On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, but that's still CH related.

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DazedandConfused
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by DazedandConfused »

Sean Mason- wonderfully dry humour. He taught me in my GCSE year, I was considered generally bright and had somehow ended up in the top set where I struggled. Mason realised he would never get me to understand physics, so he taught me how the pass the exam instead. It worked, I came out with an A but still didn’t have a clue about physics :lol:

Duncan Noel-Paton- gloriously eccentric and often baffled by why the school and society in general tried to stifle him. He said some hideously inappropriate things (“of course, in Cabaret the cabaret girls would always have performed topless [big sigh] but we must make do with costumes”) and instilled in me an absolute fear of being ‘surburban and dull’ long before I really understood what that meant

Ross Stuart- my tutor and a wonderful man. He seemed rather bemused by most of my teenage ramblings but always listened and gave good counsel.

Oliver Marlow- a wonderful English teacher who, I am ashamed to say, I didn’t appreciate at the time and generally acted like a brat in his classes because I was good at English and thought I knew better. I really was an idiot and I’d love to have the chance to apologise.
Andyjf
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by Andyjf »

Dr Ross was exceptional. Kind, committed and full of patience. He was an inspirational teacher at A level as Jim Endacott was at GCSE.
scrub
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by scrub »

I've also got good memories of Jim Endacott, not as a teacher but as a housemaster. Fair, but hard when occasion arose. I always remember him for putty, not punishing me for being blind drunk while on a Saturday duty (taking roll call and sending young un's to bed on time), and his inability to smell the 5 gallons of homebrew happily bubbling away in my study as a GE.
I remember if you broke a window and owned up to it, he'd give you the glass, putty and a scraper and have you fix it. He greatly overestimated our glazing skills seeing as about half the panes we put in would fall out in a strong breeze. If you didn't own up and he found out, you got an almighty bollocking and still had to get the window sorted. The putty and scraper were always in a cupboard outside his study.
He treated you like a protoadult, not an inmate, and was able to make changes in the house culture so it (slowly) became a nicer place to be in.
ThB 89-91, PeA 93-96
time please
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by time please »

CHAZ wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:12 pm There is already a posting called Favourite Teachers on this Forum and so maybe this new thread is doubling up what has been said unless and being pedantic there is a difference between a good teacher and favourite one :P
The reason I posted this thread here is because over a long period of time a lot of the posts have been very depressing reading. i thought that we perhaps just needed to be reminded that a majority of staff at CH regardless of whether they were good or favourite were just basically good people.
Ever Bluer
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by Ever Bluer »

CodFlabAndMuck wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 9:34 pm Beyruth, apologies, wrong spelling but you know where i mean
Reminds me of an incident in Inspector Morse.

Chief Superintendent Strange is banging on about something that happened "while you were away sunning yourself in Beirut!"

Morse, wearily annoyed, replies: "Bayreuth."
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Mid A 15
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by Mid A 15 »

time please wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:48 am
CHAZ wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:12 pm There is already a posting called Favourite Teachers on this Forum and so maybe this new thread is doubling up what has been said unless and being pedantic there is a difference between a good teacher and favourite one :P
The reason I posted this thread here is because over a long period of time a lot of the posts have been very depressing reading. i thought that we perhaps just needed to be reminded that a majority of staff at CH regardless of whether they were good or favourite were just basically good people.
There are also a lot of new members since the original thread commenced c 2005 so useful to post where they are posting.


viewtopic.php?f=23&t=317
Ma A, Mid A 65 -72
charlesr
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by charlesr »

Mid A 15 wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:40 pm
time please wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:48 am
CHAZ wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:12 pm There is already a posting called Favourite Teachers on this Forum and so maybe this new thread is doubling up what has been said unless and being pedantic there is a difference between a good teacher and favourite one :P
The reason I posted this thread here is because over a long period of time a lot of the posts have been very depressing reading. i thought that we perhaps just needed to be reminded that a majority of staff at CH regardless of whether they were good or favourite were just basically good people.
There are also a lot of new members since the original thread commenced c 2005 so useful to post where they are posting.


viewtopic.php?f=23&t=317
As a new member of the forum, I hadn't read the older thread. I have (mostly) now. Some of the posts there will be seen in a new light now unfortunately. I suppose it has to be accepted that those teachers who have now been discovered to be abusers were still (to some extent) good teachers and some people (presumably not victims) will have liked them.

Sticking with the "happier note", I don't think I have ever known why CWN was known as "Bomber". Can anyone enlighten me?
Charles Rogers (LHA 67-70; ThB 70-75)
Sweyn Forkbeard
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by Sweyn Forkbeard »

Agree about Noel-Paton - he was also inspiring as an history teacher, which is why I took that up for university rather than geography - which I loved equally but the Lorimer influence wasn't quite the same. It made an odd contrast to having Spurrier, who just used to hand out the essay title and some books - how he could claim to be a 'teacher' is a bit of a mystery but he was otherwise decent.

One of my best memories was doing the 'Waste Land' with an English teacher called, I think, Mason. One of the best educational experiences of my life.
Scazza
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Re: On a happier note: The Good Teachers!

Post by Scazza »

Noel Paton was fantastic. Always full of enthusiasm. He reminded me of Tom Bakers Doctor Who with his long scarf. His son Sam was a year above me and a nice lad, I think his daughter was at the school too.

I liked Lorimer but we used to really mess around in his classes. He was getting on a bit by then and I felt sorry for him as he did seem a bit lonely or lost. The music teacher Alcott (?) was also nice.

There were lots of good teachers but it has taken a lot of thought to remember ones I liked as people. Dr Maddren was a great chemistry teacher but a cold fish. Hempstead was very nice and I loved learning Italian instead of French at the end of term. I remember my GCSE French oral in his study basically speaking English with a French accent to try to explain the greenhouse effect. Le CO2. Le Greenhouse Effect etc. He humoured me somewhat.

I was in love with the gorgeous home economics teacher (married to Mr Robinson?) and still enjoy cooking curries she inspired me. Gwyn Jones was a lovely man and very kind to me as my tutor but I was never lucky enough to be taught by him.

This is where it gets uncomfortable...... I liked Classics and was inspired by Mr Flemming taking us to the british museum - a massive influence on my life - but he was a bit of a git sometimes and now its clear that he could have done much more about the allegations made.

I was also quite fond of Rowley in an odd way. I didnt like his violence but loved the smell of his pipe. I remember a play put on called Le Misanthrope and understanding Rowley and myself better as a result! I'm really sad to see his subsequent conviction.
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