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On 1/24/2019 at 7:28 PM, LLJ said:

Hi. My dad was deputy at the school for years - I remember the fire really well. It was devastating for the staff, kids and parents. Dad had to go and help work out which animals had died.... and we lost a lot of things that Dad had taken in over the years to use and show the kids. It was a terrible thing to happen. They did move site to a school that had been 'mothballed' by the council... Same site as Brinkhill and another one?? .... we all have v fond memories of Brooksby on both sites... My dad was incredibly proud to eventually become its Head at the new site and of the school it became when it amalgamated (Dovecote) . It's quite an important birthday for him soon.... So if anyone has any NICE memories of Mr Harris... Please leave them on here perhaps? 

Hi. I was in Mr (Paul) Harris’s class  for my last two years as Brooksby - Mr Harris was the coolest teacher (very casually dressed) to have and we were so lucky he moved up with us for our last year, hence we had him for 2 years. By then he was deputy head.  We were in larger of the two  annex buildings that survived the fire but were demolished later.  It was It was during my last year during the Easter holiday of 1984 that the school building arson attack occurred. 

We were promptly moved to the mothballed Greencroft Infant building. It was not large enough and for my final primary school term our classroom was the hall.

 

Other teachers of my time were Mrs Bennett, Mr Higson, Miss Bramford, Miss Winn, Miss Welsh,  Mrs Simpkin (drove an Austin Maxi), Mrs Richards (infants yr 1) and Mr Atkin.  The latter was replaced by Mr Harris. The head teacher secretary was Mrs Esden and the caretaker was Mr Mayfield who

lived with his wife in the house within the school premises next to the gates.

 

The head teacher when I started was Mrs Harrison who retired a few years later, replaced my Miss Joss, who I remembered brought her Labrador dog to school called Charlie, and he would wee in the corridors.  She never had the gravitas of Mrs Harrison and was eventually succeeded by Paul Harris (after I left)

 

I did pump into Paul Harris about 10 years later and he remembered me.  Would be fantastic to contact him again.

Kevin Matthews 07804 906834

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  • 11 months later...

I am so pleased I have found this forum!

I'm an ex Brooksby pupil too.

1965 to 1971. Many happy & sad (Mark Darch drowning, main building fire) memories. 

Some of the teachers I remember have already been mentioned, my first teacher was a Miss Brooke? Some names of classmates...Tony Moss, Trevor Gardner, Alan O'Brian, Karen Oliver, Beverly Stewart, Russell Yates, April Gough...I loved that school, shame it's no longer there.

I can't remember ever having a school photo...but remember the morning assembly where Miss Harrison would glide into the hall majestically to classical music  ready to start the day. Mr Adkin would be in charge of page turning on the big hymn sheets! I still have a book I made about dinosaurs as part of a school project!

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I can recall most of my teachers in the 1970's at Brooksby.

Mrs Weight, Mrs Simpkin, Mrs Bennett, Mrs Berzervele, Mr Atkin, Mr Fernly, Mr Harris.

There were others - possibly a Mrs White or Richards? in the first year.

 

I could whittle on about all sorts of things from my time there but I will mention a few things that will no doubt trigger memories to those that were there.

 

-The massive, battered and torn hym sheet roll at the front of the hall.  We all read the lines from it when singing in assembly to the piano.

  There was a raised wooden box platform in front of it.

-Lining up in the play ground by class before walking into the building

-The 15 minutes 'playtime' in the playground I think both in the morning and afternoon.  Regardless of how awful the weather was.

-The annual nativity play with people from a local old folks home  to make up the numbers in the audience

-The christmas party with the hats we used to make every year - Pirate hats were popular

-The daily milk delivery of small bottles we drank later when they were unpleasently warm through straws

-The whicker bins inside each class with generations of chewing gum stuck to the bottom

-The black clothes hooks in the corridor where we hung our coats

-The ( to me ) very high climbing frame on the left hand side of the hall as you went in that health and safety would never allow today

-Walking to school and back.  The 'school run' by car was unheard of then.

-The annual sports day where we took our wooden chairs out in the sun for events such as the 'Egg And Spoon' race.

-The younger years playing out on the grass in front of classes in the summer with water, building bricks etc.

-A child from the oldest class in the main building running down the corridor at home time ringing the hand bell so everybody knew it was time to go.

-The books lining the dark creaky corridor shelves of the main building

-The car bollard with the tyre on it near the kitchens - still I think there today.

-All display materials penned by the teacher at the front of the class on a blackboard with chalk - not even an overhead projector let alone a computer screen.

-Sitting on a big blue mat with the rest of the class in the lower years - usually being read a story by the teacher

-Putting the chairs on the desks at the end of the day for the cleaners

-The big annual big board display each class would do on a subject inside their class ( the Sea, the Zoo, Birds, Holidays etc ).

-The alphabet along the wall for the lower years

-The TV room and watching the weekly schools program selected for your year on the BBC in the morning ( remember the clock counting down )?

  Not even video tape then.

-LadyBird books

-The cardboard tray acting as a draw in your desk

-Lined Exercise books with 'Nottighamshire County Council' logos on the top right of the green cover.

-The gym bags with a cord round their top.  Many bought the school selection of fluorescent orange ones with various sports designs.

-Bring your games in day - the last day of the calendar year before Christmas.

 

I went back to the site around 2000 and looked at the foundations long after it had all been burned and demolished.

I could not believe how small the rooms were.  We were really packed in like sardines then. 

 

 

 

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