Favourite teacher

Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...

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huntertitus
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Favourite teacher

Post by huntertitus »

This award goes to Mr Watters who was supposed to teach English but often started discussing totally different subjects. Once, he made a comment about Japanese "Noh" drama, andsaid he could, if we were interested, fetch his gramophone so we could hear this exotic music for ourselves. Sniffing the possibility of some lessons where no work would be required, we encouraged him to bring in his ancient gramophone and, for a whole term, we veered off the beaten track and spent every lesson listening to a wonderful cacophany of screeching Japanese music - other teachers, like "Stein" Johnstone would periodically come storming into our class, furious at the noise which was disturbing the concentration of most other classes.

Am I allowed now to maybe start a thread on the worst teacher, the most sadistic teacher or even the most bullied - by - the - pupils teacher?

Someone said we should only be allowed to say nice things about CH experiences but to my mind some of the best things I have read, have not always been positive and certainly the most amusing things on these forums are about the eccentricities and oddity of the place, which to my mind are the most interesting things about it.
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jtaylor
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by jtaylor »

huntertitus wrote: Am I allowed now to maybe start a thread on the worst teacher, the most sadistic teacher or even the most bullied - by - the - pupils teacher?
The best judgement for deciding what's OK and what's not is whether you'd say the same to the person face-to-face, or to their family face-to-face if they're RIP.
Use that and it should be fine....
Also just be carefull on descriptions of specific things, or anything that condones or described bullying of any sort, as this is inappopriate.
If in doubt, PM me or Simon P.
Cheers,
J
Last edited by jtaylor on Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Great Plum »

I find it hard to say who my favourite teacher was - there are a number who were influential in my time at CH - within the boarding house, Mr Kemp and Dr Stuart spring to mind...

Academically, Mr jeffers, Mr Pattison, Mr Shippen and Dr Wines were great teachers...
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Sabina Stewart
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Favorite Teacher

Post by Sabina Stewart »

No contest, Jean Tavener who taught me piano and organ. She was quite unlike any other member of staff, encouraging, gentle and unauthoriatrian, a gifted musician, she loved dogs and lived away from the school - she had a life, unlike many of the others it seemed. Music was about the only thing I was any good at, and being an organist meant I could disappear off to the chapel for hours on end without anyone knowing where I was. My one regret is realising how badly I'd let her down when one morning playing in chapel, my curiosity got the better of me - I wondered what would happen if I just stopped playing. So I did.
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Post by J.R. »

The late Nell Todd: Head of Art.

A tranquil glade in a complete storm of madness, AND she introduced me to Jaqueline Du Pre. (We made pots and plates together)

Lovers of 'serious' music will remember Jaqueline. A sad loss as such a tender age.
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So many...

Post by jp »

I couldn't begin to work this out. The teacher who sticks most in my mind is Dick West, or 'Jesus' as he was known to us, owing to his love of sandals, and his apparent age of 132. Not a terribly good teacher, and not an easy man to talk to - he lived in a house near the bird sanctuary that must have been the most isolated staff house in the school. I remember him making anyone who yawned run round the quad, and whenever we got to one of the more obscene bits of shakespeare, he'd open the classroom window and bellow it out at full volume. He used to take great glee in doing this on parents' days and the like.

In the evenings you'd see him wacking a bucket of golf balls back and forth across the far end of Big Side.

I don't think anyone going to school anywhere now would experience someone as eccentric as him.
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Nell Todd

Post by Mid A 15 »

JR mentioning Nell Todd reminds me of a "perk" when I was a squit.

Namely taking Nell Todd her dinner on a saturday evening. Apart from spending time with Nell Todd, who as JR says was great company, you got extra food as "payment".

Extra food was not to be sneezed at since squits were always served last on the old fashioned long house tables. It was not unknown for food to have run out completely by the time the squits got a go.
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Mid A 15
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Post by Mid A 15 »

I remember being taught English by the legend that is Gerald Davies when he returned from the 1971 Lions tour to New Zealand (which we won). For any youngsters reading, at that time victory in New Zealand was equivalent to England's World Cup win in 2003.

I thought such a Sporting God would be a remote figure but he was a really nice bloke.
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Post by Richard Ruck »

We had England centre Peter Warfield coaching during my last year. Not quite such a legend of the game as Gerald Davies, but a great bloke nonetheless.

I remember him playing for England against the All Blacks at Twickenham - he had a kick charged down which led to a N.Z. try - oh dear :oops:
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Post by BTaylor »

Dick West - great man, although we used to call him Cat Weasel.
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Post by DavebytheSea »

OK - Cecil Cochrane! He never actually taught me, but he gave me a lifelong love of music and an appreciation of its significant role in worship. His reputation may have become somewhat tarnished in his latter years, but he was a truly gifted and dedicated master. Thank you Corks! RIP
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Post by FRIDGE »

I had a few teachers that influenced my time at school. I remember the ones more so near the end of CH as they actually helped me out, instead of trying to mould you into their perfect pupil. H was such a great inspiration for our year as a whole (in peele a) while he was our housemaster and then later my tutor he helped me to get through the labourious writting of UCAS and mojorly just kept me ticking over and wanting to do well in my a levels. Then Dayle Kirby i have never really had someone make me like a sport as quickly as him, he introduced us to flag american football which meant that we quickly understood what was happening whenever you watch the super bowl or the live games on sky sports as there was nothing else on. The enthusiasm that he had for the game and the commitment that he also had to try and keep it running even in difficult circumstances where rugby was moaning that we were enjoying something different but similar. Mr Holme helped me to achieve my d of e by performing the gaffa tape operation on the peak of a mountain on probably the worst blisters that people would see, he actually advised our group in so many ways to improve the way our hike went and he also stopped us from killing joe!! Which would have been a downer on the hike if we had come back without him.

All i can say is if they read this is THANK YOU it was helpful and i made it!!!
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Post by Ash »

Mike O Conner... Truly inspirational art teacher... also The REV Porteous.. Like a brother to the more reprobate contingent at CH... ;)
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Post by Simon Kerruish »

Mid A 15 wrote:I remember being taught English by the legend that is Gerald Davies when he returned from the 1971 Lions tour to New Zealand (which we won). For any youngsters reading, at that time victory in New Zealand was equivalent to England's World Cup win in 2003.

I thought such a Sporting God would be a remote figure but he was a really nice bloke.
Agree with you about Gerald, Andy. I'd add Tom Jeffers, Pat Cullen, Pete Farrar and, God help me, Louis Bardou the mad frog.
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Post by loringa »

Christopher 'Bomber' Nicholson - probably the best performer in the classroom ever; John Shippen - more of an influence through the Scouts than the classroom but significant nonetheless; Peter Wright - Maths and being a good bloke; 'Pinky' Palmer - English; 'Rat' James - Chemistry; 'Killer' Fry - Biology; Louis Bardou - barking mad Frog; Bob Rae - Maths - the list goes on. I can't think of any really bad teachers during my time there with the exception of P F Matthews, the 80 a day Chemistry teacher who couldn't get through a lesson without stopping for a ciggie. Entertaining though as we burnt and blew up things and passed the odd crafty ciggie around ourselves - he either never noticed or didn't care!
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