LEON SCHOOL - more draft text for IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON

THANK YOU to all who have so kindly messaged me as I prepare this DRAFT text for IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON. 279 people checked my earlier post regarding LEON SCHOOL.PLEASE if you wish to contact me use e-mail dashford566@gmail.com or friend me on facebook and message me. 

Here is a bit more text.

I am trying to bring out HERITAGE – not history. Within heritage there is legend. When I have finished this chapter for the book I plan to discuss it  with a Leon Legend – none other than Daphne Capp. Now age 95 Daphne is a good friend and I can tell you she has not changed a lot since this picture was taken at her reirement.

Among those sitting in the background is Cindy Palmer who was the heads of year secretary. I plan to run the text past Cindy as well.

But this is today's bit of writing.

When I joined the school final preparations were in place for an expedition – L E O N – Leon Overland Expedition to Nepal. The brainchild of Head of PE Trevor Garner. THAT IS HOW I FINISHED THE LAST POSTING..................

Headmaster Bradshaw who gave the school its name and Headmaster Abbott who developed that name were totally different people but like a stick of rock had LEON SCHOOL written all the way through their being.

I had been at Leon School for just two terms when I went to Headmaster Bradshaw’s office and explained that I needed more work to do, I needed a bit  of a challenge.

“We need a head of year,” Bradshaw replied. “Could you do that ?”

What ! Was I dreaming ? I was being catapulted from a newbie to a senior role within the school. It was at that moment that LEON SCHOOL became central to my stick of rock.

Leon Overland Expedition to Nepal. The brainchild of Head of PE Trevor Garner. The expedition did not quite make it to Nepal. With The Soviet Union occupying Afghanistan the road was blocked and so a U-turn was forced upon the Land Rover and mini-bus. However, look at a map and trace just how far the expedition went. Even without the Soviet Union would any school today have the ability and courage to mound an expedition on such a scale ?

Another project in the charge of Trevor Garner was to fund raise for a new school mini-bus.

All schools in the area in the 1970’s were subject to a totally different management system than that we know of today, all in Milton Keynes were subject to the control of Buckinghamshire County Council. Before a member of staff was allowed to drive a school mini-‘bus he, yes HE – lady teachers did not drive mini-buses fifty years ago, they had to pass a strange test. It was more a test  of inability to drive than a test to drive !  You could fail by using the gears to slow the vehicle. The thinking was it was cheaper to replace brake pads than it was to fit a new gear box !

When the school did get its new mini-‘bus it was garaged at Home Farm in Sherwood Drive, the former location of the farmhouse on the Leon Estate but for our mini-‘bus this was where Buckinghamshire County Council had its local transport depot. But before this could become the school’s mini-‘bus garage a lot of fund raising needed to take place.

A group of teenagers came to their newly promoted head of year with an eccentric but brilliant fund raising idea. This was to hold a peanut push where pupils would push a shell peanut using their noses, push the peanut around the school’s giant sports hall. It was great fun and raised a lot of money.

An idea I had was to run an after school film club where a rattling old 16mm Bell and Howell projector would entertain pupils once a week. Bradshaw was not keen on the idea but I did manage to persuade him. I evaded him asking me what films would be shown. The first film was Carry On Camping where Barbra Windsor’s bra flew off while she was doing PE exercises. Bradshaw would not have approved and would no doubt banned the showing of all future films.

Visited schools and found everything satisfactory. Fanny  Leon

What would Lady Leon have made of Headmaster Bradshaw’s eccentric school curriculum ?

INTO EUROPE: One hour a week for all kids in the lower school attending a one hour lecture ahead of Great Britain entering the EU or as it was then know The Common Market. One hour of history, one hour of geography and one hour of music from each of the then EU member countries. The music of Belgium ? It would take less than two minutes, one hundred and twenty seconds, to cover that topic.

The lectures were given by Headmaster Bradshaw assisted by Head of Lower School Mrs Ballenger. We mere ordinary teachers were assigned to boredom patrol trying to persuade the teenagers to pretend they were interested in what Bradshaw and Ballenger were saying.

When we left the EU I wonder if the present-day school held Out of Europe lectures or perhaps Into Brexit !

Mrs Ballenger left Leon School very suddenly, her husband was a spy ! Yes, he was, he worked at Hanslope Park. Suddenly he was sent on an assignment to Botswana and took his wife with him.

Another member of staff whose husband was a spy was Mrs Olive  Whitford who taught English. I knew Mr Whitford, he was not actually a spy although he too was based at Hanslope Park. He was actually an accountant who travelled the world auditing the accounts of spy groups attached to British Embassies.

In the 1970’s Milton Keynes was a rural area and Bletchley’s Lakes Estate right on the edge of active farmland. The school had its own mini-farm where pupils had Rural Studies on their timetables.

By today’s standards these were sexist times, I have spoken of lady teachers not driving mini-’buses. I had a rule within my year group that no boy was allowed to wear an earring without his carrying a handbag !

Bradshaw’s curriculum was sexist. The boys did what was called ROADCRAFT while the girls did DESIGN FOR LIVING better known by staff and kids alike as DESIGN FOR DYING !

Roadcraft ? Bradshaw was a motor biker, trust me today’s Milton Keynes barrel Bikers have nothing on Headmaster D B Bradshaw. After school, once a week, Bradshaw ran a motor bike club where teenagers ripped up the grass at the bottom of the school field.

Within the lower school History, Geography and Religious Education were combined to make up DISINTEGRATED STUDIES – I mean INTEGRATED STUDIES. English had its own elliptical orbit around this area of Leon School’s education.

French and German were the two languages taught in the school with Bill Hare as head of department and Madam Barford as second in charge. Those not considered clever enough to simultaneously learn two languages did French with the spare lesson on the timetable offered to a subject known as LANUGAGE BUFFER preparing them for at some time in the future taking on that second language. Those not taking either language had LITTLE ENGLISH spelt on the timetable at English with a small case e,

Eccentric the curriculum was but it was held together by Headmaster Bradshaw;s calm, gentle but totalitarian personality.

At a staff meeting Mr Bradshaw was explaining to the meeting that there was a sum of money left in the budget for the year, if it was not spent then Buckinghamshire County Council would claw it back. Did anyone have any ideas how it could be spent ?  I spoke up and suggested the school could buy a computer. Headmaster Bradshaw immediately poured scorn on my thinking. What a stupid idea ! If the council saw that happening it would say we hard far too much money, money to waste and would cut our budget for the coming year !

Later in my career at Leon I was talking to a young teenager who was possibly the most intelligent student in the entire school. I was trying to support him through a difficult situation so ours was quite a long and deep conversation. While talking he said to me that the day would come when every home in the country would have a computer of its own.  This young man may have been the most intelligent student in the school but what a silly thing to say. It was never going to happen.

The Open University held a one-day course pulling together different parts of the community in The New City Of Milton Keynes. I was the education representative. A friend of mine was there on behalf of the police. His name was Alan, we sat together around a square of tables upon each was placed a giant computer monitor. Do you remember when computers used green lettering on a black background ? Such were these state of the art computers we were about to use.

The professor began speaking, I can remember his words so clearly. You may have heard of something called The World Wide Web. Had we ? British scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 (No America you did not invent the internet.) gave us The World Wide Webb. So, I am assuming this all happened some time in 1990. Well, the professor continued, I am going to teach you all how to send letters using the world wide web we are calling this electronic mail.

We were all told how to make this extremely difficult and scientifically complex electronic letter system work. We were then told to send an electronic letter to the person sitting next to us, I tried and failed to send an electronic letter to Policeman Alan. Policeman Alan tried and failed to send a message to me. Everyone in the room tried and failed to send an electronic letter.

I don't see the point, I explained, if I want to speak to someone I telephone them.

But what if they are not by the phone to answer you ?

At work I have a secretary and at home I have an answer machine.

But with this, the professor defended, you can attach a document.

We had not, none of us, managed to send a single message saying HI let alone attach a three-volume novel.

Have you never heard of a fax machine ? I said sarcastically. Everyone in the room save the professor agreed with me.

How old are you reading this ?  How many of you know what a fax machine is ?  If you are under thirty then you were born into a world before the internet and what became e-mail. Jimmy Carter was elected to the White House in 1993 and left office in 2001. I remember him saying that when he became president there was no such thing as a website when he left nobody could live without them. I wonder if there is a fax machine in The Science Museum.

Have you never heard of a fax machine ? I said sarcastically. Everyone in the room save the professor agreed with me. Trust me, I added, this will never catch on !

Sammy Leon what do you make of all that ?  It was, of course, in your home of Bletchley Park that the world’s first computer was produced but we will talk about that later within another footstep.

A fun memory from one of my English classes at Leon School. Artist L S Lowy died in 1976, two years later Brian and Michael had a hit record with Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats and Dogs. I stood all of my English class looking out of the classroom window while I played the record. The idea was when the record finished they would sit down and describe in words their view as it would have been seen by L S Lowry. What was the chance of Headmaster Bradshaw walking into my classroom at that precise moment ?  Remember pupils numbering more than one thousand four hundred accommodate in many classes about the school site.

“What is your class doing Mr Ashford ?”  Bradshaw demanded.

It  took quite some explaining !

The Leon Family educated their offspring at Eton College where Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and David Cameron went to school. When Bruce Abbott became headmaster at Leon his son and daughter were educated at Leon School.

Abbott was totally different to Bradshaw but another hands on headmaster who loved his school. Sammy Leon you would be proud of them both. Abbott, however, did revise Bradshaw’s crazy curriculum.

MORE TO COME ! Here’s something I bet you don’t know. The school dining hall was designated as an assembly and rescue point in event of a nuclear attack. The warning siren for such an attack was located on top of the lower school tower block ! OH YES. That is fact, not fiction although it is now perhaps passing into legend.

Sadly so many of my photographs were lost in the Leon Fire. I am seeking pictures from friends but I am not sure if I will be illustrating this book or not. The older images are taken from Sir Frank Markham's book The History of Milton Keynes and Disctrict. His widdow, Lady Markham, gave me permission to use them when I was writing back in the early 1990's.