School Captain's Speech 1971

In surviving the year which has passed since the last supper the qualities required most by the inhabitants of Monoux School seem to have been Patience, Endurance and Optimism. For it has been a year of continuing transition, the fruits of which may not begin to ripen fully until around this time next year.
The most notable transition has of course taken place in the architectural structure of the School. A whole new science block has sprung up where the old tennis courts used to be and now courts have been made behind it. Structurally, the now science block has six laboratories - two each for Physics, Chemistry and Biology, with one room set aside for the study of engineering science and one for general science. Mr. Groom reports that although the building itself leaves much to be desired in its design and construction, it does have two great advantages over the facilities available in the past. The first of these lies in the convenience of having all the laboratories together instead of them strung out around the school, therefore allowing much speedier transference of equipment and material from one part of the department to another. The second advantage is that in moving into the block we acquire a whole range of new scientific equipment which will henceforth enable every level of experiment. The cost of this equipment runs into thousands of pounds, and it provides a much greater opportunity for practical work, than has been anticipated in the past.
The new metalwork shop which has been built in between the science block and the tennis courts has provoked a similar reaction from Mr Ive. It too, lacks much in its design, and indeed soon after its completion a fire broke out from a crucible furnace and burnt approximately fifty square feet of the ceiling. The defecting furnace took six months to put right, and this occurrence typifies some of the problems that have arisen from the sub-standard construction of some parts of the new buildings. However, these defects must not be allowed to overshadow the immense advantages which the new blocks entail, and in Mr Ive's case the main advantage of his new department is the great amount of extra space with which it provides his students. There are now no other metal work shops as good as ours in the area, and few can match them throughout the borough. At present the boys there are involved in two projects - one to make a sailing cruiser, and. the other to produce a hovercraft, and in the future Mr Ives hopes to be able to begin work on various types of equipment to help the handicapped as well.
The old metalwork shop has had an extension built on, and it has now been converted into a new art block. It is the first tine in the school's history that we have had an art department as such, and the move has enabled Mr. Harrison to concentrate on a far wider range of subjects beside painting and drawing, as well as roughly giving six times as much wall space for display purposes. Here again there are the inevitable drawbacks. The roof leaks in places and consequently a section of the floor has boon ruined. Also there is not enough window space in the painting section and so the fluorescent lights have to be relied upon for a large part of the year, where a little more care and thought in the design of the building could have provided much more adequate lighting without any increase in expenditure. Nevertheless, the light problem is now much less acute than it was in room nine, and the overall advantages of the new block far outweigh its defects. At last the boys have a third section of their own, and a good printing area, and a room for pottery and ceramics. Also, there is a photograph section in which they can get over the initial terror of developing a film for the first time.
The unity of the block is here an even greater room than in the other new buildings, for it means that not only can boys alternate between pottery, 3D and painting during one period if they so wish, but also that they can work alongside and gain experience from students of much higher standards than themselves, rather than being segregated into different classes, and hence feeling that their opportunities are less.
The new blocks took a year to build and it is only just recently that the north side of the school has returned to its normal state, after a long period in which a succession of heavy lorries and machinery had succeeded in giving it something of the appearance of a huge rubbish tip.
However, no sooner had they been completed, hence giving a supply of much needed space in the main building, than the workmen moved in to begin the modernisation of this part of he school, Walking round the school has now become something akin to an assault course, or if you are not showered by falling plaster, tripped up by endless electric cables, or harassed by strategically placed stepladders, then there is always the likelihood that you may fall down an uncovered manhole at some point in your travels. The transformation is due to go on until next September, but we are assured by the Headmaster that work will be temporarily suspended during the 'O' & 'A' Levels, which is a great relief to all concerned
The programme of development will provide us with a new & better equipped library, together with much needed study rooms. There will also be a sixth form common room for the first time ever, which we hope will also eliminate talking in the library, and help to bring the sixth form together more as a unit. The old library is to be converted into a new staff room, with eighteen serving as a working room for the staff and also to be provided are three separate smaller rooms for the sixth form master, the careers section and the deputy headmaster.
When the work is finally over in September, the school will therefore have had a complete and long awaited facelift, and will provide approved facilities for all aspects of school life. It is this target which must be kept in mind as we endure the inconveniences entailed by the work going on - for example there is no room for private study anywhere in the building at the moment. In fact it is the prefects who seem to have profited more than most from the situation, since we have now acquired a coloured electrician who frequently serenades us in the tuck shop at dinner time, and who has one of the best gospel voices that any of us has heard.
It is fitting that next September should also see the completion of the transfer to comprehensive education, which was begun nearly three years ago, as the last of the Grammar School boys leave Monoux. We are promised that the new system will produce overall a better standard of education. Although this is not certain as yet, what is certain is that the conversion has proved arduous at times, and also violent. Each year the fourth form intake has felt itself outlawed by the boys in the higher years, and it has responded on all three occasions by a campaign of aggression which generally lasts until Christmas. This time several members of the second year sixth were attacked in what was nothing less than despair at being rejected from the new society into which the fourth formers felt themselves to have been unfairly plunged. As a result of this one senior boy had a front tooth knocked out and his lip cut so severely that it required several stitches.
One hopes that next September the pattern will change, and I an optimist that it will. It was noticeable that almost all the violence this year was directed at the second year sixth who are of course the last of the original grammar school pupils and that hardly any attacks were made on members of the first year sixth, which was a combination of grammar school and comprehensive boys. It is therefore perhaps not too much to hope that nothing of the sort will occur next year and that the spirit of fraternity which has been stifled during the years of transformation will at last be allowed to re-emerge and develop to the full.
Finally, it is necessary to list what our achievements have been during this year of transition and endurance.
Academically, the year was no more than reasonable, although of course we can make no comparisons with previous years at 'O' level standard because of the new comprehensive intake, However, over 350 'O' levels were gained in the summer, together with 128 'A' levels of which 13 obtained distinctions. Four boys have secured places at Oxford and Cambridge and another two are awaiting the outcome of their 'A' level results to see whether they have qualified for admission. This figure is low compared with the twenty successful entrants of the last two years, but Mr. Shaw has high hopes for the coming year, and it is possible that these Grammar School boys who we are so anxious to he rid of may supply us with greater success than we have obtained for some time.
On the Sports field, however, there was a different tale to tell. Dave Cox head the school cross-country team to one of its most successful seasons for years, and they carried off several major trophies. Meanwhile, the school football team had a good season, although they were sometimes deprived of their best players by local clubs such as Leyton and not such local ones such as Queen's Park Rangers and Fulham. Their main achievements lay in beating the Old Monovians 2-1 for the first time in several years and for providing games for over sixty sixth formers throughout the season.
The fifth form team were the most successful in the schools history, reaching the final of the Lipton Cup, which covers the whole of London and winning both the Alf Woof Cup which is for all Essex and the MacDowell Cup which is for schools in Waltham Forest.
Compared to this the schools basketball team did not have much success, but the first team squad contained only ono member of the second year sixth and so it will consequently remain unchanged next season when, with training, it could do very well in both Essex and National competitions, And it is this optimism for the future to which I feel we must all cling during the present upheavals. The School council has at last been resurrected, and one hopes that this may help add to the new sense of unity which is so imperative for the school's development if it is to operate smoothly under the comprehensive system. Already they plan a regular dinnertime discotheque for later this tern, perhaps in conjunction with the girls school, and it is hoped that a dance may be staged some time during the summer. Activities such as these would go a long way towards inspiring the much needed unity inside Monoux School during the years to come, and it can only be hoped that failures in the past will not deter either the Headmaster or Staff from providing the boys with ample opportunity to develop their new ideas to the full.
John Hodginson.