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Nottingham schools in top 100

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Click here to read their views.CITY schools have been ranked among the country's best for the development of their pupils.

Blue Bell Hill Primary in St Ann's has been named the number one school in the country for the value it adds to its pupils' education.

It scored 105 for contextual value added (CVA) – a measure which takes account of a school's circumstances and compares it with how well its children do.

Head teacher Jo Bradley said: "We believe in allowing our children to make as much progress as they should, or are able to."

As an ex pupil of Blue Bell Hill School this sounds like good news ,but what the heck is CVA? Can the kids read ,write,and do maths better,to equip them for better jobs.

Still its a good effort,I remember not so long ago BBH was right at the bottom of the heap.

Just had another thought.

In my day we did not have CVA . Music was the sop which the kids were fed. However the education was good if VERY tough( wow were the teachers quick with the cane and strap) but everyone could read,they could do arithmetic in their heads,and could Speel!

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Must have done their job right Stan as I was in the "A" stream from dot one at Huntingdon Street Sec School after I'd left BBH.

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It's not the same old Blue Bell Hill School anymore Stan, this one is on the same site as Rose Hill School. I think the only thing left of the old school is the dinner hall which is used as a community room. I've got lots of memories of Blue Bell though, can you remember the line of outside toilets at the back of the playground? One line for the girls and one for the boys lol. Swimming lessions were at the Victoria baths in the Oval pool, i can always remember standing on the ledge that ran all the way around it just under the water level. Can you remember the one armed barber on Gordon Road? I was too young to understand what he meant when he asked customers if they needed "something for the weekend sir" although i clearly remember him saying it lol. Mr Gibby was the Headmaster during my time there and yes i did experience the cane across the palm of my hand and the one person you didn't tell was your dad because you knew you'd get a bigger hiding off him.

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Rob, do you remember those huge free standing Rediffusion speakers?? Come summer when England was touring Australia, the teachers would put one out at the top of the stairs and plug it in, we lads would sit and listen to the "live" test match! Play would have been a commentary with sound effects all done in the studios from a transcript teletyped from the cricket grounds. Still, we believed it was live!

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Whilst on the subject of Rose Hill,it brought back memories of my time at the other `Hill"(BBH) In my year(I finished in 1951 at BBH) There were 50+ in the `A' stream,another 50+ in the B and about 20 or 30 in the `C' then the real problem kids were sent to Rose Hill.

Only 1 kid passed the 11+ in that year out of 130 kids. Reading the reports of recent times about standards at the school nothing seems to have changed much. Instead of teaching the 3 `R`s the kids have CVA.

I do remember the standards though were good education wise. I could never understand how so many failed to get a place at the `grammar'. Maybe some form of discrimination against the kids of St. Anns?

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Blue Bell Hill was in the heart of St Anns.

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[Can you remember the one armed barber on Gordon Road? I was too young to understand what he meant when he asked customers if they needed "something for the weekend sir" although i clearly remember him saying it lol. Mr Gibby was the Headmaster during my time there and yes i did experience the cane across the palm of my hand and the one person you didn't tell was your dad because you knew you'd get a bigger hiding off him.

I had my very first haircut from said gentleman in 1945. I demanded my mum sweep up all my hair so I could take it home! Needless to say this was not carried out. The infants headmistress was Miss Morgan (what a tyrant) Speciality was beating the kids over the Knuckles with a very thick pencil or ruler.

In the junior school it was K.B. Martin a fanatical swimmer who I believe had a leisure centre named after him. The only staff I remembered were Mr. Ball in the final year -a real expert with the leather strap. There was a tall very beautiful dark haired teacher named Miss Line or Lyons . The chap I most remember was a Mr. Clarke very pleasant and un war like. I noted on the `Friends site' there are only 3 names left for 1951 for BBH. I was due to meet up with Marg. Buttons a few years back,but I think she became ill.

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Ball rings a bell, there was a Mr Davies/Davis, in my first year in Junior section, he asked me how I spell my last name and argued black and blue I was wrong! I'd have to look through my old school reports to find other teachers names.

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Rose Hill School was on St Mathias Road between Blue Bell Hill and Carlton Road.

One of my sons attended the School, i prefer to call them slow learners.

imsorry I would refer to the pupils as slow learners too, these days, but the phrase I used was a sign of the times............please accept my apologies, if I have caused any offence... :sorry:

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  • 2 years later...

In my day Blue Bell Hill School was on the corner of Pym Street and Blue Bell Hill, and on the other corner was the Primitive Methodist Chapel, where I went to Sunday School in the late 1930s. Long before the area was demolished.

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Around 1963 a School friend of mines lived at the Bluebell Hill School.

His name was Richard Churchill. His father was the caretaker

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ROSE HILL WAS AND STILL IS A SCHOOL FOR CHILLDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS TODAY IT SPECILIZES IN CARING AND EDUCATING FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISUM. AND YES THANKFULLY FOR THE KIND OF CHILDREN WHO NEED SPECIAL SCHOOLS FOR WHETEVER REASON WE ARE NOW MORE PC THAN WE WERE, FOR THOSE WHO CARNT SPEAK UP FOR THEM SELFS NEED US TO DO IT FOR THEM, AND THAT IN MY MIND GOSE FOR ALL KINDS OF BULLYING. I KNOW IN OUR DAY IT WAS THE NORM TO USE TERMS SUCH AS DAFT THICK MONGOL ECT BUT WE AS ADULTS MUST EDUCATE THE KIDS OF TODAY THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

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  • 8 months later...

As I've mentioned on another posting in the St Anns thread recently, I was at Blue Bell Hill from the autumn of 1959 until leaving, aged 11 in the summer of 1961.

Below is the photo of Class 4 taken, I think, in spring 1960. Miss Woods was the class teacher. For the last year we then moved up to Mr Lowe's class, a gentleman with a withered hand. The headmaster was Mr S. P. Leigh. Other teachers I can remember were Mr Tennyson, Miss Barker, who took the infants, and Miss Gascoigne, who became Mrs Watson during my time there.

We also had a visiting music teacher who was blind, but who had no trouble playing the piano during lessons.

I can't remember all the names on the photo, but I've put those I can.

BlueBellHillSchoolPhoto_zps56d0e595.jpg

Left to right:

Back row:- Ronald Glover, Kenny Watts, Brian Nowicke (spelling?), Gordon Whittaker, Keith Hill (?), Jaswant Singh, Keith Radmal (?), ?, ?, ?, Geoffrey Gibson

Middle row - Me, Alan Crabtree, ?, Janice Farrell, Hilda(?) ?, ?, Margaret Taylor (only we didn't call her Margaret - I won't give her nickname), Helen ?, Jennifer ?, Harold Fowler, David Chillman

Front row - ?, ?, Denise Winter, ?, Karen Marshall, Lesley ?, Maxine Griggs, ?, ?, Diane Winter, Christine ?, ?

Denise and Diane Winter were twins. Although they didn't really look alike (different hairstyles, and Diane wore glasses, which she's removed for the photo) they always dressed the same.

Michael Gosling was evidently absent as usual.

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Wonder what the picture would look like today. Half the number in the class and I note only 1 Sikh,no West indians and almost all `white' faces!

And these days they wouldn't have names like Brian, Keith, Ronald, Janice, Helen etc.

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We had a Sikh in my class at Huntingdon Street in the late 50's He had his hair cut short unlike the practicing Sikh's...I don't recall any West Indians at that time... We had a Hungarian refugee, he couldn't speak English, soon learned though, he was pretty fluent within weeks both spoken and written, quite an achievement..

I don't recall any Indian or West Indians at Blue Bell Hill during my time there, 1952 to 1958.

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