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Reunion

Henbury High School has been on its present site for 49 years and we are preparing to move to the landmark Macclesfield Learning Zone this summer. To mark the move, a reunion for former students and staff was held at the school on Thursday 21 June. Around 350 people turned up - twice as many as we were expecting. Amongst them were three ex-students who had been amongst the first ones to walk through the doors in 1958 and then some others who had left Henbury only last year.

The reunion was a brilliant experience, bringing together current and former staff and former students of Henbury High School/Broken Cross County Secondary School for Boys. Around 350 people attended having heard about the Reunion through the Macclesfield Express and Silk FM, by word of mouth and via Friends Reunited. People travelled from as far afield as Scotland and Bristol to meet up with former friends and colleagues and to take one last trip down memory lane.

Many more contacted the School to say they would love to have attended but they could not manage it mid-week. We have been asked to hold another one next year on a Friday or Saturday night. Since we will be celebrating our 50 th anniversary in 2008, we have already decided that's a must.

So who were these ex-students? And what were their recollections of their school days? Did they confirm that old adage that “your school days are the best days of your life”? Well, the answer to that question from those who came back to Henbury last week was a resounding “YES!”

I spent the second half of the night speaking to many of them and hearing about their memories. What did they recall of their time here? What was their fondest memory? Here are some of the stories.

Pride of place must go to Gerald Henshaw, who now works for the Macclesfield Express as a photographer. Gerald attended the Reunion , but this time without his camera. He left that to his son, Nick, who has followed in his father's profession. Gerald was one of the first cohort of boys to transfer from Parkroyal School and to walk through the doors of the brand new school in September 1958. He told me that he can still remember the excitement and the smell of new paint.

“It was brilliant to be able to come into a brand new school that had been built specially for us. We felt really lucky to have this new school built for us.”

Although his words were reaching back down across five decades, Gerald's words are strangely prophetic and forward-looking as well. They could easily be spoken this September by the 800 students who are about to move into the new school being built for them over on the Learning Zone.

Gerald explained that one of the first “projects” the students began was to start a school garden by taking off the turf and digging the ground over. As well as “Ned” Pringle, the headteacher, he remembers other teachers such as Roy Potter, Eric Morrow and Sidney Griffiths. His main recollection was of a happy time.

Gerald is shown in this photograph with the current headteacher, Ged Ward .

Roger Molineux attended Broken Cross School between 1959 and 1964. He was born in a house on Fallibroome Road and is still living in the same house all these years later. Roger brought two group photos of his year group (Figs. 4 and 7).

Richard Lea arrived in 1960 and left in 1964. He remembers being taught “the old values: work hard and you will get your just rewards”. Many of his year group went on to Kings at age 15. He told me that of his class of 44 boys, “not many were average”. He spoke of one who went on to become a Chief Constable for a County and another, Peter Stanway, who moved to London where he became a very successful architect. Another was Stuart Thompson, an entrepreneurial local businessman, well known to many.

Mike Hayes attended between 1961 and 1965. He remembers the gardens and also the chickens they used to raise. Bob Ashley ran a mini-farm. They collected the eggs from a farm between Prestbury and Macclesfield and placed them in an incubator in a bay window outside science lab 14. (We now grow geraniums in the same bay). All the cocks were destroyed and only the hens were kept for laying. He admitted, guiltily, to taking one of the cocks home so that it was not destroyed.

Mike's friend, Michael Sefton, remembers one boy bringing a 45 record into school and being given the cane for it. The only music taught and allowed at that time was classical music. Pop records were not allowed. He commented: “How things have changed. Now you have a full recording studio in your school and electric and acoustic guitars up on the walls.”

Nancy Robinson (1999) said how much she enjoyed seeing so many people from her past. Her main memory was of the “massive amount of help I had from people when I was in my wheelchair (it happened twice whilst I was here) and I couldn't get upstairs.”

This was a major theme of the evening. So many people spoke to me during the reunion of the help they had been given, the support they had received, the encouragement they had been offered, which had really helped them to make a success of themselves, both at school and since leaving.

Coming more up to date, Alice Penny (1999) looks set to have a very successful career in acting. She is currently auditioning for jobs in West End shows and her latest aspiration is to land a part in a new film.

Hannah Park (2004) and her brother Stuart (2002) really enjoyed the reunion and their walk round the classrooms “brought memories flooding back”. Hannah commented further: “What was special for me about Henbury was that it encouraged achievement by praising students, giving them the confidence to succeed. The teachers really believed in you and were always positive, optimistic and committed to problem-solving.”

Coming right up to date, Aimee Howard, who leaves Henbury this year, said that she had “been part of the best community in town”.

Other former students described the evening as having provided “fantastic memories” whilst others felt that it was “strange to be back”. Another former student from the very early days has been followed at Henbury by both his children and his grandchildren! I have not been able to find him in our database, so would ask him to get in touch again.

Alison Bailey, who attended between 1991 and 1996 said that the school “still smells the same”!

Mrs Dutoy, current Deputy Head, who completes 25 years' service in September, said: “I thought it was a fantastic evening which epitomised why I became a teacher. It was an evening of non-stop talking to students who had left school 5, 10, 15 , 20 or more years ago but who all had a story to tell, an incident to recount or a quote to repeat from a report written about them by me or another member of staff. Most importantly, every student I spoke to, without exception, had fond memories of the staff they had come into contact with whilst at Henbury. Indeed the only criticism of the evening I heard was that the ex-students wished more of their former teachers had been able to attend the evening. There was unanimous support for repeating the event once we have moved to the new school.”

Mrs Davies, who joined the school as a Food Technology teacher in September 1979, thought that the evening was a brilliant opportunity to catch up with lots of students. She said that “it was great to hear how they had progressed through life since leaving Henbury. It made me feel very proud of them! Many had chosen careers in teaching and the medical profession. It was truly a special evening.”

Mrs Miles joined Henbury as a teacher in September 1990. She said “it was fantastic to see so many ex-students and find out about their lives post-Henbury. I recognised lots of faces but found it difficult to put names to some of them as, obviously, so many people have changed and matured. It made me feel old!  I realised how long I'd been here when I saw people I taught returning who now have exciting jobs, partners, children, mortgages etc”.

Mr Ward, Headteacher, said:

“This has been a truly memorable event. I have had conversations with people this evening which I will treasure for the rest of my life. I felt even more privileged to have been the headteacher here at Henbury these last 13 years. We have continually tried to make it into a family school, where everyone feels as if they belong, so that they can achieve success whilst here and, when they leave, feel confident about striding out into the world and making a difference.

“What struck me was that the most clear memories people had were of people, especially of teachers. When I asked them to recall their main memories, without fail they did not tell me about the lesson they learned Pythagoras' Theory, or when they studied the facts of the Battle of Hastings. But they recalled a teacher who had made a difference to them. This was a deeply humbling experience for many of us who are still teachers.

“Over the years, we have had some tremendous staff who have never stopped going that second mile, doing that little bit extra for our students. And when I look back at this proud history, it is clear that this has been happening since day one, back in 1958. Staff and students past and present have been associated with a school which has a really proud history of serving the community of Macclesfield. Our move to the Park Lane campus will enable us to carry on with this mission, in brand new buildings, to future classes of children and young people for many generations to come.”

We are grateful to local artist, Peter Holland, who drew several aspects of the school (see below for the front entrance) and each former student was presented with a copy of his work as a memento of the occasion.

  

Sketch of the front entrance by local artist Peter Holland.
This is essentially the same as it was in 1958.

 

Back Row left to right:
Peter Smith, Charlie Taylor, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Tony Morris, Barry Lee.
Middle row: Unknown, Ian Collier, Mike Hayes, Unknown, Michael Bates, Unknown, Unknown, Norman Dunkley.
Front Row: Unknown, Unknown.

 

Back row, left to right: Unknown, Tony Morris, Barry Lee, Unknown, David Hind, Unknown, Michael Bates, Unknown.
Middle row: Unknown, Jimmy Bexon, Unknown, Michael Sefton, Unknown, Ian Cowen, Ian Collier, Mike Hayes.
Front row: Unknown, Norman Dunkley.

 

Gymnastics Team 1965-1966:
J Jepson, P Dooley, N Christian
A Johnson, D Malkin, E Malkin, J Wood, J Fairbanks

 

 

June 2007