FRIDAY 16th MAY 1980

Editors notes. There are few entries for the first weeks in May, our researchers have speculated that the majority of the sixth form were suffering the deleterious efforts of what appears to have been a month of binge drinking in a small pub in Carshalton. However it is clear that despite this rehearsal for Sweeney Todd continued. Around this time as well, a decision seems to have been made to cancel the production of 'South Pacific.' Cook’s diary refers to some form workshop or limited production, which appeared to be in the form of the major songs only and which he evidently watched. Whether this was seen by the rest of the school is not clear. This meant more resources for the drama group and Sweeney Todd but the diary records only a microscopic increase in the amount of money being spent on the project. Meanwhile, despite evidence to the contrary, the drama group was proving they were perfectly capable of delivering a performance without the aid of Cook, Johnson and Powell. The diary records the triumphal return of the official drama group contingent from the first performance segment of their exam.

The drama group returned from the first part of their drama exam in triumph. Their rendition of TS Eliot’s The Hollow Men, judging from the way they are behaving, it looks as though they succeeded in coming up with an excellent performance. Their costumes for the recitation appeared to be sheets and Steve speculates rather too much about what Beverley might have been wearing beneath hers. I expect this will provoke another slightly too careful drawing in pencil or pen.

To be fair, Steve is a talented artist, but all his models are drawn from pages of, well lets call them art magazines and whereas the bodies tend to be different. The heads all tend to be pretty young brunette
I wonder if Mark pens drawings of blondes in his bedroom.

Mid-morning: Beverley steals my badge and tie and proclaims herself the head boy. I can see no reason to attempt to regain my position. If she wants to be head boy, good luck to her, but I think Steve would be a bit disappointed if she gained weight and developed a desire to go out and get drunk every night.

Later: I am surprised to learn that we have a Past Pupils Association, possibly because I am fairly sure that we didn't last week. A sort of old boy and girl organisation for those previous members of the school that Orme feels should be allowed to be part of the association. They have organised a trip to Brighton, and we are invited - more to make up the numbers than in any recognition of our senior status or even the fact that we are older than many of the past pupils who will be attending.

Of course in typical Gaynesford style I learn this when a couple of old pupils Mr Larwood and Mr Pottle appear to pay their fares. Mark and Steve and I pay our deposits and ponder the possibilities of a trip to the south coast.

Editors note. Readers will not be surprised to learn that the Past Pupils Association was both run by the headmistress and possessed a complicated membership rationale. One can understand why a skilled player of the game like Helen Orme would want to keep the association under control. Membership of the association was excluded to any pupil:

1. Convicted of a criminal offence either during or after their time with the school; •
2. Recipient of a confidential notes in the personal files relating to repeated breaking of school rules;
3. Any pupil who was known truant or a known trouble-maker either during or after their time in the school;
4. Any pupil who did not pass at least three CSE qualifications.1

He added the snippet below close to 30 years after the events deriving from a conversation had with Mrs and Mrs Thomas senior over lunch in Eastbourne in March 2008.

Rita (Thomas) and Bill appeared not to be great fans of Mrs Orme. Listening to Rita talking over lunch it was fairly clear that Helen Orme positively discouraged any enterprise that did not have a direct financial benefit to the school in addition if my mother in law (of sorts) is to be believed she possessed a degree of callowness which is hard to believe.

Rita recounted a school band trip to Croydon 2, it must have been some kind of competition from what I could make out and took place before the events related in "Unacceptable Terms." It was another chance for the Gaynesford to perform an acoustic smash and grab operation on the audience and may well have been the now legendary "Rooster Rag."

During the trip back to the coach at the end of the evening, one of the pupils was run over and although not badly injured was in need of an ambulance. In the coach Orme waited impatiently while Rita, who worked for the police at the time, ministered to the young victim. Eventually Mrs Orme sent Mrs Lines to ask when Rita and another parent were returning to the coach because they were holding everyone else up.

My mother in law was understandably extremely miffed about this and on her return complained loudly to Mrs O that one her pupils had been out there. Mrs O is reputed to have commented that the pupil had not been badly injured and genuinely puzzled as to Mrs Thomas' concerns. It soured any further relations between the Thomas clan and Mrs Orme up to the time that Karen became head girl in 1981 and even then the relationship was decidely frostie.

I struggle with the notion that even Helen Orme would not have been worried about the fate of one of her charges, if only because she would have felt the need to be up to speed when the time came to report the incident to the child's parents. And surely even in GHS this would have occurred immediately!

Both the Thomas' were clear that Gaynesford's parent/teacher association was hamstrung in its dealing with the wider world by the actions of Mrs Orme whose only thoughts were to glean more money for the school using jumble sales and any other methods. Suggestions that things could be given away to kids whose parents did not have much money were greeted with indifference at best and often hostility. Given that GHS was a depressed school in a depressed area on a depressed council estate its no stretch of the imagination to assume that many of the children may have come from low income families. I certainly did and do not for one moment believe myself to be unique.

Steve and Mark came from middle class families but I got the impression some of the sixth formers were not too flush. I have to confess a sense of surprise and disappointment because although it suited the mood of the moment to portray Helen Orme as a hopeless drunk, I had always secretly believed her to be a player of the game – who else would they dare send to Gaynesford. It would have been nice to think we had someone who was cunning and duplicitous at least. But sadly I now suspect that we in our naïve enthusiasm managed to categorize Mrs Orme for exactly what she was...

SUNDAY 18th MAY 1980.
Todd minus four days and counting: Once again I am at the hall rehearsing.

Beverley failed to appear which did not help matters. We have been rehearsing the fight scenes. I am absolutely hopeless at this sort of thing. I have never thrown a punch in my life preferring the various forms of “win-do” 3 we have developed in the sixth form. We worked for several hours, but the absence of Beverley hampered our efforts. Raven is starting to get nervous. I’m not, I’ve been nervous for weeks now. I noticed with some surprise that Lee offered Diane a lift home on his motorbike. I wonder if that is important.



MONDAY 19th MAY 1980.
Todd minus three days and counting: There is something not quite right about the atmosphere in the school. As Mark and I arrive we both sense that something is not what it should be. To quote Steve “there is hassle in the air.” On the other hand our opening night is Thursday. Naturally, the riot kicks off at first break. The raw edge of nerves is beginning to show. Normally we would ignore the havoc being wrought in the corridors and hide in the common room but this time it gets in the way of practising our lines.

After break things seem to die down and the members of the cast cautiously make our way back stage were we are scheduled to move all the old theatrical crap out of the way and replace it with our own theatrical crap. Rave assists us by bringing his entire class with him. We immediately conscript them to help.

Dinner break: We are just starting to think that we might get away with it, when Stuart returns from what I believed to be a trip to the toilet with the news that the riot was about to recommence and may be best to get under cover.

We make it back to the common room just before before the usual chaos kicks off in the corridors. I have no idea what the issue is, nor indeed do I particularly care, but it is now seriously getting in the way of our rehearsals. This annoys me sufficiently that when Graham appears seeking recruits for a raiding party on the rioters I join them at the head of what I foolishly believe to be a team of prefects. I stride forward confident of my back up who decided en-mass to take a fast left turn and head back to the sixth form centre and I am alone with only the teachers for back up. We leave the school building and head towards the playing field.

The playing fields: I don’t think I had been in this part of the school for close to three years, but there is little time to view the scenery. I find myself at the front of a group of staff heading for what looks like several hundred of the little darlings sitting on the playing field. The staff doesn’t seem to have a plan of action other than walking out and telling the pupils to return. When this fails, Generallismo Graham is nonplussed as to what to do next.

Unluckily for us the pupils have their strategy and as we stand there the rioters change from a sit-in to a run away. They rise as one and charge towards us. It's too late to run away – beside most of them would be faster than I am – and I fully expect someone to put the boot in or worse as they pass. I stand still and wait. The riot passes me by and I am more than a little surprised not to be knocked to the ground. Feeling I had done my bit, I retire at a none too steady gait to the common room where I am offered a mug of sweet coffee by a sympathetic Diane. The riot continued unabated.

During a lull in hostilities Mrs Graham and Paul Samuels, one of the fifth years can be clearly heard outside the common room arguing with one another. Paul we quickly learn has been identified as the ringleader of the rioters and singled out for the usual speech asking if the pupil would behave this way at home. Pat Graham is surprised when Paul answers in the affirmative and rightly concludes that Mr Samuels is taking the piss.

A coterie of sixth formers, using the lull to scuttle back to the relative safety of the centre, then masks the conversation and it is finished before we can eavesdrop again. I never find out the outcome of the conversation but receive a request via Stuart to author an apology letter address to Helen Orme.
I consider saying no, but then decide that an apology will irritate Graham far more than any action that Samuels might take. Besides I can take the piss a little while doing it.

Under normal circumstances the excitement and dare I say drama of the riot would have occupied our attention for some time, but with Todd only three days away, it is soon forgotten as we once more plunge into the script with renewed enthusiasm and just a little panic. You see the fact of the matter is that we simply haven't learned the lines. Like Mark and Steve when I started to do this, it was as a favour to the drama group and I adopted a kind of “I’ll help out if I have time in my busy schedule” attitude to the work. But having said I would do this, I now realise - and realise more than a little late - that I will actually have to go on stage and that rather mandates learning the great chunks of nonsense that constitute Sweeney's speeches. To be fair everyone has some fairly indigestible mouthfuls to chew over by Todd beats the rest of the cast by a ratio of about ten to one! A certain about of bowel wrenching terror grips me and I dive into my script with renewed vigour.

Raven had taken the unusual step of mounting the work shop production in front a live audience, two live audiences in fact. One showing on the first day for the First, Second and Third Year pupils with a second show for the Fourth, Fifth and those members of the Sixth not on stage. One can assume that amidst the younger pupils would be the examiners who would declare whether or not the show had passed their scrutiny. This news did nothing to improve their nervousness.