Teaching Tales - Menzies 2

When I started at Menzies I taught a year 10 class that included two young ladies - Pat and Gill. These two took an instant dislike to me. They were rude, aggressive, uncooperative, nasty. I think it was because I was only a few years older and they resented me telling them what to do and commenting on their skills. Pat in particular was very unpleasant. She had a habit of sitting on a bench in the quadrangle and shouting abuse if she saw me pass or in the distance.
This got so bad that one day I thought I must do something. I went and sought advice from Miss Davies who was Deputy Head with reponsibility for girls. Miss Davies asked when I would next see the two girls in a lesson. It was that afternoon after lunch.
As the lesson started a sixth form girl arrived with a message from Miss Davies. Pat and Gill were to go and see her. They went immediately. They returned after 20 minutes, they knocked on the door! They came in quietly, sat down, took out their books and asked what they should be doing. They worked in absolute silence for the remainder of the lesson apart from Pat occasionally weeping into her hanky. I have no idea what Miss Davies did but it worked for as long as I can remember. I was never brave enough to use Miss Davies' first name and cannot remember it but I remember Miss Davies.
I had a friend who taught in the 'remedial' department. this was for difficult and challenging pupils who were a new phenomenon at Menzies. (Incidentally I remember my sister coming home from her first day at Comprehensive School and saying "they have a special department for the naughty kids - the sign on the door says they are the Redeemed department).
Anyway my friend in the remedial department at Menzies said that Miss Davies taught English to one of their most difficult groups. This was a group who rioted with everyone else, fighting, throwing chairs, running out of the room etc. With Miss Davies they were good and got on with their reading and writing like angels. Furthermore Miss Davies often got called away for other duties and in her absence they would continue to be well-behaved. My friend spotted that Miss Davies always left her handbag on the desk. On day when she had to leave he slipped into the room and removed the handbag. As soon as he left chaos erupted but as soon as he took the handbag back peace descended.


One final story about Miss Davies.
I went to my classroom one afternoon and found a chap in overalls adjusting a radiator with a spanner. I said hello and asked if there was a problem. He took me on one side and introduced himself as a local Police Inspector. There was a rumour that the kids from another local comp - Churchfields- were coming down after school for a fight with the Menzies kids. There were policemen stationed around the estate and the Inspector was coordinating his response from my window using a very old fashioned and very chunky walky talky. As the end of the day approached we could see a very large group of Churchfield lads gathering on the pavement. The Inspector got his troops organised. Unfortunately no one had thought to tell Miss Davies what was going on. She spotted the gang from her office window ands she was straight out with "What are you boys doing here? Clear off home at once and I do not want to see you here again". They all disappeared at once! I was left with a very disgruntled Police Inspector who had to send his men back to the station.

We had another senior lady named Gwen. It was Gwen's duty to station herself every Friday afternoon at the top of the stairs leading up to the staff room where she would check everyone's register for the week for presentation, quality and correct adding of totals across and down - no computers in those days or even calculators - it was all best handwriting and mental arithmetic. There were also no modesty boards on on desks. There was many a young lad like me who first saw Directoire Knickers and brogues when taking a register to be checked by Gwen. Older staff would delight in sending us on errands to the staff room followed by close questioning on what we had seen. These old grammar school teachers wer such scallys.