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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Vonny
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by Vonny »

:shock: I wouldn't have recognised him from those pics.
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CHAZ
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by CHAZ »

But the ties do give it awy, don't you think, Vonny? He was a colourful member of staff.
By the way does anyone know where I can find a current staff list for CH? There is nothing on the school website...
Wishing you all a good weekend :wine:
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Vonny
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by Vonny »

CHAZ wrote:But the ties do give it awy, don't you think, Vonny? He was a colourful member of staff.
True enough! I'm glad he's done well for himself. I'm trying to remember exactly what he was doing in Southampton back in the late 80's but can't think where exactly he was working.
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CHAZ
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by CHAZ »

I left in 1984 (the penultimate all male year). Tim left for a year in US but came back and then as you say was in Southampton but me too knows not where. He seems to be Head at Scarborough for well over a decade now.

Anyway he has his place amongst other teahcer greats and thanks to vonny at least 2 people remember him with affection.

Now who else can I add to my list that Vonny may know...Endacott?
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by Vonny »

I didn't actually know Mr Endacott but one of his sons (Mark) was in my year.
Mr Simms was another who had one of his sons in my year (Chris). Mr Simms came to Florence with us in 87 as well.
Other teachers I remember were Mr Husband, Mr West, Mr Gunning erm, got a mental block, will have to think about it!
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CHAZ
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by CHAZ »

Husband, Gunning, West were all there in my time too. Maybe Mr Endacott had retired. Mark his son was already in the school and had the same birthday as me! Neil Simms was my First XV coach and of course his son, Chris, is now a mega author. For the anecdote Gunning led the first Himalayan expedition in Summer 84 with the great and sadly missed, Clive Kemp...RIP
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by Ajarn Philip »

CHAZ wrote:Neil Simms was my First XV coach

:shock: :shock: :shock: (Sorry, Neil! :lol: )
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by Vonny »

CHAZ wrote: Maybe Mr Endacott had retired.
No - he was there when I was at Horsham and he & his wife were house master/mistress of one of the girls houses. It wasn't BaB so must've been either BaA, ColA or ColB.

Other teachers I've remembered were Mr Sillett, Miss Lindsay (also my housemistress in BaB), Mr Robinson (who went on to marry Miss Hartnett), Miss Muir (also attatched to BaB), Mr Jeffers (also housemaster of PeA) .......
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by kerrensimmonds »

Doesn't anyone remember Jean (BJ) Morrison, who as Acting Head at Hertford moved with the girls to Horsham in 1985 and stayed for one more year as Deputy Head at Horsham?
She joined Hertford when I was there (I would guess early to mid 1960's - I left in 1966, by which time she was already Head of English.). She went on to become Senior Mistress after Miss Blench, and when Miss Tucker moved on in 1982 became Acting Head as I have described.
Thereafter, and in retirement, she sailed around as if she was Mistress of the Horsham campus.... but that is another matter!
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by Jo »

Yes, I remember Miss Morrison. She had a dry wit but I don't think she was a great teacher, and I don't particularly remember her with affection. As Deputy Head, she was also UVI form mistress, and her contribution to my final report was "Joanna has received a great deal from Christ's Hospital, and her service in return has been merely adequate". B*tch. Someone thought I was responsible enough to be a mon at the start of my LVI year, and in the UVI I was 5's House Rep in the inaugural year of the new system. Otherwise I have no clue what Miss Morrison could possibly have known about my "service" to the school.

I suspect she was just writing reports at around the time I forgot to do a particular duty - being the "runner" positioned in the crush hall in case the O/A level invigilator in the school hall had any sort of crisis and needed to contact another member of staff. Why in god's name they thought it was reasonable to use UVI for this duty, when we should have been free to get on with our own A level revision, beats me. :shock:

Gosh, you touched a nerve there Kerren! I didn't realise Miss M would still provoke that reaction, but she was someone who epitomised the petty narrow-mindedness that reigned supreme amongst some of the staff during my time there. You should read what Anna Swan has to say about her in her book "Statues without shadows". She certainly left her impression on poor Anna.

Still, respect to her for taking on the acting headship at her age, and successfully overseeing the move to Horsham. I can imagine her installing herself as Queen Bee there fairly quickly :)
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by englishangel »

I think there is something somewhere else (possibly Hertford thread) about Miss Morrison. She never acually taught me but I always thought she was ok. At least you could see her coming!!

Anyone here know anything about the rumour that someone was coming back from the music school (sanatorium) late one night and heard shouts of laughter and splashes coming from the pool. On looking through the door saw Miss M and friends cavorting in their birthday suits like a load of teenage boys? This must have been '70/'71 or thereabouts.
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Post by Angela Woodford »

I suppose she was my favourite schoolmistress.

She arrived at CH in 1965, and we, L1Va, were her first Form.

I've posted loads about Miss Morrison. I don't want to repeat myself, but I kind of loved her in a way that I could never have felt towards any other member of staff, except for adorable Mrs Betterton, whom I never met until the LVI.

I really admired her dry sense of humour. Unlike any other member of staff, I felt that she understood my "funniness" as a survival mechanism. She once wrote on a report "Angela is an invaluable member of the Form". Perhaps she saw that my eccentricities allowed other to shine the more.

I think of her every time I encounter a dodgy question of spelling and punctuation.

Some remember her as good with Drama. Not me. Her rigid control of emotion, for me, made this difficult! But when it came to superb, accurate, disciplined writing - she was boss. No question!
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by englishangel »

Her rigid control of emotion


Isn't that funny, I always remember her as smiling, but then she never had to teach me. She had a phenomenal memory though. She greeted me by name at OB day at Horsham in 1994 having not seen me since 1972.
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by Jo »

I was thinking some more about my reaction to Miss Morrison, and I think what hurt me about the comment on my report was that it was so unexpected and I couldn't think what I'd done to deserve it. Other than the small misdemeanour I mentioned - forgetting my "runner" duties - which I think would be a really petty reason to write off my whole school record in that way. Prior to that I actually did like Miss Morrison because she really was very funny, although I still think she wasn't a great teacher. She never gave me any inkling that she thought I needed to pull my socks up responsibility-wise; if she thought I did, then she should have said so, rather than just saving it for a spiteful parting shot. I'm afraid that really soured my whole memory of her, and probably cemented the rather bitter feelings I had developed for CH over the previous 2 or 3 years (and lasted for the next 30+ years, really until I discovered this forum).
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Re: Favourite teacher

Post by nastymum »

Jo is right. Miss Morrison was no teacher though she my well have been witty. I remember one memorably dull sequence of lessons which involved the alleged teaching of a Jane Austen Novel. So memorable that I have forgotten which one. She read the entire novel to us which we dutifully followed armed with a pencil and ruler.We were merely required to guess which lines were quotable and underline them . As this constituted almost every word of the novel we were either paralysed with fear at getting it wrong or underlined the entire book. There was no comment made by Miss Morrison or any questions asked by the pupils. She then set an essay title and our responses were subject to her dry wit. Or bullying, depending on your point of view.The pupis in the 'other set' scoffed and derided us for being so stupid as to end up in Miss Morrison's set in the first place .
There was no teaching of anything as far as I can see now. You just had to work it out yourself and sink or swim.
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