In the spirit of de-cluttering my life (and making it easier to sort out at its end!) I'm junking a lot of stuff. Amongst my papers are a clutch of essays written on the PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) course I took in 1975/6. In amongst the scribble nestled this photograph of a display I made on my teaching placement at Frank F. Harrison school on the Beechdale estate in Walsall. Looking back over the essays (and the feedback) it seems I was a deal more authoritarian back then, certainly more opinionated and rather less competent and talented than I suspect I imagined!
My tutor on the course, the wonderful Arthur Hughes, showed great forbearance as well as warmth to me, despite my appalling attendance record (I blagged off many lectures etc., relying on my wife Sue's notes, to go to my studio overlooking the Gas St. Basin). Perhaps as a consequence I bumped along getting mainly 'b''s for my essays. Reviewing them the assessments are very generous.
Just for fun I attach the blurb for the course...
