| MORE than 1,600 people milled through the grounds
and corridors of the Long Eaton Grammar School on Saturday, when an open
day and gala was held as part of the Jubilee celebrations |
went on, were taught not only to place their learning
at the service of the world, but to place themselves also.
"What
mean ye by these stones?" he asked the present day pupils ranged before
him. "Have you ever thought of it, as you walk down Tamworth Road.
and through those gates? Those stones have a meaning not only for you but
for the whole of Long Eaton Do not take them too much for granted."
"For fifty years men and women who care for learning, who care also
for character, have given their strength and their skill for this purpose,
that you may take out into the world not only the challenge of their strength
and skill, but also the challenge of selflessness and service." FORMER
PUPILS
Taking part in the service were two former pupils of the school, Mr. Albert
Henderson, a teacher at the Hallcroft School, Ilkeston, and a lay preacher,
who read the first lesson, and the Rev. Raymond Jowett, a Methodist minister
at Loughborough, who said a prayer for the school.
An introductory prayer was said by the Rev. R. Kettell, resident minister
at the Mount Tabor Church.
The Headmaster of the Grammar School, Mr. G. Gray, read the second lesson.
HISTORIES IN SOUND AND PRINT
A history of the Grammar School, which is being prepared to mark the
fiftieth anniversary, will be published in September.
The result of considerable research and collation of information, the
work will record, in addition to the known facts of the school's development,
the memories and anecdotes of generations of pupils and members of staff.
At the same time a history of another kind is already in existence, and
is continually being added to. Since the school acquired a tape-recorder
some years ago, all sorts of occasions, some official, same unofficial,
have been preserved in sound. These have now been edited and arranged
in chronological order, on a single tape, and give a fascinating cross-section
of school life.
The items range from delightful folk-singing of a party of children from
Rahlstedt, the Grammar School's "twin" school in Germany, to
the powerful noise of the school jazz band, at a Christmas party three
years ago, from the speeches on formal occasions to ragged versions of
the Sixth-form song an annual performance in which pupils poke gentle
fun at members of the staff.
A complete recording of last Thursday's Commemoration Service is the latest
edition to these archives of sound.
EXAMINATIONS STOPPED REHEARSAL
The cast of "H.M.S. Pinafore," which was performed at the Long
Eaton Grammar School on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday as part of the Jubilee
celebrations, had to break off rehearsals for six weeks while the school
hall was used for examinations. They were left with only a week to put
the final touches to the production.
(Continued on Page 6) – sadly this is missing
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The crowds made up of large numbers of old
scholars and former members of staff as well as parents of the present
generation of pupils, exceeded all expectations and the printed issue
of the programme was soon sold out.
LINK WITH EARLY DAYS
A link with the early days of the school was provided by Mrs, Mary Attenborough
who performed the opening ceremony on the School Field As the daughter
of the first headmaster, the legendary Samuel Clegg as wife of Mr F. Attenborough,
one of the teachers in those pioneering days and later principal of Leicester
University College, and as mother of two nationally known personalities,
Richard and David Attenborough, Mrs, Attenborough remarked humorously
that she had never had chance to become known in her own right
She said, however, that her various associations with the school had led
her to look on it as another home. Remarking on the deep and far-reaching
influence which her father, Samuel Clegg had had on all his pupils, Mrs.
Attenborough said that her famous son Richard often met people who introduced
themselves: You will not know me, but I was a pupil of your father's!
"Then they tell my son," she said, "how much father meant
to them." The chairman of the school governors, Mr. E. W. Roper who
presided, introduced the chairman of the Long Eaton Council, Mr. W, S.
Geary who spoke of the character which the school had acquired over the
years, and wished it well for the future.
HEAD BOY
A vote of thanks to the distinguished visitors was proposed by the Head
Boy of the school, Roger Graham.
He told the audience that the proceeds from the day's activities and from
other event, during the Jubilee Week, would go towards the building of
a Sports Pavilion on the new sports field, as a permanent reminder of
the school's first fifty years.
The various forms in the school had each erected around the field a money-raising
sideshow and visitors were encouraged to try their luck at knocking down
tin-cans, bowling at skittles, have their fortune told and all the usual
accompaniments of a summer fete.
Many people, however, some of them intent on reviving old memories, preferred
to tour the school buildings and look at the exhibitions of school life
and activities that had been staged by the various departments. For two
hours long queues of visitors thronged the corridors and staircases, while
pupil's and staff endeavoured to explain the exhibits.
In the new science block, a source of constant admiration, experiments
in physics and chemistry were shown in operation, and in the biology laboratory
a neatly dissected rat pinned to a board caused a minor sensation.
The German room was gay with maps and coloured pictures of Germany, but
in the room dedicated to French studies the exhibits appealed to other
senses besides the eye. While a tape-recorders kept up a continual background
of French popular music and dramatics, visitors were invited to taste
French cheeses or buy a ticket for a raffle for French wines on show.
Meanwhile queues stretched down the staircase for the half-hourly '' showings
of a short comedy film, "The Tasks of Fred Hercules," which
had been made by the Lower VI.
For many visitors, however, this was a day for reviving old friendships.
Among these present were number of personalities from the early years,
including Mr. S. H. Hickling, the only surviving member of the original
Board of Governors, Miss R. Taylor and Miss J, Turner, two former senior
mistresses, Mr. S. Mansfield, senior master for many years, Mr. F. E.
Macdonald, a well remembered mathematics master Mille. Goniche a French
assistante teacher from the 1920's, Mrs. M. V. Woods, one of the first
pupils, Miss Dedicoat, an early member of the staff, and Mrs. Frost, chief
cook for, 32 years.
Mr. F. E. Roberts, headmaster from 1930-1957, was prevented from attending
by his duties as a Cambridge examiner.
According to early estimates, the money raised towards the sports,
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US VISITOR
Among the former scholars who have been visiting the school during
the Jubilee celebrations is Mrs. Millicent Ashden, who now lives at Meriden,
Connecticut, U.S.A. Mrs Ashden was one of the original pupils when the
present building was opened, and the classes were moved there from the
Central Methodist school room. |
| Pavilion from this day of celebration and memories will total
£200.
COMMEMORATION SERVICE
The Long Eaton Grammar School is important not only to those who go there,
but to the whole of Long Eaton, said Mr. Whitfield Scorer, former Divisional
Education Officer for South-East Derbyshire, speaking at a Commemoration
Service held in Mount Tabor Church last Thursday, as part of the Jubilee
celebrations.
Mr. Scorer recalled the early days of the century, when the growing need
for cultural and scientific teaching led to the passing of the Secondary
Education Act, and the building of what is now the Grammar School.
EARLY BUILDERS
“Those early builders," he said, "who, brought those stones
together, belonged to a time which to us seems. very peaceful and remote,
very settled, but to them seemed full of strange, chaotic things. Unless
they did something about educating their children, the nation would fall
behind the world."
In 1910, he recalled, the school opened with 92 pupils. To-day there were
630, and the attendance book shows that 4,500 people have passed through
the school over the fifty years.
"Since that day that faith brought those stones together 4,500 people
have been enabled, either at their own request or at the request of their
parents, to get an education that was based on Matthew Arnold's idea that
culture was acquirable in one of two ways, either by study of a language,
the humanities or by study of a natural science."
The one mistake that was made, said Mr. Scorer, was by "throwing
overboard technical education to the evening classes."
The Long Eaton Grammar School, however had not just provided the means
of a cultural education, it had turned out men and women prepared in character
to meet the world, due largely to the "pastoral care" shown
by their teachers.
DEVELOPED A CARE
"The teachers," he said, were not only prepared to teach the
new languages they were not done with that - they also began to look upon
their school as a clergyman looks upon his parish. There developed a care
for each child, so that they got out of each child the best that was in
it."
Grammar School pupils, Mr. Scorer
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