More Memories 1937/8

 by Francis "Fruit" Gibson

My 1st year form mistress was a Miss Plunkett and we started to learn French immediately. The curious thing was that although Miss Blagg ("Fanny") who was the teacher in charge of French tuition went to great lengths to teach us the phonetics of French pronunciation, we never had any opportunity to practice same. Consequently as time went on we became incredibly knowledgeable regarding a whole range of tenses etc. including some original discoveries but were incapable of ordering a week's shopping. This strange situation arose as a result of London Uni's "O" level syllabus which decreed written French only--no verbals! After the fall of France the school was involved in a concert held in the Albert Hall attended by various French dignitaries and which was, I think, celebrating Bastille Day. The school was required to sing the " Marseillaise "and did so with considerable verve although reviewing the performance upon return to school our French accent was heavily criticized--hardly surprising!

During my first year (1937/38) the headmaster Mr R B Wight died and Mr Adamson served as Master-in Charge until the arrival of the new head in the shape of Mr. R B Calder who was a very decent chap but of a very religious disposition--perhaps a little too much. Part of the syllabus at this time was aimed at giving the girls instruction and practice in Domestic Science and the boys an opportunity to learn something about woodwork. To this end, the timetable would show a whole week set aside for these pursuits but it never worked out that way. Indeed the week was fragmented to incorporate other lessons and we were very lucky to ever achieve a complete day at these practical skills! This meant of course that the combination of irregular scheduling of the week and its inevitable fragmentation one was never able to complete a project, which was not encouraging to say the least. Woodwork classes were in charge of an extremely irascible master whose name escapes me but who had no compunction about inflicting physical criticism on any student who offended him with any implement which came to hand! We were almost always working with blunt tools and were never taught the basics of sharpening tools which, as I later learned when I took up woodworking seriously, is a prime requirement of successful joinery.

Physical and sports activities were another somewhat pointless activity. They were in the care of a Mr "Jimmy" Hill who was without doubt a complete waste of time. During the whole of both my and my brother-in law's time at Mundella neither of us can remember ever receiving any formal instruction in any sporting activity. It was years before I finally understood the offside law in football and LBW in cricket remained a mystery for ages. We had one cross-country run in my first year but that was it, which was a great shame. After the outbreak of war of course, teachers were conscripted and this obviously caused difficulties but there was no excuse for such lack of purpose before then.

Mathematics was another intriguing subject and for most of my time at Mundella it was in the care of a delightful elderly gentleman called Mr,. Broadburn who, because of the way in which he sounded his sibulants was known as "Squeak". He was one of the old school and taught Maths somewhat mechanically. For example we learned how to solve both simultaneous and quadratic equations both by logs and arithmetically but it was never explained how these equations came into being or what purpose they served once fully formed. I spent years looking over my shoulder in an effort to observe the creation of these mysterious beings but with no success and many decades later I am still completely bewildered regarding their true purpose! Dear "Squeak retired late 1941and was succeeded by Miss Onions who had a somewhat different approach. Whilst we were at Stamford, Squeak invented and caused to be published a board game called "Nottingham to Stamford". This was a simple dice game based on the two alternative routes and obviously we were all expected to buy one although I believe profits, if any, went to a war charity.

Science was another somewhat frustrating subject inasmuch as we were never allowed to set up any individual apparatus and were not allowed to investigate or use any of the intriguing bottles and jars neatly arranged on the shelves on each bench but had to be content with watching what went on in the teacher's equipment and experiment.Mathematics was another intriguing subject and for most of my time at Mundella it was in the care of a delightful elderly gentleman called Mr,. Broadburn who, because of the way in which he sounded his sibulants was known as "Squeak". He was one of the old school and taught Maths somewhat mechanically. For example we learned how to solve both simultaneous and quadratic equations both by logs and arithmetically but it was never explained how these equations came into being or what purpose they served once fully formed. I spent years looking over my shoulder in an effort to observe the creation of these mysterious beings but with no success and many decades later I am still completely bewildered regarding their true purpose! Dear "Squeak retired late 1941and was succeeded by Miss Onions who had a somewhat different approach. Whilst we were at Stamford, Squeak invented and caused to be published a board game called "Nottingham to Stamford". This was a simple dice game based on the two alternative routes and obviously we were all expected to buy one although I believe profits, if any, went to a war charity. Science was another somewhat frustrating subject inasmuch as we were never allowed to set up any individual apparatus and were not allowed to investigate or use any of the intriguing bottles and jars neatly arranged on the shelves on each bench but had to be content with watching what went on in the teacher's equipment and experiment.