Mr. Sherrington (History)

 

Mr. Sherrington taught History at Tulketh in my first two years there between 1975-1977.  Our paths crossed for the first time in early 1976 when I had been dropped from 1N to 1O, after the Christmas exams in the first year.

A small man as I recall with ginger hair with a small moustache and glasses who was quietly spoken and dressed quite formally but knew how to get his point across if he needed too. 

When we used to line up outside room 28, for History which faced the yard and was at the end of the corridor where the staffroom was situated on. The History lessons were almost always in my experience in the mornings after break in the first year. Mr. Sherrington would literally glide up the corridor from the staffroom to the classroom without you noticing until he was at the door to the classroom and un-locking it. He would utter the famous words of most teachers at that time, “can we have some quiet”, please! We would normally be chattering amongst ourselves about various things, like football, school gossip, the latest music craze.  

I personally enjoyed Mr. Sherrington’s History lessons. They were always interesting, and he would actively engage and involve the class rather than just work from textbooks.

When I first moved into my new class, I was nervous not knowing everybody in the class of about 32. I sat next to Dennis Winder who was also my next-door neighbour where I lived. Dennis was a bright lad and had come from Ribbleton Avenue Methodist School with a good report. In the entrance exam on our first day at Tulketh Dennis, must have had a off day because he didn’t end up in the top stream but in the middle stream of forms which didn’t go down well with his parents at the time.  

In the Summer exams of 1976, where I personally achieved some decent results and the demotion from the top stream to middle stream was probably more suited to my ability, as for Dennis Winder he did exceptionally well especially in History where he achieved the highest marks. I remember that practically all the O, form achieved over 60% in the History exam, a good testament to Mr. Sherrington’s teaching.

At the start of the second year when we came back from our holidays. Dennis Winder had been promoted to 2N, along with another bright lad and a good footballer, Steven Newsham. I now found that I had to find a new classmate for the second year.

For the most part I sat next to John Ismay, until a new lad started called Roderick Davies, arrived. I sat next to Roderick in History because he was a new boy and John Ismay was off sick.

I remember in the second year we did a project on our family coat of arms which was remarkably interesting and involved us doing some family research as well as designing our own family coat of arms.  We also went on a day trip to Astley Hall in Chorley which has a museum and Art Gallery along with 2G. that was a good experience to get away from the school for the afternoon. Once again, the lessons were enjoyable, and you never felt them a chore.

In the Summer of 1977, we had our usual exams which I missed the History exam due to a rumbling appendix which later in the year would cause me to have an operation and miss the first three weeks of the third year. Mr. Sherrington did his best to re-schedule the exam for me when I returned to school but to no avail.  It was a shame because I looked like I would do well in the exam.

Mr. Sherrington told us he would be leaving before the end of our second year and in our third year would be taught by Head of History, Mr. Blackwell.

Mr. Sherrington left to go to Walton Le Dale High School as a Head of History in the summer of 1977.