Wow I never actually knew that!

It was in my day.

One of our PE teachers at Hawkley Hall was Jeff Clare. His favourite story was how he scored the first ever 4-point try. He was a nice bloke who once got David Lyon to come down and take us for a rugby lesson.

My mate never shuts up about Jeff Clare.

He was a Hawkley pupil to and every time you mention PE he will discuss (at length) what a superb teacher Jeff Clare was.

We were lucky in that we had two great teachers who knew what they were doing but were a great laugh at the same time. In my last year we had a reet bell who spent the entire hour perving on lasses while we were sent off towards Three Sisters on cross-country jaunts.

Our rugby teacher was Mike Hancock, apparently an ex semi pro with Swinton, very good teacher but very regimental, he was always making you do press ups or star jumps or sit ups if you spoke when he did or didn't do something right. The worst was in winter doing rugby on a muddy pitch "20 forward rolls" he'd shout and your head would be filthy and cold with all the mud and water on it.

My most memorable PE teacher at Rose Bridge was and old Aussie fella called Mr Sonerson. Apparently he was one a full time NRL player back in the day.

My year was full of wendy ball wannabes and each lesson he would ask for the vote on what game we would play. Football would pull in about 20 votes and RL would pull in 2 (from me and my mate). After Mr Sonerson had counted the votes and witnessed the overwhelming footballing majority, he would always say "right you little poofta's, Rugger it is!"

What age are you?.

You tell a similar story to my Mate. Might be the same year.

Winstanley got best A level results last year in the whole country therefore regardless of people wanting their kids (most are 18 btw so not kids) mollycoddled. Your there to learn not be looked after. Personally, the tutors at Winstanley were great for me

I hope you didn't study English.

You go there to learn but the tutors job is to teach. They shouldn't give up on those who struggle, which in my experience some have done.

There are some excellent tutors at Winstanley. My history teacher was great and helped me get from a predicted E grade to a grade B. I wouldn't have done that without his help.

However people's opinions are bound to be shaped by their experiences, and after walking into a lesson hearing my tutor bitching and gossiping about a friend of mine and making remarks about a family member I was put off. The same thing happened in a different subject a few days later and then said person found her own tutor had been doing the same when she was absent.
I was there to learn rather than to stand up for a friend from rumour and gossip from those who were supposed to be there to teach.

It put me off Winstanley for good.

Completely O/T again, but isn't there a teacher at Abraham Guest at the minute who plays for Keighly?

Very true - but not as good at teaching the basics of rugby than (God forgive me for saying this) the former Lancashire Rugby Union captain and coach, maths teacher and all round good egg Des Seabrook.

He was a bit before my time, I'd say. He was still teaching maths in my first couple of years at UHS, but sadly he suffered a couple of heart attacks and eventually retired.

Mr Cummings was held back a bit, I think. Head of games was a Welsh bloke called Mr Griffiths and we seemed to have some link or other with Orrell Rugby Union, so it was decreed that we had to play union, and Griffiths ran the school team. We were pretty crap and I don't actually recall Griffiths ever really teaching us anything and as a games teacher I just didn't get along with him. That said, he was our head of year in our final two years, and I found him to be great in role. That said, I always was more suited to 'academic' lessons than sport!

Apparently after I left the school, Griffiths either left, or was sidelined, Cummings took over as head of games and the school switched to league.

different strokes for different folks i suppose but in my experience winstanely is a top top place of education and thoroughly deserves its place in the top few colleges in the country. my 'tutors' were as good as they come.