Tulketh High Memories

  Miss Maud looks rather Miss Mooney from Grange Hill. Miss Maud taught Mathematics and came to Tulketh in September 1978. I was at that time in the fourth year and studying Maths at CSE level, class  four a nd it was Miss. Maud’s first teaching post after university with teacher training. Miss Maud was a tall lady, wore glasses and dressed very conservatively for someone not much older than us. As a class there were very few of us motivated to pass the exams that were in front of us in the spring of 1980.From the very first lesson that Miss Maud taught us we gave her a hard time which looking back on many years later I’m not very proud of. She probably had trouble in controlling a classroom like ours. One afternoon just before the Christmas break, we were all in a holiday mode and not in the mood for learning. Miss Maud was doing her best to get through to us with not much success. Constant disruptions and fooling around by some of us got to the point when Mr. Norris came in ...

  Mr. Lewis taught Woodwork and Metalwork mainly at Tulketh. However sometimes he would turn his hand to subjects as diverse as Mechanical Engineering and Photography. In the 1970's there were a progressive thought in Comprehensive education to try subjects which might help kids with lesser academic skills of the like of.. Bricklaying, Engraving, Mechanics and, P.E studies which I did in the final two years at Tulketh taught by the girls P.E teacher Mrs. Nowell. A smart but a little nervous man who was a regular in the school band playing the trumpet and you would never see him without the obligatory light brown overall over his checked shirt and tie during lesson time.  Another string to Mr Lewis bow was he was the projectionist when we had our end of  school year film which more likely than not was a James Bond film. This event was held in the main hall which could be uncomfortable especially in the height of summer sat on the wooden flooring with not a lot of leg roo...

Mr. Little- reminded me of  Brian Blessed- actor.     Mr. Little was the Housemaster for Bowland House. He also taught Religious Studies and Humanities.   In the fourth year and in the final year he was my teacher in this subject. He was a remarkably interesting character and a good teacher and reminded of the actor Brian Blessed, with his booming voice echoing around the corridors of the school in almost theatrical way. I believe he was also a lay-preacher and originally from Carlisle. One of our 4 periods of the subject Humanities in the fourth and fifth year were taken up with Mr. Little telling us about the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the revolution of change in fashion, music, and film with teenagers having plenty of work and money in their lives which their parents didn’t experience during the war years. I remember kids like- Diane Bispham, Brian Cook, Roderick Davies Susan Duckworth , Rita Sumner and myself doing well in the mock exam for Humanities. For the ...

Miss Lakeland- Similar to Ruth Jones, actress who played Hattie Jaques in a TV biopic   Miss Lakeland, was the Head of Furness House and had been at Tulketh since the late 1960’s.  She taught English and Geography as I recall. Miss Lakeland had originally taught Remedial Studies at Ribbleton Hall High School from 1958-till 1968 when she joined the staff at Tulketh. She was tall and quite a formidable lady, always reminded me of a hospital matron or a governess.  Reminded very much of Hattie Jaques the actress who made her name in the successful Carry On films of the 1960's and 70'sThe Furness House she was the Head of always did very well at sports days and cross country. She was not a lady to cross either as a pupil or a member of staff as I and a fellow pupil were to find out one lunchtime in the 4 th year. John Ismay and I were larking about in the male cloakroom close the staffroom. We were drinking cold water from the taps and holding on to it in our mouths befor...

Mr. Kevill - Similar to Mr Budgen from Waterloo Road, also an English teacher. Mr. Kevil taught English at Tulketh and had been a relatively new teacher when we first years arrived in 1975. Nicknamed Evil Ken evil after the American dare devil motorbike stuntman who was popular at the time. I came across him if only briefly for the first time when I was in 1N he co- taught us English with a lovely lady called Mrs. Roberts. He used to use room 14 which was next to the school library. We used to wait outside his room, and he would with military precision always be on time. Small in stature with a strawberry blonde hair with moustache to match and he wore very conservative clothing and spoke like an Army sergeant which according to school gossip he had served in the Army before becoming a teacher. I must admit we as pupils were in awe of him. Even some of the younger teachers were in awe of him. I remember Mr. Kevil, pulling up a trainee teacher for parking in his spot on the school dri...

Mr. Jones -     reminded me of  Patrick Cargill - actor   I remember back in my final year at Tulketh an incident that brought me into direct conflict with Mr. Jones. Normally unless you were digressing the school rules. You never had to do the walk of shame outside his office. The likely hood if you were unfortunate to be stood on the walk of shame  the licks would be handed out(the cane). Yes corporal punishment was the thing in schools before 1986, ( 2 years before Mr. Jones retirement). Many a pupil who would have a lesson in Science would say they could see Mr. Jones, hand out the cane to a unfortunate pupil who must have digressed the school rules, from the their vantage point which did overlook the offices which the Heads of School resided in.   Legend had it that Mr. Jones had been a teacher at the Roughwood Comprehensive in Kirkby near Liverpool which had a reputation of being a tough school. At the morning assemblies we had at Tulketh he...

  Mrs. Heaney, formerly known as Miss. Clitheroe, when I started at Tulketh back in September 1975. Mrs. Heaney taught Mathematics and was a former pupil at Tulketh, from the first year it opened in 1964. Tall lady, not long out of teacher training school with an almost aquiline look about her. She always reminded me of the actress Jenny Agutter or Princess Anne, and she had spent some time in her early life in Australia, so the legend has it. Mrs. Heaney, occupied room 32, in the Maths block which faced Tag Lane and, in the summer, got no shield from the sun with the many windows in the block, which had been built in the summer 1970.   In fact, Tulketh the school had many windows and was nicknamed, the glasshouse by some pupils in the early years of its existence.  In my time at Tulketh, Mrs. Heaney, did not teach me Maths because she generally taught a higher set in our year. Our paths did cross though in the 4 th year at Tulketh back in the autumn of 1978. Mrs. He...