You always remember your headteacher, don’t you?
Few people are in such a position to shape young lives. They are teachers, mentors, guides, advisers, and early authority figures tasked with keeping their young charges on the straight and narrow. A visit to the head’s office is not necessarily an encounter to look forward to.
The nature of their leadership influences the culture and success of the school, and its reputation rests on their shoulders.
An enormously responsible role, then. In this selection we remember just a handful of the special individuals who have been the figureheads of Shropshire schools big and small down the years.
Missed our Shropshire in 1974 gallery? You can view it here.
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9. One of Harold Fletcher's unusual lessons
What lesson do you think the head of Church Stretton Secondary Modern School, Harold Fletcher, is leading in this picture from about 1950? The answer, surprisingly enough, is surveying. The middle girl of those standing on the left is head girl Pauline Trebble, who became Mrs Pauline Haycock, who went to the school in Essex Road in 1947. She thought the photo was taken in her final year as that little badge on her tunic is believed to be her head girl's badge. She left at the end of Easter term in 1950. She would name those on the picture as (the girls' names are their maiden names): "Back, from left, Joan Richardson, then myself, then unknown. On the front row, I'm not sure of the first girl (but identified by another former pupil as Ruth Bishop), then Gill Davies, Marie Goodwin, I think next is Ken Coles, then Alan Jones, and the last boy is Alan Blumfield. Then there's a girl you can't see, the headmaster Harold Fletcher, and Mary Poole. Mr Fletcher was such a good man. We didn't just have lessons like maths, and he made those very interesting, but he used to teach us about geology and surveying, all sorts of subjects different to other schools." The school was in old St Dunstan's huts and was demolished later | Shropshire Star archive
10. Flashback to Bridgnorth Endowed in 1974
Head boy of Bridgnorth Endowed School, Nigel Bray (left), with Jasper More, MP, (centre), Helen McNamee (head girl), and Mr Frank Young (headmaster) at the 1974 speech day., | Shropshire Star archive
11. Apley Park was rather like a public school, but was run by the county council
Apley Park School was unusual, being a county-run school housed in a grand mansion and drawing on aspects of the public school ethos. The head, Mr E G Shults, is seen at the school, which was at Norton, between Telford and Bridgnorth, in December 1966. This secondary boarding school for boys was opened by Salop County Council education committee as the country’s first secondary boarding school. It started at Millichope Park, Munslow, in 1948, with about 60 boys and moved to Apley Park in 1962 after doubling the number of pupils. Mr Shults said at the time of our picture that board and lodgings were, generally speaking, paid by the parents, and the academic side by Salop County Council. The fees were £225 a year, about half that paid at an average public school, but in fact on average parents paid about half that amount. Some facets of public school, like firm discipline and an accent on religion, were adopted. Apley Park School closed in July 1987 | Shropshire Star archive
12. Backs to the bunker at Miss Oliver's school
"Miss H M Oliver, former headmistress of Shrewsbury Coton Mount Infants, now head of Meole Brace Cof E Infants School," is written on the back of this print from July 1969. But just what is that thing in the background? Is it some sort of bunker? | Shropshire Star archive