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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 0<br />
Dear Geraint<br />
robskj@gmail.com<br />
12th August 2014<br />
I hope you are well. Just had a very quick<br />
trip back to the UK in the summer and<br />
took the family to see St. Paul's Cathedral.<br />
Thought I'd be a bit cheeky and so I<br />
contacted the Stationers' Company to see<br />
if I could visit Stationers' Hall and<br />
managed a quick tour, which was very<br />
pleasant. Don't ever remember being given<br />
much of the history at school, so it was<br />
quite an eye opener. Hope to join the<br />
Dinner one day, if we can get the timing<br />
right!<br />
I was just wondering whether you had<br />
managed to get any further with chasing<br />
up an email address for John Watson. I<br />
may arrange a trip to Australia in the next<br />
year or so, and thought it might be an<br />
opportunity to catch up with him. I would<br />
be grateful if you could see what you could<br />
do. I have been trying for years to locate<br />
him and don't want to miss this opportunity.<br />
All the best<br />
Keith Roberts<br />
STATIONERS'<br />
EXIT THE ROYAL BLUE<br />
alex.flemming@websmartware.com<br />
12th August 2014<br />
Hi Geraint<br />
Judging by the quality of the magazine<br />
content you seem to be improving in your<br />
post as Editor.<br />
Congratulations!<br />
While reading the latest issue I was struck<br />
by the number of things, especially the<br />
near romantic recollections of a number of<br />
Old Stationers on matters I never<br />
experienced – like the Rowing Club and<br />
the Army Cadets. Most of all I was<br />
inspired by the probability of a re-birth of<br />
the school in name at least under the<br />
auspices of the modern term academy.<br />
During my period at Stationers' (1964-<br />
1971) I entered the school having passed<br />
the 11+ to find a number of my new<br />
colleagues had not sat that examination.<br />
Having played for the Hornsey team at<br />
football a year earlier a number of my team<br />
mates were there too and quite a few people<br />
who knew whom I was too. There we were<br />
in our brand new royal blue caps and<br />
blazers 'Proud to be Stationers' although<br />
we had not learned the school song.<br />
We were soon introduced to strict<br />
discipline. My first two lessons brought<br />
teachers into my life who both announced:<br />
“You are not going to like me!” Messrs.<br />
Morris and Bartlett turned out to be<br />
excellent teachers, particularly the latter.<br />
We often wondered whether John Morris<br />
really belonged to this school environment.<br />
The wood panels listing benefactors,<br />
achievers (including H.W.Symons) on a<br />
panel in the library, the oil paintings of<br />
former headmasters and distinctly military<br />
manner of the staff added up to a rather<br />
special place. Commander Cutler as<br />
School Secretary rounded off the effect.<br />
Alas the ATC folded with the retirement<br />
of Fl. Lt. Lloyd so we were never able to<br />
use the shooting range. It was all awe<br />
inspiring, if indeed a trifle daunting. With<br />
all the traditions and obvious elite<br />
tendencies Stationers' was certainly a place<br />
to be for an inspiring young man.<br />
Things continued with some lingering and<br />
rather questionable rumours regarding the<br />
future of the school. H.Wilson Esq. had<br />
formed a government during 1964 with a<br />
small majority. This majority was increased<br />
heftily in 1966. From then on rumour soon<br />
became fact and from 1967 Stationers'<br />
gradually changed from an elite boys<br />
grammar school to a multiracial urban<br />
comprehensive. Forms 3, 4A and 5B<br />
became 3X, 4R and 5Z – the letter being<br />
the surname of the form master. There was<br />
to be no more grading either as streaming<br />
or in the form notation.<br />
Sporting prowess – notably running and<br />
athletics generally – improved for a short<br />
time with the influx of some wonderful<br />
athletes from the old Priory Vale. Marsden<br />
Hubbard and Mr. Salter were additions to<br />
the teaching staff from whom we benefited<br />
greatly.<br />
On the academic front access to Oxbridge<br />
became less of a topic and remedial work<br />
more the order of the day. Teaching<br />
secondary kids from other parts of the<br />
world, the 3Rs seemed to be the main aim<br />
of the school. As a member of the Upper<br />
Sixth I was supposed to spend any Study<br />
Period (official speak) in the school library.<br />
We understood that this was the instruction<br />
of the headmaster.<br />
When one day we were asked, no told to<br />
leave the library by a Mr. Craig who was<br />
introducing the class of first form lads to<br />
the concept of the book, things turned<br />
from bad to worse to unacceptable. We<br />
were studying for our A levels in an<br />
attempt to gain entry to university of our<br />
choice or the ones that had given us a<br />
so-called offer. Yet we had nowhere to<br />
study. I found myself a place at the back of<br />
the hall. Illegal by school conventions, yet<br />
there was no alternative. Indeed, things<br />
became so difficult that the Prefect<br />
contingent laid down its positions early in<br />
February - it was, of course, customary for<br />
the Lower Sixth to take over after the<br />
Easter break. G.N.Blackmore and his<br />
merry men were called to arms earlier than<br />
expected.<br />
Discipline had become a serious problem.<br />
The police seemed to be regular visitors to<br />
the school . Misdemeanours, we had not<br />
known before – such as drug pushers,<br />
pimping, a minor form of racketeering and<br />
extortion – became almost regular features<br />
of daily school life. The Headmaster and<br />
most of his staff had not been employed<br />
for this kind of situation.<br />
The pinnacle of power in the school<br />
R.D.Baynes once said of himself: “I am<br />
not the council's blue-eyed boy!” And for<br />
sure he had a major problem despite the<br />
lack of support from the council. A vast<br />
range of goals and abilities as well as a<br />
strong multi-racial and socio-economic<br />
backgrounds had to be accommodated.<br />
The school had grown in a short time<br />
from some 650 to almost 1300 pupils in<br />
two locations including a number of new<br />
single storey pre-fabricated buildings on<br />
the infamous wilderness and then a two<br />
storey structure on the second terrace. My<br />
fourth year was spent on the borders of<br />
Hornsey School (no more High there!) in<br />
a pre-fab and the Lower Sixth in an upper<br />
storey on the second terrace.<br />
No sir, this was no longer the Stationers'<br />
Company's School that I wanted to attend<br />
from the age of 5. Having grown up at the<br />
top end of Burgoyne Road (the other side<br />
of the railway bridge at Haringey West as<br />
was) I saw the boys in their royal blue<br />
blazers and vowed to be part of the crew<br />
– Wilson and his political agenda had<br />
other things in store. Even the last great<br />
investment assisted by the Company began<br />
to falter. Affectionately known by some as<br />
'the language factory' the lab began to<br />
crumble. At that time there were more<br />
languages spoken in the school than the<br />
technical institution could accommodate!<br />
Thus, as a first year pupil attending his<br />
first prize giving evening at Hornsey Town<br />
Hall - as was – I remember being highly<br />
impressed by the huge number of new<br />
Oxbridge undergraduates from the<br />
School. Other new undergraduates were<br />
also in large number. It felt like about one<br />
dozen Oxbridge undergraduates from the<br />
school and the rest to universities,<br />
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