Tower and Town, December 2016 (view the full edition)St Peter's - A HistorySt. Peter's school has been situated in this very building for over fifty years. Before this, its setting was the current library building, and with the advent of the new Marlborough St. Mary's, St. Peter's will finally be laid to rest 1962-1966 The early years Mr. Dobie was one of the first boys to come to the then new St. Peter's school in January 1962 (the girls came in September 1961) Back then things worked a little differently to nowadays, for you were in slight danger of having some furious teacher fling a blackboard rubber in your general direction while making noises that sounded like a wounded rhinoceros. You might also have been told to go and stand under that clock in the library for ten minutes - it actually worked back then - which was a little more merciful, but not any fun. Another difference about the library was the utter lack of display boards. The teachers were to be called Sir or Miss, and one of the more dangerous of their number had a large cane left over from the days of child-whacking! Mr Dobie's daughter was a pupil too... 1988-1992 The middle part Ah, the glories of the middle era - outside toilets, a dangerous lack of car park gates, and rubbish black-screened (mostly) computers...it's all true! The boys' lavatory was situated in the middle of the car park, but amazingly nobody used this escape route for truanting operations. Under the stairs there was a little nook in which to sit reading for ages and ages and ages. Why not use the computers? Well, actually, they were pretty much enormous desktop calculators - you could probably get quicker results with Babbage's difference engine! The only other thing these useless machines could do was a maths game featuring a few green triangles on the screen which you had to measure. 2012-2016 Final act This was probably the most fun part of St. Peter's history, with an entire room dedicated to ICT! The "mobile classroom" of the middle part had been replaced by a proper brick building, and the worst punishment you could possibly get was being sent home to Mum with a note. Sadly the nice pond in the quiet area had been filled in - it was probably a little scummy, but who cares about that - and tiled over. To conclude, I think that I would stay in 2012-2016 St. Peter's, because a classroom without an interactive whiteboard sounds more boring than school trousers! It is sad that St. Peter's is no more, but onwards and upwards always looking to the future ... Alf, Year 6 |