By Joyce Shaw
The classes averaged 31-33 pupils per class and music was a mixed ability class…this was a good introduction to what was the norm for me over the next 40 years.
One catastrophic day I remember well was on our way back to college, from a day’s teaching in Billingham. As the bus passed through Coxhoe, coming down a long hill, some of the rolls of teaching displays, rolled off the bus! When the bus eventually stopped we had to race back up the hill to find them on the road…precious materials as they took long time to create and were part of the assessment ….no graphics or computers in those days!
Duplicating in the 60s involved a Gestetner machine or carbon copies and a typewriter. At one point we were all taken into the college gym to see a new innovatory machine….a computer!
It took up all one large wall and was a mass of wires and plugs in similar to an old fashioned telephone exchange. I was convinced that never would I want to become familiar with this contraption!!!
After qualifying, our first year was probationary….although we were paid as qualified teachers, our contract could be terminated if we didn’t comply! In 1966 when I qualified, the system worked by applying to an authority who then found you a job in its area.
I was offered two placements…one at Lobley Hill near Gateshead and then the offer of a job at Moorside which was only a couple of miles out of Consett. I took the latter and although I didn’t know the area, the catchment was the Grove and Leadgate.
I had been on the Christmas post at Christmas while I was a student and in those days, the area had a poor reputation. However the children were receptive and keen and this was a great advantage as I produced Speech Day entertainments, Christmas and Harvest assemblies + daily assemblies and concerts and productions..all outside of the daily timetable where I taught every pupil in the school (350) with mixed ability classes.
There was no national curriculum then, and so I enjoyed creating a syllabus which promoted singing as well as history and theory of music.
In those days, the register was hand filled and a teacher could lose his/her job if the register was not correctly filled in. Morning and afternoon sessions were entered in herringbone fashion. Weekly totals needed to be done and also the collection ( on Mondays) of dinner money and school fund.
Moorside was a school where every child was known to each teacher and the staff room was a place of sharing and relaxing when possible! One teacher, Ken Wilkinson, took on the task of collecting our pay cheques and taking them across the road to the village Co-op where they were cashed. the money was put into individual brown envelopes and it was a momentous moment for me to get my first pay-packet.
I was paid £47 for a month’s wages (£760 gross salary per annum). This is before decimalisation and the cost of living was reasonable so that this was a reasonable salary for starting a career.
(The first mortgage on our first house was £27 per month for a house in Lanchester which cost us £3,125. brand new in 1968).
Ken arrived with the pay packets and gave me mine. No sooner had I opened it the art teacher, at the time, got hold of all the paper money (£, 10 shilling notes) and screwed them all up into little balls throwing them round the staff room.
I was more than surprised and didn’t know how to react as he was a senior teacher and automatically got respect from new young teachers.
Part 4 Next Month
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