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Welcome to the Guestbook
Feel free to add messages relating to the site and the school. The only rules are: real names only, no personal attacks and no unrelated messages (inappropriate messages may be edited/withdrawn without warning).

It would be appreciated if you gave an email address, where you now live and said when you were at the school, but you don't have to.

Plase note that if you click on an email address below you will need to replace ~DOT~ with . and ~AT~ with @ in your email program. The Guestbook presents these this way to avoid email address harvesters collecting your email addresses from the page. I know it's a pain, but it's very much better than the alternative.

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There are 500 messages in the guestbook
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Viewing messages 311 to 320

Neale Backhouse | nealebackh~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Great to hear from our elder statesman Ed Forster. Way to go Ed! The way I feel sometimes these days, I'll be really tottering if and ever I make it to ninety!
Cheers, Neale.

Thu 1-Sep-2016 03:06 - Victoria BC. Canada

Ed. Forster | r2edforster~AT~live~DOT~ca

There has been a lot of discussion about education lately, reminding me of the rotten scholar I was at school, partly because of the war & missing a lot due to being quarantined because of my younger brother's infections. but mainly because I was rotten kid at times. I left school at 15 & didn't sit the Durham as it was then called.
My pal started night school so I decided to go too & found the lessons were very simple, so I must have learned a bit. The school teacher because I didn't have a job got me started as an apprentice shipwright. As I was the only one going to night school I was put in the mould loft. Anyway to cut a long story short I eventually ended up in aircraft engineering in Coventry & then Canada & when I retired 25yrs. ago I was a supervisor in aircraft structure design.
I'm sure that the very basic education I received at the high school was the main reason I was successful
The French learned at school was a boon to me in Quebec. Now I'm in my 10th decade I tend to suffer from acute nostalgia.

Mon 29-Aug-2016 16:40 - PEI Canada

Bryan Cooper | bryglen~AT~bryancooper~DOT~wanadoo~DOT~co~DOT~uk

Further to my discussion with Neale....
I said that there appeared to be no political stomach to reintroduce selective education about one week before Theresa May announced her backing for such a move! With the Labour Party imploding and the Tories looking to take over the ground left vacant by UKIP, it would appear that Grammar Schools could well be on the agenda. Perhaps they will fund them from the Ł350m a week we will save (as well as funding the NHS, Trident and Hinkley Point) by leaving the EU?

Mon 8-Aug-2016 23:19

Eric Moyse | eric~DOT~moyse~AT~sky~DOT~com

There is an item in the Gazette online today regarding School Dinners with a 70's photo from the old school. My memory is of enjoying the meals more as fuel than food but that was the priority then.

Tue 19-Jul-2016 09:53 - Reading Berkshirel

Neale Backhouse | nealebackh~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Thanks Bryan for attempting to modernize my 1950's era thinking. Things are simpler here in Canada. Kindergarten to grade twelve is what you get, no exceptions. Having said that, there are private schools which would claim to provide a superior education, to those whose parents are willing to pay the fees, but,certainly here in BC, the curriculum is basically the same as is offered in the regular public (secondary) schools.

Sat 16-Jul-2016 21:45 - Victoria BC. Canada

Bryan Cooper | bryglen~AT~bryancooper~DOT~wanadoo~DOT~co~DOT~uk

I read Neale's post with interest, although I think he has misinterpreted the changes made in the name of schools/sixth form colleges with an improvement in the delivery of education. The academy schools were introduced by the labour government of Blair & Brown as an attempt to funnel more resources into failing schools, this was, largely, successful. The name academy was then hijacked by the coalition government and Gove used the term and structure as a way of creating 'small government' and cutting out local authorities input to schools. The jury is still very much out on this initiative.
I think it unlikely that there would be the political will and the sharply focussed type of social engineering to ever allow or encourage selective schools to once again divide the population and, effectively, write off 80% of the schools population.

Thu 7-Jul-2016 17:29 - North Wales

Neale Backhouse | nealebackh~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi MIKE
Eric's question made me smile. I wonder what kind of comments he is after. Years ago the Labour Government did it's best to get rid of Grammar Schools and hence the appearance of Comprehensive schools in their place. After a while public opinion, being what it is, felt that there was a requirement for Independent schools, which were sort of Quasi Grammar schools. Later some establishments felt that their bright sparks deserved an even better delineation and called them Colleges. There must be too many Colleges because now their even brighter bright sparks need to be housed in an Academy. Maybe we will come full circle and rediscover High Schools and I'll be able to lift my drooping head and recapture the grandeur of gaining eight passes in "O" levels. I even, mysteriously, received the Kerwin prize for Geography for my efforts. But I have to be truthful, two of the subjects were GED and Metalwork,both generally shunned by the clever boys.

Wed 22-Jun-2016 02:43 - Victoria BC. Canada

Eric Moyse | eric~DOT~moyse~AT~sky~DOT~com

I see from the Shields Gazette online that Harton Technology College may become an academy. Any comments?

Thu 2-Jun-2016 11:34 - Reading Berkshire

From Mike T: This raised its head in 2014, and the Governors were against it ("not the right time" etc) but agreed to review the situation in the future. I would hope that the same thinking will be applied, as the school seems to work well within the local authority framework and, as far as I can see, the only benefit would be if the school was failing - which it most definitely is not.

A local school here converted to an academy and it causes all sorts of significant problems for a feeder school that is outside its foundation group.

Bruce Graham

Coming across the school site "by accident" is, I'm sure, a very common occurrence.

As one of the older members many of whom have been regular contributors to the Guestbook, may I welcome John Stansfield to our ranks and encourage him to contribute his own recollections so that a more comprehensive picture of the development of the school can emerge.

There are tens, dozens, hundreds out there who look at the guestbook and, while interested, perhaps feel that they have little to contribute. Wrong!!

Us oldies would love to know more about the later development of the school so please put (I was going to say pen to paper) finger to keyboard and let us all know.

Fri 6-May-2016 19:37 - Ruskington Lincolnshire

John Stansfield | jstansfiel~AT~aol~DOT~com

I came across this site by accident and am so glad I have. I attended SSGTFB from 1960 to 1968 when Bill Egner was Head.
I would be very pleased to make contact with anyone who remembers me.

Wed 4-May-2016 11:43 - Low Fell, Gateshead

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