Thank God it’s Friday

10th May 2002, 1:00am

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Thank God it’s Friday

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/thank-god-its-friday-450
Monday I stumbled on the Friends Reunited internet site recently and have become hooked on tracking down old friends from sixth form and college days. I haven’t seen them for 40 years but I can picture most of them as clearly as if it were yesterday. They were happy days. I set the ball rolling with an email to a school pal whose nickname was Jammy.

Tuesday News from Jammy Fielden. He left school at 15 but I stayed on until sixth form so I could get to college. He has a successful import business. He travelled the world for years from Taiwan to Egypt to the United States, but now sells mobility aids for the elderly and infirm. Well, not much longer before I’m buying something from him then.

Wednesday News about Phil Brown. Phil left school at 15. He has just retired from his successful business. Now he’s content to play golf from his house in Spain. Phil and I used to smoke behind the bike sheds at lunchtimes, which 40 years ago was a crime punishable by something just short of death and inflicted by a forever irate headmaster who went by the nickname of Crun, after one of the Goon Show characters.

Thursday News from John Helliwell. John and I used to have jazz sessions in the sixth form, me on piano and him on sax. We also frequented seedy jazz club dives in Manchester which, 40 years ago, were definitely seedy. He went on to make it big, nay huge, as a member of Supertramp, which was Princess Diana’s favourite group and sold 64 million albums. John now has a manorial estate somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales. I clearly went wrong here and should have stuck to playing the piano.

Friday I went on to the college page and its brief pen portraits. It was depressing. They were all teachers, co-ordinators, deputy heads, and heads. I opened a bottle of Louis Foulon Vouvray as Mrs Thomas came in from school with a bag full of new initiatives and visions. “What do you think this lot are thinking?” I asked showing her the screen. “Thank God it’s Friday,” she replied, “if they feel the same as me.”

David Thomas is a retired primary head. He lives in Leeds

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