Were you at Berridge?


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Mr Chandler.... Now I do recall him with affection. I recall Mr Sutcliffe with fear, and even now hos picture brings out anger in me. But Mr Chandler, no, he was always supportive of the shyer kids and was always encouraging. 

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Through this door...and it's the original, although painted black in my day...I walked with my mum one cold morning early in 1962. I was just 4 years old. The door led to Miss Smith's office and my mu

How many Berridge children have secreted themselves inside this niche situated in the playground which fronts the old infant building, hoping to be left behind when the bell rang at playtime's close?

Sitting on this exact spot, facing the stationery cupboard in Mr Parr's classroom, in spring 1969, I sat my 11+ exam.

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I didn't think you'd remember much about Gerald Chandler, MD. Berridge was his first teaching post from 1966 to 69. He later returned in 1975 as deputy head and, finally, acting head. He certainly taught your cousin, Steven, who appears on my school photo that year.

 

I don't remember Mr Sutcliffe. He was after my time.

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@mercurydancer

 

I had a chat with Mr Chandler recently. The chap on the photo whom you identified as Mr Sutcliffe is indeed him. Although he and Chandler did not teach at Berridge at the same time, they were friends for many years. Sutcliffe later became deputy head at Burford on Oxclose Lane. Sutcliffe and  Berridge head, Jack Baugh, apparently didn't get along too well.

 

Chandler did not remember you but clearly recalled your cousin, Steven and his older sister. He thinks Steven went to grammar school. I don't know where Steven went after Berridge. Mundella, possibly?

 

A further bit of information gleaned is that Jack Baugh had previously taught at The Elms, the Junior Department of Trent College in Long Eaton. On being appointed head of Berridge in 1961, he was the oldest newly appointed head in Nottingham. Ironically,his predecessor at Berridge, D A Griffiths, was the youngest head teacher in the city.

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On 5/10/2021 at 7:37 PM, Jill Sparrow said:

@mercurydancer

 

I had a chat with Mr Chandler recently. The chap on the photo whom you identified as Mr Sutcliffe is indeed him. Although he and Chandler did not teach at Berridge at the same time, they were friends for many years. Sutcliffe later became deputy head at Burford on Oxclose Lane. Sutcliffe and  Berridge head, Jack Baugh, apparently didn't get along too well.

 

Chandler did not remember you but clearly recalled your cousin, Steven and his older sister. He thinks Steven went to grammar school. I don't know where Steven went after Berridge. Mundella, possibly?

 

A further bit of information gleaned is that Jack Baugh had previously taught at The Elms, the Junior Department of Trent College in Long Eaton. On being appointed head of Berridge in 1961, he was the oldest newly appointed head in Nottingham. Ironically,his predecessor at Berridge, D A Griffiths, was the youngest head teacher in the city.

Steve is still close to me. He didnt go to Mundella, I did. His older sister was Susan. For reasons I dont fully know, she became the black sheep of the family, but nothing sordid. My dad kept some communication with her, but as he grew old, this stopped. 

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I feel I need to explain about Mr Sutcliffe. In the playground, he apprehended me accusing me of swinging round him as if he was a pole, whilst running in some playground game.  I have no recollection of that, at the time or now. He picked me up and shook me like a rag doll for quite a long time. I was deeply upset and terrified of him ever after.I   do remember hiding behind a cupboard to avoid him. Quite clearly this was an assault on a child that today would not be tolerated. 

I dont know if he is still alive, but if I got the chance I would explain to him how badly it affected me. I have never forgiven him for it. I am still not sure that if I met him I wouldnt pick him up and shake him like he did to me. 

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I don't know whether he is still alive, MD, and Chandler has long ago lost touch with him.

 

In those days, teachers routinely did things that would land them in prison today. As I've mentioned previously, Hilda Smith, teacher of the final infant year belted many a naughty boy and those who resisted had their head wrapped in a roller towel to prevent them escaping. Today this would be viewed as serious physical and emotional abuse. In 1964, when I was in her class, it was nothing unusual. She was regarded as a good teacher and a strict disciplinarian.

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  • 2 months later...

Picture 1...penultimate year children in 1969/70.  Front row, third from left is Alison Green whose sister, Ann, was in my year. Peas in a pod!

 

No idea who the teacher was.

 

Picture 2  final year pupils 1969/70 in Alan Parr's class, although he's not on the photo.

 

Front row, second from left, Ian Humphreys, centre of first row, seated, short dark hair, Stephanie Heason. Back row, 4th from right believed to be David Prosser. 5th from right, Brett Stephens, who had spent the previous year in my class a year ahead of his chronological age group after his parents complained that his teacher, Viv Bartlett, was not giving their son sufficiently challenging work! He was regarded as very bright.

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@Jill Sparrow Moving children up to the next class a year early was fairly common practice because there was no differentiated work at that time I suppose.  I know that I and some other children were moved up in this way.  I feel sure that my parents had nothing to do with it.  Anyway, I liked being moved up out of my first class when I was 5 because I can remember the teacher in the first class wasn’t very nice to me… The teacher in the second class was lovely.  I spent two years in the last class at Primary School

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Yes, Margie. It seems to have been very common. When I moved from infants to the juniors, I went straight into the second year. My parents were not consulted about it. I was angry at first as this separated me from my best friend but the teacher was lovely and had I stayed in my correct year, the teacher would have been one I didn't get on with. I was with her the following year and was eternally grateful that being moved up a year saved me from two years with someone I disliked and who clearly didn't like me!

 

The downside to this practice is that it makes it difficult to date photos accurately decades later!

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There's a FB Group for school photos from Clifton, and photos there show a lot of examples of age-mixing in infants schools.

 

I wasn't aware of it at the time, but I can now see that in my three years at infants school I was in classes where half the kids were the same age as me and half of them were a year older than me.

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The person who originally posted these two images was at Berridge between 1951 and 1957 for his primary education. I would estimate the photos are approximately 1955/6 ish. These are under 11s and junior pupils.

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Chatting to a friend of mine this evening, the name Stephen Zaleski was mentioned. Mr Zaleski, apparently, taught at Berridge in the 1980s and was one of those responsible for the research which went into the centenary booklet.

 

My friend, who was deputy head at Berridge at the time of the centenary in 1984, told me that Mr Zaleski was associated in some way with The Lenton Listener and might be a useful person to ask about what became of the old Berridge class registers that were on display at the time. Nottinghamshire Archives doesn't hold them.

 

Does anyone know Stephen Zaleski or where he can be contacted? The registers would be invaluable in identifying faces on school photos.

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I would appreciate his email address, Ann, if he's amenable.  Katyjay had advised me that she thought he was still with The Lenton times.  He produced the Berridge centenary booklet in 1984 and we thought he might know where the old registers could be.

 

Many thanks.

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  • 5 months later...

Picture one: third row back, third from right believed to be William Walker, born 1947, lived in Grundy Street. The teacher may be Miss Amos.

 

Picture 2: third row back, fifth from the right, Sharon King, born 1950, of Chadwick Road. Went on to NGHS.

 

Others to follow.

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We never had group photographs taken at Arno Vale. We did have annual portrait pictures presented in a strip of three. I knew someone in our village many years ago whose business was to take school photographs. He travelled the country. He said he always gave the head teacher a cash in hand kick back, ostensibly for school funds!

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