My bits of ‘Useful/Useless Information’ re: Ravensdale:

The School Secretary was Mrs Stone

Mr Barnard, my last teacher at Ravensdale, left in about 1968 to go and live in Australia.

Mr Crossman (my teacher in the 2nd year of the Juniors) left Ravensdale while I was still there, much to the disappoint of all the mums including mine, who were very upset as he was considered to be a bit of a ‘heart throb’ !

Mrs Clennett (my very first teacher) retired around 1964/65 (I think ?), her husband was headteacher at Frederick Bird School, and they lived on the corner of Browning Road/ Longfellow Road. Mrs Clennett recently died (age 86).

Richard Poole was a student teacher at the school when I was in the Juniors. Everyone liked him as he was considered to be very young and modern. He taught drama (this was thought to be quite adventurous in those days). He wrote a play called ‘Was it the Cheese that Did It ?’ (the play was about ‘dreams’). Some of us, including myself, were selected to take part in the play which involved attending rehearsals on Saturday mornings. The play was finally performed to an audience of parents/pupils and teachers and actually had a ‘write-up’ including a photograph in the Coventry Evening Telegraph. Mr. Poole was eventually taken on as a teacher and about 10 years ago I saw him in the ‘Rose & Crown’ pub on the Walsgrave Road - he hadn’t changed at all !!

Christopher Jury (on Colin Parsons’ school photo), who left after the Infants School to go to King Henry VIII’s Prepatory School, has since become an actor (he played Lovejoy’s sidekick in the TV series, but I can’t remember the ‘leather-clad, motorbike-riding character’s name). He still works in TV but directing or producing.

One of my friends at Ravensdale, just before we all left for other schools, was Nicola Havard. Her parents kept the ‘Outdoor’ in Longfellow Road. Nicola left to attend Blue Coats School and we never kept in touch.

The girls who left Ravensdale to go to Stoke Park School with me were: Diane Partridge, Lesley Miekle, Gaynor Hill and Joy Watson (Joy was in my class at Stoke Park). Joy was very musical (like myself) and moved down to London to study music and joined one of the famous orchestras there. As far as I know she still travels the world with the orchestra. I have very little information on the other girls who went to Stoke Park. Gaynor Hill lives in Kensington, London. Lesley Miekle still lives in Coventry and is now Lesley Shufflebotham (I think?). I have no information on Diane Partridge.

The student teacher, Mr Morgan, was very strict. He taught us how to play ‘Shinty’ (a game similar to hockey). When the boys were naughty in class, Mr Morgan would use a shinty stick hooked around their necks and lift them from their seats ! He was also the best shot I’ve ever seen with a Blackboard Rubber !

Mr Angell (my first teacher in the Juniors) was also very strict. He would rap your knuckles with a ruler if you so much as dropped your pencil on the floor.

My nan used to knit dresses for all the girls & women in the family (yes..... knitted dresses) and jumpers & tanktops..... (now there’s a word !) for the whole family (about 10 adults and 8 children) as well as for neighbours and friends (in fact you could say she knitted for England !). I wore most of these knitted garments during my years at Ravensdale (no wonder I couldn’t get a partner for the Barn Dancing - please note next item, but I was so encased in wool I was rarely off ill with a cold !). It’s hard to believe that we now live in a society of the ‘must have designer-wear’ that children insist on wearing today. I have no children but my nieces and nephews are ‘designer addicts’ and they’re all under 11 years old. Incidentally, when I wasn’t wearing a knitted outfit I was wearing dresses ‘run-up’ by my other Nan on her sewing machine (I wonder if they were in competition with each other and I was the guinea-pig ?!). Talking of clothes..... does anyone remember P.G. West’s shop(s) at the Forum (Piggy Wests as we called them) ?

Can anyone remember Mr French (the Headteacher of the Juniors) involving us all in Barn Dancing Classes on Friday afternoons in the school hall. All the girls in the class stood around the perimeter of the hall and all the boys stood in a group in the middle. Mr French then instructed the boys to go and politely ask their chosen partner (it had to be a girl in those days !) for a dance. The boys then used to make a mad dash for the prettiest girls in the class. Any girl left over would then be Mr French’s partner for the dance. All the boys then had to choose a different partner for the next dance. I was very often Mr French’s partner for the ‘Gay Gordons’ or ‘The Dashing White Sergeant’ (I wonder why ? ! perhaps it was Nan’s knitted dresses ?)

On a final note...... Ravensdale School is going through many structural changes at the moment. The main building of the school remains the same, however, the horrible huts at the top of the Junior School Playground and the wooden hut on the school field have been demolished to make way for a new playground. The old playground now has new classrooms on it. Haven’t times changed !