THURSDAY 6th SEPTEMBER 1979

Editors note: Gaynesford High School was part of what was called the Comprehensive Education System. Pupil were accepted from the age of 11 and normally left at 16. They could stay on to take "A" levels for a further two years if they were deemed likely to pass. Cook's diary suggest that there were other reasons why the school would let pupils remain and to judge from his entries it was clear that a desire to posses a full complement of sixth formers was a primer mover. Cook's diary records the assembly from the point of view of the pupils.

Diary continues...
The Sixth were gathered in the library when Trevor Coldman arrived. It is not a welcome arrival since he brings with a call to 'do something.' Apparently, our presence was required for a full assembly. These gatherings of the entire school are fairly rare now, but it was always on the cards that Orme would want to talk to the school during the first week.

All year groups have their assemblies except I am guessing the sixth form, since there are so few of us that information can be circulated when we gather in the library in the mornings. (1) Orme intended to address the school. Coldman tried to give the impression that this was a ridiculous thing for her to do and clearly against his anarchist principles. On the other hand he had been told to ensure that the sixth form attended the assembly!

Reluctantly, the form trooped out and across the foyer towards the entrance to the main hall. There was a near rebellion when it became obvious that we would be required to sit at the front of the hall in full view of the other pupils, presumably to enable the school to see who the current sixth form prefects are but the words target recognition flash through my mind. I was not too bothered for myself, every little nutter in the place knew who I was, but guessed that for some of the prefects this sudden move to the other side of the fence could be something of a shock.

The rest of the school arrives. The first years quiet and still a little overawed the rest of the school much louder and still retaining memories of the holidays, they have no wish to be here and at that moment the sixth form didn't either! Orme starts her speech it is one tenth welcome and nine tenths threat. Judging by the muttering from the row behind us, her threats were not being greeted well. Telling Gaynesford pupils that they could be expelled for bad behaviour brings new meaning to stupidity, expulsion is the ambition of most of the kids. For a while I fear that there will be some kind of riot and the prefects will be required to do something about it. Luckily that doesn't happen.

We escape back to the library with one or two of the new intake muttering threats about Orme. The poor fools don't realise that the minute they agreed to join the Sixth, they effectively changed sides.

Editors note: That same evening Orme chaired the first Heads of Department meeting. As luck would have it, Tony Raven was asked to deputize for Janet Lines of the English department. Never one to miss a chance to ingratiate with the senior members of the school Tony took the chance to push through an idea he had been nursing for some time. An extract from the minutes of the meeting is shown below.

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Heads of Department Meeting 6/9/79 continued
12. Any other Business
12.1 PE reported that despite requests, there was little chance that the school would be re-admitted to the school's league this year. Mr Crow reported that investigations into the so-called "Rollerball" incident continued.
12.2 Mr Chase commented that this year's intake was up a further 9% on last year. The school now had 870 pupils with an average pupil teacher ratio of 35 to 1.
12.3 Mrs Orme reported that the LEA had confirmed that they would be willing to co-fund the proposed Sixth Form centre. The next step would be to obtain several quotes for the conversion to the old classrooms and present them to the Educational Funding Sub Committee of the council. The school Governor would also need to be informed.
12.4 Mrs Orme sought suggestions from the meeting for how to celebrate this year's harvest festival. Mr Raven (English) agreed to produce a small piece with the aid of his drama group that would illustrate the meaning of the festival. The meeting ended at 8.30pm

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Editors note: If Helen Orme hoped that her speech to the school would have the effect of mitigating the usual round of inter-school fights that occurred at the start of the term, she was sadly misguided. Three days later an incident occurred at Hill House, the youth centre for northern part of the borough and close to the boundary line with the neighbouring authority. Cook's diary records the incident as it was related the following day.

Pictures
1. Trevor Coldman, 1979.


Footnotes
1. Sixth formers were allowed to use the library as a gathering point much to the displeasure of the head of English and former head of the sixth form, Janet Lines.