Letters: Rose-tinted history

He is undoubtedly right about the poor standards prevailing some 20 years ago. Like Mr Artley, my son went to university only after retaking his examinations following further study at Harrogate college. D&S readers with good memories may also recall my argument with the then headmaster and the governors about the school's unsatisfactory procedures for submitting university entrance applications, an argument partly conducted in public through your columns. Despite repeated denials that anything was amiss the procedures were eventually changed in response to my criticisms although these changes were formalised only after the departure of the headmaster concerned.

Mr Artley's generation was not the only generation to suffer at the school. I myself was a pupil there in the early 1950s and I know I am not alone in thinking the school was also wanting then.

I have no doubt that, like Mr Artley, I was considered a "poor student" (although I happen to think that if teachers report year after year that one "could do better" it says as much, if not more, about the teachers as it does about the pupil). Like Mr Artley, I overcame the difficulties and I later obtained three degrees.

Although I was a pupil at much the same time as the author of the history I do not recognise his descriptions of the school in our time. I myself did not find it "generally congenial" with a "healthy ambience" and a "sense of security" for bullying was not a rarity. The behaviour of some members of staff towards pupils was also not what it should have been. I could not leave soon enough.

But perhaps Mr Artley was expecting too much. I myself had assumed the book, without any index or sources, was not intended to be a proper "warts-and-all" history of the school. It was published by the college with a foreword written by the chairman of the governors and it is perhaps not surprising under the circumstances that the "history" of the school is portrayed through rose-tinted spectacles.

Dr D F SEVERS

Borrowby Avenue,

Northallerton.

Sir, - It was with great interest I read the excellent letter "The missing years" (D&S, Jan 4) from J K Artley, former head boy of Northallerton grammar school 1977/78.

Like him I was also disappointed in the lack of reference to the years 1970-80 in Mr Riordan's book. Perhaps a little research might have discovered a few highlights of the "missing years".

Following the poor A-level results in 1978 (although the same pupils had produced some excellent O-levels only two years earlier), a small group of anxious parents did indeed make quite a fuss, meeting with officers of the North Yorkshire education committee of that time, for full and very frank discussions. Sadly two of that group are no longer with us but their expert contributions are both valued and remembered

Whilst it was too late for the pupils of that year, the subsequent changes which took place following the inspection (hardly "co-incidental") were eventually to lead to many improvements and take the Northallerton grammar school from strength to strength.

However, in fairness it must be said there were a few decent results and one pupil went on to Cambridge. To my personal knowledge, a number of pupils did go on to have very successful careers, but who knows how the poor results affected the many, leaving them sadly disappointed and let down by the school and the system.

Mrs J P SHEPHERDSON

Oak Tree Drive,

Bedale.

First-class record

Sir, - As another past head boy of Northallerton grammar school (1956-7), I was particularly interested in Mr Artley's letter (D&S Jan 4) and could only sympathise with the problems he described concerning his own education in the 70s .

But I feel that his criticism is largely misplaced. Michael Riordan's book on the grammar school and college gives quite a detailed account of the transition from grammar school to comprehensive in the 70s. Mr Artley makes no criticism of the government of the day, whose great haste in imposing comprehensive education for ideological reasons was responsible for many of the problems.

In those early days, many of the successful comprehensives were new institutions, purpose-built and newly staffed. If there had been time and opportunity for the rebuilding and restructuring of the 80s at Northallerton grammar school in preparation for the change to comprehensive education, the transition would have occurred more smoothly.

Michael Riordan's chapter on the transition gives a clear and detailed account of the many difficulties the grammar and Allertonshire secondary schools faced at the time. The relative sparsity of his photographic record of that time compared to twenty years earlier is probably more closely connected to the fact that, as a near-contemporary of mine at the school, the author would have access to more varied photographic records of its earlier years as a selective grammar school, than to any supposed bias on his part.

The book is a first-class record of the grammar school and Northallerton college.

J H ROBINSON

Cromwell Drive,

Morton-on-Swale.

We did warn you

Sir, - In response to C D Kirk's letter ("Difficult Recycling", D&S Jan 4) I acknowledge the Christmas period can be a difficult time to keep up with emptying the recycling bins, but it is not always so simple to bring in additional bins or collect more frequently. In fact, Hambleton District Council issued a press statement on the very topic before Christmas, urging people to have patience and to take materials home again if they found the recycling centres full.

One point upon which I would strongly agree with C D Kirk is that as a community we do not do enough recycling. The district council is addressing this and I anticipate a new strategy to double our recycling rates by 2004 will be subject of reports early in the Spring this year.

Coun A BARKER

Deputy leader, Hambleton District Council.

Northallerton.