Entertaining the troups

At Anfield we did our best to entertain the children. The drama teachers put on plays which were passable. The Music department, on the other hand was more successful with its "show band". The band had taken part in many competitions both in Britain and abroad and even did an exchange with a school band from Canada. They were very good ; both children and parents enjoyed the many concerts they performed in the school.

One year we decided to put on a review for the pupils. Staff performed comedy sketches, sang and generally acted stupid much to the delight of the boys. Roger and I performed as a duo; he played guitar and I sang. He was dressed as a hippy in his long multicoloured cardigan and I wore my wife's blonde wig and my dinner suit. We seemed to go down quite well. The review was sadly a "one off" which we never repeated.

At Christmas there was always a carol concert which would start with the usual stuff - "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" etc and finish with "Jingle Bells", Rudolph the red nosed reindeer" etc.

The Head of Music tried to carry the tradition on when the school amalgamated but the atmosphere was different. The event descended into a parody when young children were dressed up on the stage to enact the Christmas Story. They performed well but somehow did not evoke the same spirit that rousing choruses of Jingle Bells did.

One of the traditions at the new school that did engage the pupils though was the pantomime. The Anfield version of traditional themes were written by one of the English staff and then performed by a mixture of students and staff. The Textile and Art Departments were heavily involved in producing costumes and scenery. These pantomimes were very well received by the pupils.

However, one of the later Headteachers thought that the whole idea was sexist and so the annual pantomime was dropped much to he delight of some of the staff who thought the pupil's behaviour at the performances was unseemly.

The other event that was dropped from the new school was the Harvest Festival. During the weeks before the festival, pupils were encouraged to bring in tins and packets which were then carefully arranged at the front of the hall.

The Headmistress, resplendent in her flowing black gown, gave a talk about the purpose of the collection which was to distribute gifts of food to the pensioners in the area. The talk was followed by the usual harvest hymns ,

On the last occasion the festival was held, The Head of Music, who sat at the piano just below the stage, spotted that someone had placed a packet of sanitary towels in amongst the collection of tins and packets. Luckily he was able to remove the offending item before the Headmistress spotted it but not before the eagle eyed staff in the hall had a good giggle about it.

Actually this giving of largesse to pensioners was something that the Senior Master at the original Anfield used to organise every Christmas. Each year there would be thirty or more parcels delivered by the most difficult pupils from the school. One boy in particular was so pleased to be chosen for the task and so overwhelmed by the reaction of he recipients that he brought his delivery bike into school to speed up the service.

Traditions only remain traditions when people carry them on.