Well I started teaching at Foxwood School the same year that I acquired a new lodger, a hairdresser, now called Harvey. H introduced me to the delights of colouring my hair, and so it was that I turned up at school with part of it now turned pink, or maybe red or purple, sometimes it was all green.
I also had five piercings in one ear, and four in the other [prizes for why], as indeed I still do. Head of Year Malcolm X [later to become Head of Bruntcliffe] also complained that it was hard to discipline the girls for their multiple piercings when I was there with paperclips hanging from mine. I opined that it was a pointless activity on his part, especially the school still was proud to have no school uniform. And I was proud of it for that.
Well, this was a hard school to teach in; Seacroft and Gipton were were poor deprived estates. Towards the end, Foxwood was a Special School in all but name, where we included mainstream kids. However we more than rose to the challenge, and under the visionary leadership of Bob Spooner, we were awash with initiatives to support our charges.
One happening has stuck in my mind for ever. Once, our when our home-liaison teacher, Margaret Neat was in the family's house, she was found it was meal time. The parent cleared the windowsill and put two or three dollops ofbeans on it, and the children ate from there. We found this shocking and so sad.
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