Ex Chaucer School pupils

[Eric1959 10]

I remember all the teachers names but not pupils ..

‘I went to Chaucer 1970 to 1975 

‘I think the last teacher who taught me was collinson

[John St Clair 0]

Hi I didnt go  to Chaucer but I knew a few who did. Does any one remember a girl called Margaret Hill . She lived on Pollard Cres

[Centrepin 0]

Left in 75, no regrets. 

[MillerMike 10]

I attended Chaucer School in the early days when it became a comprehensive school.

 

I hated every minute there.

 

i remember Mr Fleming, a nasty piece of work. Mr Cornthwaite wasn't much better.

 

Mr Collinson was the library guy. There was a maths teacher called Littlewood and a biology teacher Mrs Reid, they were nice enough.

 

i seem to remember the headmaster being called Humpstone.

 

 

[jaffa1 10]

On 22/02/2020 at 01:43, MillerMike said:

I attended Chaucer School in the early days when it became a comprehensive school.

 

I hated every minute there.

 

i remember Mr Fleming, a nasty piece of work. Mr Cornthwaite wasn't much better.

 

Mr Collinson was the library guy. There was a maths teacher called Littlewood and a biology teacher Mrs Reid, they were nice enough.

 

i seem to remember the headmaster being called Humpstone.

 

 

I hated it too but as I recall Mr Dowson was the library teacher and Mr Collinson a very nice man was also involved with teaching us how to dance , being a member of the Collinson school of dancing.

Yes Mr Cornthwaite could be very strict,  Mrs Wilkinson I could not stand.

Mr Darvil was our headmaster , there was a Mr Popple and Mr Newman  the deputy  head he was short and stubby and strict.

Mr Harding, Mr Howland,  Mr Price.  Mr Hand the music teacher.

[AKAMD 0]

I went to Chaucer (occasionally) in the 60s, when it was first a comprehensive, moving from Hillsborough primary in 1964.  I didn't get on with it at all and there were few memorable teachers: Miss Ramsbottom (I think) was a music teacher, young and quite pretty!  I didn't learn much about music though; if it weren't Beatles I wasn't interested at the time.  Of course I remember Mr. Fleming but I never understood why he put the fear of God into everyone.  Yes if he caned you you felt it but when he did you probably deserved it (by the standards of the day of course).  I was never in his class but he covered for absent teachers for one or two lessons and you could always distract him with flowers and gardening.  I used to see him pretty often in the 1980s after he had retired and I had a young family, he used to do some gardening for folk up Stannington where I lived for a number of years.  Whenever I saw him he always made a point of talking to me, even though he never really taught me, and he would give me 50p for my kids.  He was an OK guy really.  Played snooker a lot and used to carry his cue on his Honda 50.  Thankfully education in this country has come on a long way since then; it did nothing for me, I left with no qualifications at all; I didn't turn up for the exams!  I went to Northern College in the early 1990s as a mature student and ended up with a Degree.  Now that's education.

[Copperhead 0]

Attended Chaucer till around 68 from the hell of Shirecliffe (comprehensive schools were just starting) and never really found my place there.  All my mates were in different classes to me so I drifted around into a number of different form teacher classes, think my last may have been Mr. Cornthwaite.

Always remember travelling between the upper and lower schools for lessons especially when it was raining and not to cut across the playing fields, caning offence!

Mr. Plant the lower school head gave me the cane after catching me and another set of lads playing 'Odds & Evens', one of many punishable occurrences. 

I had Mr. Fleming for some lessons and I remember once he had forgot the keys to his classroom. Whilst we had to wait for a runner to fetch the keys he decided to remind us of the decimalizations rules pound to pence more or less etc. mostly everybody got it right except one poor lass who was frightened to death of him and kept getting it wrong. By the time the keys turned up Fleming had got himself into a frightful temper and it carried through into the classroom going around the class but always coming back to the now petrified girl who constantly made mistakes. Crunch went the stockroom door as he put his fist through it, the girl was called out and canned there and then. Not sure she ever recovered from the ordeal.

Mr. Knight (Woodwork) who was perpetually frightened of catching cold and made everyone stand well away from him. At least he taught me Dovetails and Mortice & Tennon joints. Mr. McKee in Porridge always reminded me of him.

Always fancied a girl called Joy Perry in my Art class but was too scared to ask her out, she was at the time going out with a lad who was a year older I think and had ginger/copper hair like me, such are the pitfalls of young love. I have never come across any other pupils from the school apart from Ray Turner who I originally met at Lindsay Nursery School.

Having moved away from the city for a number of years with work I settled some 30 years ago in a village to the south of Sheffield.

I am now 67 and reflect upon Chaucer as missed chances, I did reasonable well in exams but I feel could have done a lot better if some teachers had bothered. 

[AKAMD 0]

Hi Copperhead, you must have been at Chaucer at the same time as me being the same age and your account brought more memories, although none that are good ones.  Yes, the trip between upper and lower school buildings were a classic case of Dad's Army maneuvering resulting in late classes and, as you point out, wet pupils; I never understood that aspect of the timetable.  Mr Cornthwaite comes to mind and Mr Plant.  Can't remember the name of my first form teacher but he was a heavy smoker with a heavy smoker's cough.  As you also point out, pupils from primary schools (I was from Hillsborough) were dispersed across a myriad  of form classes with few friends from a primary school sharing one, and then you had different grades for subjects, splitting the form classes into even more class settings with different children.  Sports were a bit naff too, the only time we had a school cricket match was when it was organised by an RE teacher; forgot her name too!  On the whole, my experience of secondary school was forgettable; the only lessons I enjoyed were Art and Technical Drawing, which I was pretty good at but you needed Maths & English to get to Art College so that didn't happen.  I became one of the majority factory fodder and ended up in the steel works.  As I intimated in my earlier submission, attending Northern College as a mature student in my late 30s gave me a second chance and I went on to get a degree; a life changing experience.

[Copperhead 0]

Hi AKAMD,  Must have been in the same class for Tech Drawing and Art or were there multiple classes ? I know I did really well in Tech Drawing so much so that Cornthwaite made me sit a previous exam as they thought I was cheating! It all just seemed so easy at the time, I even remember doing ellipses in two different way as I had so much time to spare. Cornthwaite then went full circle from hardly noticing me even though I transferred into his class in the final year, think a couple of mates were there (Kevin Staniland?) then offered to get me a interview at a Tech Drawing Office at one of the steelworks, I was stubborn and told him not to bother. I went to work in Computing but in my twenties realized I needed further different qualifications and went to study at Stannington Collège  to get them. Ended up running my own consulting business so I suppose you  always find your own way eventually. Funnily enough although I never had a chance of going to Uni for various reasons, my three children all have degrees. Glad to hear that you got what you wanted in the end.

[AKAMD 0]

Hi Copperhead.  I think there were split classes in tech drawing as there were in all subjects; the maths and English were also graded and you went into your grade based on the results of exams/tests.  I remember I deliberately got a poor result in maths one year in an effort to get down to a class that one of my mates was in.  It didn't quite work as I finished up a grade below him; I was too good at being bad.  I hardly attended school in the final year, giving the truant officer the runaround.  They gave up on me and I gave up on them.  There were plenty of jobs around for school-leavers in those days and I started work at Arnold Wraggs Nuts & Bolts at Stannington but didn't stay long.  It was boring, monotonous work but I got day-release at Granville College where I got into their under 16 football team.  I don't recall Kevin Staniland but then I don't remember many names other than those I was with at junior school.  I haven't kept in touch with any of them but have bumped into a few over the years; one was working at Sheffield Hallam when I graduated in 1997.  My art and tech drawing talents came in handy when I did a Signwriting course at Shirecliffe College in 1986 following the closure of the BSC Tinsley Park Works where I had been since 1973.  The late eighties were another bad time but that's another story.  All the best!

[richardf60 0]

enjoyed reading the thread went to chaucer 72-76 remember tony 'dougie' douglas,  john brown, roy dero, nev 'chew' hutchinson, mick turner, paul 'sparky' fletcher, eric mcoy and me bonnie.  Funny how we get older look back and suddenly we realise how school was a big part of our memories

[withitowl 10]

I was there from the opening in 1958 to 1959, 1 year the first term in Miss Harts class and the last two terms in Mr. Newhams, I moved there from Parson Cross School scholars also came from Hillsborough, Hillfoot Bridge and Philedelpha schools, people I remember were Jack Selwood, Frank Weldon rip, Diana Truelove, Diana Tomlinson, Ann Self, David White, Jack Fowler, Keith Hackett, June Mellor, Beryl Savage, Peter Woodcock, Brian Patchet, Tony & Terry Hammond, Diane Smith, Anita Spencer, Beryl Ransom, Joan Hancock, Harold Thicket, plus many more.