Writing Skills

One of the skills Headmaster Tucker tried to encourage in the students of the fourth form was original thought. He did this by assigning compositions all of which recorded in a bluebook identified as R.A.F. Form 619. Most college graduates would recognize this immediately as a bluebook. Unfortunately the paper in the books was not of the highest quality had a tendency to snag. As a result, at least in my case, the pen tip freshly dipped in ink well would always leave a very large smudgy drop. Fortunately the headmaster did not take off or poor penmanship. If there is an award for penmanship I most certainly would've won! Tucker would always read every composition and often will leave his comments in red pen along the side. Additionally he would check with a red or blue pencil indicating he read it. I include an example of one barely legible effort .

We often had to read our compositions out loud to the class. I did well for original ideas but spelling and neatness not so much. I must thank my mother for having hid my composition book away for all those years. It is clearly the worse for wear but may be the only surviving document from the school the year I attended.

Period Photos

While I have no pictures of the school of my own I recently obtained several pictures of Naples from the time I was in the school in recently uncovered family slides. Expect to see these in the next few weeks as I dig through them and convert to digital format.

It's nice to see new followers I would be pleased to offer all of you the opportunity to add your own memories to the blog. You can send them to me or post them on your own (let me know so I can set permissions).

More Pictures

Daphne provided more pictures and says of them, " These photos were taken on a day trip to Rome. We should have most of the names already from the previous school photos. The extra boy with glasses standing behind the bus is called John Morris. Also on the photo with Mr Brotherton, his wife is in front of him and to the right is Mrs Woods who was our Italian teacher. On the photo with me and another girl, she is the daughter of Mrs Woods."

A Floor Plan of the School

(click link for larger picture)

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v12/Lensman/?action=view&current=RAFSCHOOLJPG.jpg

This is a floor plan of the school from memory. I have no recall of how the first form was laid out but it did have a large number of nap mats.

The Headmasters office had thin wood walls and glass windows all the way around. The single chairs just outside of the head masters office was the holding area for naughty children.

Map reading

Flt LT Tucker would occasionally run out of planned lesson content even though he was always prepared. On one occasion, we finished the mathematics assignment with a hour to spare. The rest of the school was gainfully employed and we were not to be left to our own devices. Tucker left the room and came back with military maps and for the next hour we learned how to read contour lines and map symbols. We even leaned how to manage the magnetic deviation shown on the map to orient it with a compass. I still wonder if he did not plan it because we discovered that mathematics was good for something practical. It could be actually fun! Some of life’s most useful skills are learned by accident.

On French Verbs

I was never a great student of French. The 4th Form had a French teacher who came in once a week. She was overbearing and relentless from our point of view. A common practice was to demonstrate mastery of a lesson by writing on the black board. Felicity Knight preceded me on one occasion to break down a French verb. She got it right and received praise for her efforts. The teacher then called me to the blackboard to perform the same task. I must confess a total blank. I noticed as I picked up the chalk that Felicity had covered for me because she did not erase her efforts completely thus enabling me to also complete the task successfully. The teacher was amazed because I was awful at French. She was so happy she awarded Hanover house 5 blue points.

I mentioned before that the school had 4 forms and 4 houses crossing all the forms. I was assigned to Hanover. Teachers awarded blue points for rewards and red points for sub standard performance. I collected a number of red points in French usually one at a time. Fortunately my other subjects were much better resulting in sufficient blue points to counter balance French.

I don’t think a class enjoys anything more that getting over on a teacher they don’t particularly like.

A visit by the 4th Form to the S.S Oriana

In the Spring of 1962 the 4th Form got a field trip to the S.S. Oriana when it docked in Naples. The school did not have buses so we were transported via a tour bus. Thses buses were well appointed -- practically royal when compared to the yellow American school buses I remember. Upon arrival we were given a tour of the engines, formal areas and the bridge. As I recall, everything was gleeming clean and all the brass highly shined. There was such a lot of brass! At this time the ship was just two year old and a beautiful example of the golden age of ocean crossing passenger ships.

When the tour was over the class was escorted to the Princess Lounge for tea. It was a grand tea!

S.S .Oriana was the last of the Orient Steam Navigation Company's ocean liners. It was launched on 3 November 1959 by Princess Alexandra. She was in service until 1984 with a lot of time in Asian ports. In 1986 she became a floating hotel at a tourist attraction in Japan and later in China. Unfortunately, a severe storm in 2004 severely damaged her and she was sold to the breakers in 2005 and destroyed.