one. Yet in Martin’s company that never mattered, because the more we disagreed the more fun it was debating. And under that formidable intellectual firepower lay a generous spirit, always sensitive to others’ needs. There was also a wonderfully crazy side to him. Everyone at the thanksgiving had stories to tell about Martin’s mad exuberance and appetite for risk. Meeting rain-soaked Hell’s Angels at a Dales pub and inviting them all to spend the night at his house, crammed with precious artefacts. His hospitality to all comers even if guests usually ended up doing the cooking. Epic hill walks with friends often ending in deep mud or darkness without benefit of compass, torch or map, but cheered by Martin’s trademark reassurance, “Don’t worry. I know these hills like the back of my hand”.

We were in different classes at King James’s, and my family moved to the Lakes after O Levels. I got to know him

the following summer when he and Ian Robertson came up for a week’s fellwalking. Martin made that week hilariously unforgettable. Slogging up boulder-strewn ridges we’d suddenly be deafened by Martin singing Climb Every Mountain at maximum volume. He knew The Importance of Being Earnest by heart. If he felt our spirits were flagging, he’d start declaiming complete scenes. There was never a dull kilometre on a walk with Martin. By the end of that week I knew I’d found a friend for life.

We last saw Martin a year ago, when early Spring was bringing new life back into the valley round Starbotton. He’d invited three of us from school – Les Orme, Ian Robertson and me, plus our wives – to join him for a weekend reunion at his beautiful farmhouse. He was in poor health but on sparkling argumentative form. Martin now had a young dog, Rupert, on whom he lav -

ished affection. He was looking ahead to a peaceful future in his glorious corner of the Dales. He will be much missed by us all.

Jon Barton

Graham Cliffe adds: Martin’s early career was notable for the fact that his pupil master was a barrister called Igor Judge who later became Lord Chief Justice. He now sits in the House of Lords.

After pupillage Martin joined Broadway Chambers in Bradford and he practised there until his retirement about two years ago.

When I was a practising solicitor I appeared in direct opposition to Martin on two occasions – honours even, we won one each. When I became a Judge he appeared before me on many occasions. I enjoyed his style of advocacy which was, at times, very direct but all Judges tend to be grateful to those who get on with the job and deal with the critical issues promptly. On one occasion he was

acting for a frail and elderly man who had entered into an unfortunate second marriage late in life with a woman much younger than himself who was quickly found to be enriching herself at his expense. Martin’s opening words were “the wife in this case is a gold-digger – nothing more, nothing less”. The temperature in the room rose instantly but Martin was able to support his pithy submission and it was the only case of post-divorce financial applications with which I dealt where the wife was awarded nothing at all.

Martin specialised in big money divorce cases for the last 25 years of his career. He was acknowledged as one of the top three barristers dealing with such work on the North-Eastern Circuit which covers the eastern half of England from Sheffield to the Scottish border

Martin John Wood, born 19th December 1950, died 12th March 2023 aged 72.

Derek Alwyn Law (KJGS 1947-1954)

Leading Mobil Oil organic chemist who has 38 patents to his name

We were saddened to learn of the death at St Mary’s Hospital, Pennsylvania of father, chemist, manager, and lifelong world traveller Derek Law, of Yardley, Pennsylvania.

Born in Huddersfield, Derek received BSc and PhD degrees in Organic Chemistry from the University of Liverpool and the University of Alberta Canada.

In 1963, Derek emigrated to the United States and joined the applied products research group of Mobil Oil in Paulsboro, New Jersey.

In his career at Mobil , Derek was

granted 38 patents and was responsible for the development of antioxidant technology now used in Mobil jet oil. Later in his career, he accepted multiple overseas assignments and in 1983, was appointed group leader and manager of the Industrial Oils group which subsequently became the Additives, Minerals, and Chemical Products group in Princeton, NJ. As leader of this group, Derek’s extensive contacts and excellent technical reputation in Japan were key factors in Mobil Chemical’s success in the Japanese market.

After working at Mobil Oil for 31 years,

Derek retired to his home in Yardley Pennsylvania, spending his time sculpting his garden, enjoying English Premier League matches, and planning his trips to destinations around the world.

From the time he was a teenager, riding his bike on a roundtrip from England to Spain, Derek had a passion for travel and making friends in the 106 countries he visited in his lifetime. His passion ranged from careful planning of global multi-week trips, to adventures which embraced jumping on buses for which

the destination was ’unknown’. Travelling ’off of the beaten path’ was a habit Derek always tried to instill on his family and friends.

His family always noted that Derek had the ability to walk into a room full of strangers and start up a conversation on any number of topics, initiating friendships which lasted a lifetime. Throughout his life, Derek was most happy keeping in contact with the many people he met on his travels and setting up new adventures.

Of all the places Derek visited over the years, Japan was his favourite destination, a country he visited over 30 times both professionally and personally. From these travels, Derek built many lifelong friendships.

In addition to his wife and three sons, Derek is survived by his five grandchildren.

Norris Bonser(KJGS 1947-54) adds:

In retirement Derek visited UK on several occasions when he met up with Gavin Kane, Jim Dye and myself. In 1953 Derek, Gavin and I made a tour of France with our bikes and a tent, during which we saw the finish of the 1953 Tour de France in Paris. Happy days! Derek Alwyn Law, born 28th May 1936, died 15th April 2023 aged 86.

Tom Rockett

(KJGS 1957-1964)

Lifelong sports enthusiast who ran his own successful catering supply company

To say Tom Rockett was a character was, by any measure, an understatement.

I first met him through the Old Almondburians’ football teams and only a few years later playing golf when I joined Crosland Heath in 1977.

As a footballer I’m sure he was very frustrating to play against in his role as a rugged midfielder who complained about everything to long suffering referees. I always say, light heartedly, that he never passed a football to me in over five years.Tom’s typical pithy response

to this comment would, I’m sure, be “why waste a pass!”.

Nevertheless,he was a key member of the Almondburians’ teams of the early 1970s which had so much success at all levels alongside such luminaries as Tony Lockwood, Jeff Senior, Ian Rangely, Paul Wilson and Graham Richardson.

He was without doubt an outstanding sportsman and had a deep knowledge of all sports that he played.

At King James’s between 1957 and 1964 he represented the School at football and cricket, but it was cricket that defined him in later years.

At only 15 he played for Lockwood Cricket Club and returned there after a spell with the Almondburians to finish a fine amateur career in 1990.

He then took up umpiring and, having checked with a few local players, they believed he was one of the best at the time. His last five years were spent at Honley CC, a cricket club he truly loved, before he finally retired in 2022.

How he fitted golf into this I have no idea but at his peak played off a handicap of four, and alongside fellow member Tony Lockwood became a feared fourball partnership at Crosland Heath Golf Club. He was a member for 50 years.

On leaving School Tom had entered and ran the family catering supply business, later taken over by Debriar Ltd , finally retiring in 2014. He would admit that working locally and being in charge of his own time had enabled him to participate in such a wide range of sports, but of course not without the help and understanding of his wife Janet (pictured).

His three children,Jamie,Gillian and Anna have all found great success with their lives and provided him with five much loved grandchildren.

Not that you would know it from Tom, who was typically ’old school’ in terms of talking about family matters, but he was incredibly proud of what they had achieved.

He will be missed.

Simon Russell

Tom Rockett, born 30th August 1936, died 15th February 2023 aged 86.

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