TUESDAY 4th SEPTEMBER 1979

"We don't need no education..."

BACK IN THE BLACK!

Editors note: In the late summer and with only a few weeks left to go to the beginning of a new academic year. Mrs Helen Orme, B. Ed. M.A and Headmistress of Gaynesford High School was the recipient of an unwanted and equally unwelcome call from the borough's local newspaper seeking some form of assurance that September 1979 would not see the re-commencement of the low level guerrilla warfare that had marked the last decade at Gaynesford High School.

The previous year had seen a series of encounters between Gaynesford pupils and other school in an attempt to determine which establishment possessed the “hardest” pupils.

Gaynesford, considered a “sink” school with a significant number of "challenged" pupils probably had an unfair advantage in this respect and to make matters worse there were rumours that it was planning to turn its battle scarred eyes across the borough borders towards schools in nearby Merton...

Given that she could only control the pupils by having each and every one locked up, Helen Orme's response was probably optimistic in the extreme. However anything other than optimism would have been political suicide for any aspiring headmistress.

Her reply as it appeared in the paper just before the beginning of term is reproduced here. Its interesting to compare the article with an entry in Helen Orme personal diary for the same period which paints a decidedly different picture!

Click for full size image









Meanwhile Cook's diary entry for the start of term paints a far more realistic picture of life in Gaynesford in general and the sixth form in particular.


“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” but mainly it was time to go back to Gaynesford for what will be the last time ever. Steve (Johnson) called about 8.15am and together we walked the last few hundred yards from my house at the top of the road to the main entrance of the school. There were two other entrances but it was one of the few perks of the job that we were permitted to enter the school via the central foyer or main entrance. As we entered we took a deep breath. Sadly we would have to let it out sooner or later!

The place hadn't changed much since we had left it around eight weeks ago. Gaynesford always managed to look like some art decor lavatory located at the end of a residential road. In the white building the corridors were cleaner and the floors weren't covered with the layers of chewing gum dried blood and sputum we had come to associate with normal. But of course all that would change in the next few hours.

This was our last in the school and my second year as the head boy with Steve as my deputy. I cannot say that I am particularly looking forward to another three terms of avoiding the attentions of the more violent members of our community, but if I want those 'A' levels (and I am told that I do!) then I shall have to survive another thirty odd weeks here. Thirty very odd weeks I suspect, but then that's Gaynesford High School. We had hardly arrived than Janet Lines our English teacher and former head of the sixth form arrived seemingly out of nowhere.

She greeted us with a hearty. "What the hell are you two doing here?” “Taking our "A" levels?” I replied, unwisely as it turned out...

For the next ten minutes, Lines harangued us about getting out into what she called the real world, demanding that Steve immediately leave to found a record empire based in his bedroom or build electronics out of old Cornflake packets. In my case she was less generous, claiming that I could be out there earning some useful dole money. She accused us both of being academic pariahs and scrounging off the taxpayers. A complete waste of space. Wait 'til she meets the new Sixth Form intake!

“So what will you do?” I ask Steve after Lines had stormed off to terrorize some First Years she noticed trying to get in the building earlier than the rules permitted, but not before she had pressured Steve into agreeing that she would see the Careers Officer later that same day.

“I shall listen to what the Careers Officer has to say and then say my piece.” Steve assures me.
“Which will be?” I ask.
“Goodbye!” Replies Steve grinning.


Editors Note: Any reader looking to understand the social relationships in Gaynesford needs to understand the role of the Heads of School, the Prefects and the staff. In most schools the appointment of a head boy or head girl was an acknowledgment of either their academic excellence or their popularity with their peers. In Gaynesford, neither of the above was important. The head boy was appointed solely on his ability to detract attention away from the staff. The more outrageous and larger than life the appointee, the greater the chance that the hatred of the school would be focused on that individual and take the pressure off the staff.

Researches suggest that based on the criterion, Cook was one of the most successful head boys ever appointed. Given that the appointee was invariably a target for the more violent elements of the school head boys could have a rough ride. Given the dangers of the job the role of the other perfects was simply to keep the head boy healthy because if he was seriously injured, one of them would be next as head boy. For many of the prefects this constituted far too much contact with the staff of the school. The role of the head girl was unclear. Cook's diaries of the time imply it was a less important role, but this may have had more to do with Cook's perceptions of his own importance rather than the reality. Later entries suggest that his opposite number was precisely that. However its possible that some importance may have been awarded to longevity in which case Cook, Johnson and Powell were significantly senior to their compeers.

Perhaps the other interesting point in comprehending the political climate of the time was that all pupils, the sixth form included, were required to wear uniform. In the case of the sixth former this consisted on a black blazer and trousers (skirt for the girls) a white shirt and black and white Eton tie. Group photos of the time gave the appearance of a group of badly dressed young Mafioso. The uniform was distinctly different to the uniform wore by the younger members of the school who were were gifted with a royal blue and black ensemble with red and yellow tie. Cook's diary records no protests against being made to wear uniform when most sixth forms in the borough permitted casual wear and the general impression seems to have been that the sixth form got off lightly!


Cook's diary continues...
I have my first meeting of the year with Patricia Graham. One of her roles as Deputy Head of the school is to supervise the Prefects. She hands me the list of new prefects and their duty stations for the year.(1)

Patricia and I do not get on. I know that she does not consider me head boy material. In her mind it is a great honour and one that should have been given to one of the more academic students. Steve Johnson should, on any decision based on intellect or exam results, have been the head boy, not me. There are few survivors from the previous year. As far as I can see only Diane Downham and Lea Hensmen have decided to risk another year in the place and I can't quite shake the notion that I have come back as the easy option rather than get a job. The possibility that I consider this to be the easy option worries me a little.

Graham tells me that we are to have a new head girl and deputy head girl. The deputy was expected. The previous incumbent left at the end of the year. But the news that Lea Hensmen is no longer Head Girl is a surprise. The new head girl is called Tracy Piner. I can't recall hearing the name before.

“What happened to Lea?” I ask the deputy leaderine.
“She has decided that she doesn't want to be one of the prefects.” Graham replies curtly.
I can guess what that means? Lea opted out of supervising the low level guerrilla warfare that passes for education in Gaynesford High School. I know she had this crazy idea that schools were places where children go to learn things. Clearly that would put her at odds with the management. And now she has been sacked. Somehow I doubt that will bother her. Lea wants to learn and regards the whole business with the prefects as something purpose designed to stop that happening. I wonder what the new girl will be like?

Editors note: We sent this extract, the first of many to former Gaynesfordian Mark Powell who had kindly agreed to assist with his recollections of events of the time. His comments are reproduced below.

---------------------------

Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2045 15:28:21 GMT
To:editors@unacceptable_terms.ac.uk
From: Mark Powell mvlp@Vnet.org
Subject: Janet Lines
Janet Lines was head of English and the implacable enemy of Tony Raven for whom she nursed a deep loathing and contempt. A long serving members of the Gaynesford, having spent over two decades in her chosen profession. Politically on the Thatcherite right and a convinced Social Darwinist, she once lectured us on how the poor are only poor because they want to be.

Janet was a strict disciplinarian with the younger pupils and a formidable presence with a short fuse temper; she was armed with a whiplash voice with a deafening decibel level. A woman in her early 50s, so I believe. Her stiffly lacquered hair and habit of clutching her handbag while marching with demonic energy were eerily reminiscent of a pre-1983 Margaret Thatcher. For all that I believe she had a profession attitude to her work. She once complained to us that only one of her past pupils had ever returned to visit her and thank her for her help; we probably compounded the error by not returning either...

Mark Powell

-------------------

Pictures
1. Group shot (L-R) Stephen Johnson, Trevor Coldman (Head of Sixth Form) Mark Powell and Ron Cook

2. Helen Orme.

3. Group shot (L-R) Standing: Ray Morris, Mark Powell, Lee Burrowes, Ron Cook, Alan Davis,Kareem Virani, Stuart Jones, Tracy Piner, Debbie Camplin. (L-R) Seated: Diane Downham, Beverley Simmons, Andrea Cox, Colleen Friday, Karen Thomas, Kim Kathrope.

Footnotes
1 One of the roles of a Gaynesford prefect and from the point of view of the school, the single most important one, was to act as a sort of bouncer cum security guard, during school breaks. Prefect were stationed in pair at key spots throughout the twin wings of the building and would ensure that during dry weather the pupils were not permitted to enter the school. During wet weather their function was slightly difference when they were there to ensure that pupils did not leave the building. Unsurprisingly, only a small minority considered being a prefect as the honour that Gaynesford portrayed it.