Perrott Hill 5
I have
always hated organised sports, as anyone who has read my blog posts about the
London Water Closet will already know. However, at Perrott Hill there were two school sports that I rather enjoyed.
At PHS, all
the children (or certainly all of the boys) were allocated to the “four games”.
“First game” was a bit serious, for those who could be playing in the Under 13
matches against other schools and “third game” was for those who might be
playing in the Under 11 matches. This meant that the “second” and “fourth”
games were for the oddbods, those who would not be playing in school matches,
those who were a bit physically challenged or (like me) did not really want to
be there.
I really
enjoyed playing cricket with the fourth game. A sunny afternoon, a group of
enthusiastic but pretty clueless young cricketers (mostly about eight or nine
years old) and a wonderful view of the glorious Somerset countryside: that is a
marvellous combination. I even went to the trouble of marking out a pitch and
brushing up on the rules of cricket in my free time.
The other sport (if indeed it can be called a sport) that was a bit of fun was croquet. Next to the main building was a splendid lawn that must surely have been designed as a croquet lawn, but no one was using it for that purpose. I decided that someone should re-introduce the glories of croquet to Perrott Hill.
My friend Richard very chivalrously and generously paid for a new croquet set, while I bought a small silver cup. Thus was born the Perrott Hill School Inter-House Croquet Competition.
What makes a good school? A beautiful setting in the countryside is a good start, but you also need some enthusiastic and talented teachers. Derek Hoare was, on the whole, a kindly and avuncular head. Yes, he did use corporal punishment, but I think that I would have done much the same in his position. Mr Hoare always wrote to the parents of any boy who was caned. I never heard of any pupil or parent complaining about the discipline at Perrott Hill: quite the opposite, in fact.
A good
school also needs some good pupils. (Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?)
A lot of the students at Perrott Hill were some of the funniest and nicest
children I have ever met.
In some ways, it was difficult to leave PHS. Four years is quite a large chunk of a young man’s life. The positive reason for leaving was that I was going to teacher training college and at last I would have a certificate to say that I was professionally qualified to do what I had been doing for the previous four years. When I left Perrott Hill, I took something with me, something that I had not possessed when I first arrived: a career, a vocation, something that I would follow for the rest of my working life.
I never knew why you left, there was some juicy rumour of some vague drinking scandal, but I think an older boy spun a very convincing yarn to some gullible younger children! Apologies for the 40 year old slight Sir. Your successor Keith Maxwell was very different, he was very keen on his football, and a bit less keen on his red pen!
ReplyDeleteI found DH a strange fish, on one hand he was unbelievably liberal allowing us the most incredible degrees of freedom with River Walks and the infamous Adventure Walks. Can you imagine the Health and Safety paperwork that would need to be filed if three 12/13 year olds were given blind folds, driven a few miles from school in the school minibus, given an Ordinance Survey map and the location and told to find their own way home. The only safety net was a 10 pence piece to call the school from a public phone box if we got lost or if it got dark. I think we had to do that once, and the phone just swallowed the coin without connecting the call. Thinking back River Walks were just as bad. We had to go in a minimum group of three, and if someone got into trouble one was to stay with the casualty and the other was to fetch help. Thank heavens no one ever got hurt, or worse got into trouble in the river. But we were not only allowed to take part, but were encouraged to do so.
ReplyDeleteThe other side of him was he had some pretty old fashioned views of the world, he was not a modern man by the end of the 1980s. Perhaps it is why he hired you, new blood, fresh ideas, youthful energy. I remember he kept his canes in the side room of his study, but when it came to beatings it was a gym shoe. I had plenty of Twos, some Fours but never the dreaded Six of the best. We were expected to thank him afterwards, it was just how it was done.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I found your blog was I was pondering just what the *hell* went on in my early days schooling, and I thank you for your memories and particularly pictures. I think I'm in one of them, I can put names to some of the faces. I can remember you taking me for cricket on the Front Field, I took my first ever One-hand-one-bounce catch and thought I was Ian Botham for the day! I played a little U11 cricket with DH, but I never played Top Field cricket after that even towards the end when I had a growth (and crucially a co-ordination) spurt. We used to play Inky Cricket with Mr Holden on the Front Field, where you could be Out before you were In. It was great fun once you had grown a little bit more than the others, I used to smear the poor younger ones bowling all over the place. You could run six if you whacked the ball into the adjoining pony paddock as there was no easy way to reach it. I did not know where the croquet set came from, that lawn was almost a forbidden area before then. It saw plenty of use, and I think a parent donated a fine set eventually.
ReplyDeleteWell, yes, Richard Cottrell and I did have a glass (or two) of wine at the end of a long day. However, I left Perrott Hill in order to go to teacher training college, not because I was asked to leave! Yes, Derek Hoare was a bit old-fashioned, I suppose, but he always gave me good advice. Sometimes I would write to him, a long time after leaving PHS, and ask him what I should do next in my teaching career. He always wrote back with some positive and helpful ideas. Yes, Derek Hoare did believe in discipline, but he also believed in fairness. I do not recall any boy at Perrott Hill ever saying that they had been punished for something that they had not done. Of course, a lot of the parents were Army and Navy personnel, so they were quite enthusiastic about corporal punishment.
ReplyDelete