School Years
Robin Hood Junior & Infant School
Because I was born in late summer, I was always one of the youngest in my school year. I went to Robin Hood Infant and Junior School. It was a five minute walk to the north of my home. After Nursery, I think my teachers were Mrs Severn, Mrs Bickerdike, Mr Ellam and Mr Johnson. Mr Ellam was the best.
I excelled at nothing.
Towards the end of my time at Robin Hood School, I didn’t even care for going out at break times. I didn’t want to play football. I probably couldn’t have thought of anything less fun to do. I spent some breaks just tidying a store cupboard in my classroom after years of neglect. I also remember happily separating out all the Page 3 models from a pile of newspapers. There was no particular point, but I suppose it felt good to curate them in some way.
Rodillian Secondary School
From 1985 to 1992 I attended Rodillian Secondary School, which was a 9 minute walk to the south from home. I would be hard pushed to say that I enjoyed much of it. Some lessons were more interesting than others. Maths and Chemistry were particularly difficult for the most part. I was in the second highest of seven sets for maths though, but at times I felt that I might have been better in a lower set. That would have lowered my chances of getting the reasonable C grade I did eventually get though.
When it came to taking “options”, where we got to choose deviations from a core set of subjects after the third year, I wanted to take Art. Unfortunately, my dad didn’t see any worth in this and he persuaded (or more likely ordered me), to take Craft, Design and Technology (CDT). It was a poor choice. It was boring and unhelpful. I was in a class of laddish unruly lads and it was of no benefit to me at all. I began attending the after hours “Art Club” and it became apparent that despite not being there for the timetabled classes, I could be entered into the examination for that subject anyway. That was good.
I just about got by at school. I was never near the top or the bottom. Much of my life has been defined by the same “just get by” theme. I’m not aware of ever having learned anything easily. Most of my GCSE grades were Cs with only Bs in Biology, Art and Geology.
Sixth Form
Beyond the minimum school leaving age, I did two years of further education in the sixth form from 1990 to 1992.
My additional two years at school were more fun than productive. I had zero chances of doing a job after the fifth year and I was completely unskilled. Staying on at school seemed to be the only sensible option for me. I was only doing a limited amount of subjects. I would have done English, but I wasn’t allowed to. I would have loathed the literature part of it anyway. I had to take an additional class and GCSE Geology was available so a handful of us chose that. It was interesting enough. I had been doing A-Level Biology as well but by the second year, it was more than clear that I had no idea at all and my level of understanding was in the gutter. I quit immediately after the painful experience of giving up during the first few minutes of the mock exam when I could barely answer anything.
Even before I gave up on Biology I had big swathes of time not doing anything at school. Some of it would be spent in the Sixth Form Common Room. Some of it was spent in the sixth form Art Room, and some of it was spent just wandering the corridors and grounds with my friends. I had no clear academic or career direction and there were all kinds of things that I could have started to do but I didn’t really know what jobs were open to me. School soon came to an end. It seemed so strange after going there for such a big part of my life.
My seven years of secondary school education left me with the following lacklustre exam pass grades. I had only got a D grade for CDT so I never included it on my curriculum vitae.
GCSE
Maths C
Geography C
English C
Chemistry C
French C
Biology B
Geology C
Art B
A-Level
General Studies C
Art B