Mr. Griffiths- Maths

Mr. Griffiths- similar to Colin Welland , Actor and director.


Mr. Griffiths was the Head of Mathematics at Tulketh and was they’re at the inception of the school in 1964. 

 He had previously worked at my old Primary School, Roebuck Street School from the late 1950’s until 1964 when along with Miss.Smalley, (English) and Mr. Smith, (Geography) they left to go to Tulketh. Originally from Barnsley, Mr. Griffiths was about medium height and build, grey hair and wore very austere coloured suits. I got the feeling he didn't have a lot of time for kids who didn't grasp things quickly. Probably why he never taught anything but the top sets. He went ape at me once for the way I set out to answer some questions on fractions. But that's another story.

His classroom was room 36, which was in the Maths block on the left-hand side as you walked in facing the cloakrooms/toilets. The Maths block was a new building in comparison to the rest of the school which was built in the 1960’s, it had been completed in time for the start of the 1970/71 schoolyear.

Mr. Griffiths taught me Maths when I was in 1N, in the first year. One afternoon we had just come in from lunch and had a one-hour lesson planned according to Mr. Griffiths, on rounding whole numbers and decimals. I always remember him saying .. The moon is made of green cheese or every problem contains its own solution. At 12 years old these assumptions were completely lost on me. I remember he took a great interest in computing which back in 1975 was in the early stages in education.

Mr. Griffith’s was avid Golf fan and player as we were to find out purely by coincidence. Stirl Ashton’s happened to be talking to a few of us about his Father interest in Golf as we were waiting for Mr. Griffiths to arrive and how he found it boring when the PGA, Golf Championships were on in the summer on the BBC’s flagship Sports show, Grandstand, of which Golf legend Jack Nicklaus won.

Mr. Griffiths caught some of the conversation as he was setting the lesson up, he remarked,”” How can you not like Golf, Ashton? “You must be a philistine! Then for much of the hour lesson he talked about his love of Golf and how when he was a teenager, he used to be a golf caddie back in the Barnsley on a nearby golf course near to where he lived. We also found out what is handicap currently was, and his designer golfing clothing as well. Before we knew it, the lesson was almost over the bell rang which startled some of us who were beginning to doze off.

Mr. Griffiths said “It seems we had our minds on other things than lesson so you can do some homework on the topic we should have covered which is, rounding whole numbers and decimals. Of course, there were a few moans and groans from some of us, homework was not popular with many of us and wasn’t a thing we did only rarely at primary school.

In 1989, Mr. Griffiths retired from teaching after 40 years.           

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