Out and About Costa Blanca Magazine - June 2021 Issue -188

ANNE RODGER JUNE 2021 | 39
A different situation in my next job - as
Biology mistress at a Grammar School in
Lincolnshire. The school was only 12 years
old and the Heads of Department had
all been hand-picked by the Headmaster
when the school began. There was only
one Staffroom so we all knew each other
very well.
After only 2 years there, everything
changed. All Secondary Schools in the
County had to become Comprehensive.
Education Authorities were required to
submit plans to the Government as to how
they would effect this change within 18
months.
2 terms later, our Headmaster, together
with most Department Heads, had
left. No money was made available for
new school buildings, which meant
that in order to fulfil the Government
requirements, our school had to combine
with a Secondary Modern Girls School
which was on the other side of the town
centre and over a mile away.
Practically speaking, the obvious way
to operate would be in name only, but
with the constant threat of Government
Inspectors descending on us The true
spirit of Comprehensive Education¨¨ had
to be upheld.
The Secondary School had no
laboratories which meant that all
Science lessons had to be held in our
school building. The mile walk across
town somehow had to be timetabled for
the dinner-hour where possible, but as
this also applied to Home Economics,
Gymnastics, etc. there was a constant
stream of pupils walking in both
directions - as an equivalent number had
to go from our school to have lessons
which did not require special facilities in
the other school buildings.
Chaos ensued. Teachers had to work out
their own ways of how to conduct lessons.
Did you start on time with only a handful
of pupils, or wait until most of the class
had arrived probably half was through the
lesson time.
Morale suffered.
I used to approach lessons with such
enthusiasm, particularly when I could
call in at the Abbatoir on my way in to
school in the morning, to pick up a fresh
pair of lungs which the pupils would
compete to inflate. Or take a class for
some “field study” at a local pond or
natural hedgerow. No point in planning
such lessons for only 1/2 a class in 1/2 the
lesson time.
I don’t know how these situation
eventually righted themselves, as I left
teaching at the age of 29 when I was
pregnant. I expected to be away from it for
a number of years as I was hoping to have
2 or 3 children and intended to be a full
time mum until they started school.
None of these plans turned out as I
had hoped. My roller-coaster life took
different turns and I was never to go back
to teaching.