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Continuing with David Wood's story from the Home Page.

So off I went to the Church of England school down the road.

The headmaster was Mr Chesworth.

In this school you stayed with the same teacher for the 3 years and mine was good old Mr Beech.

Mr Beech actually had Goldenhill roots, his grandparents had a farm in Gill Bank,

that is the lane that goes down to Woodstock from the playground at the top of the village.

Mr Beech was responsible for the pottery kiln we had installed, we made small pottery items and he fired them when there was enough to justify the cost of the electricity.

Joseph Durber made really nice polar bear figures, he even had orders for them.

Because my birthday was in the middle of September I had to stay an extra year otherwise I would have gone to the senior school at 10 years old instead of 11.

That year was with Mr Hancock, equally as good and as nice as Mr Beech.

We had a patron who attended the school a few times every year and he was Captain L V Potts, the captain of an oil tanker that sailed between the UK and the Arabian gulf, one port being Aberdan.

The ships belonged to British Petroleum and the school house teams were names after his ships.

My house team was Sincerity.

In the summer of 1958 I made it to Goldenhill Secondary Modern school.

The first year was with Miss Foskett, we didn't get on.

The second year was with Mr Heath, a brilliant teacher, I loved the technical drawing classes very much and I actuallly became draughtsman after my apprenticeship.

The third year was Mr Dale, he opened up a completely new world in maths.

The fourth year was Mr Pollard a well known local cricketer and good teacher.

The geography teacher was Mr Woodcock, nobody fooled about with him, he ruled with great dignity and was completely fair with everybody who behaved themselves.

He had a sign over his classroom door that said " MANNERS MAKETH MAN AND WOMAN "

The PT teacher was Mr Talbot but after the first year Mr Abberley arrived.

He was an old Longtonian so he was very much into the rugby as was the headmaster Mr E V Bailey.

Mr Bailey used to bring his spaniel to school and it was free to roam the school.

The woodwork teacher was Mr Chadwick, he was very tall and an excellent teacher.

I seem to remember a Mrs Griffiths, Mrs Biddle and the cookery teacher

Mrs Durose.

We were the first school in Stoke on Trent to have a television, I only ever saw one programme, but nevertheless we did have one.

I left school just after my 15th birthday in 1961 and started an apprenticeship

on New Years day 1962 at English Electric Kidsgrove, where I stayed until I was made redundant in 1972.

David Wood