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Very Short Clip Showing Some 1974 Rowlinson Pupils - Bbc 70S Programme.


Henry Pond

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in the seventies program, episode 1, and still available on iplayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ghscj/The_70s_Get_It_On_7072/), an extremely short extract at 33:45ish from the panorama programme filmed there.

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in the seventies program, episode 1, and still available on iplayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk...Get_It_On_7072/), an extremely short extract at 33:45ish from the panorama programme filmed there.

It gets even better,

Norfolk schools 1970's 8mm film "Dead Easy" was digitised and shown publically in 2008 and then posted on here as a YouTube link by me.

Ashleigh school was the scene for a 1973 Play for Today episode "Speech Day", tracked down by and made available to download by Markbaby from a link.

Newfield school made several 16mm films in the 70's, five of which are linked or posted on this site by SteveHB

A short film of mine, "Dr Dave & Mr Big" made in 1977 at Gleadless / Herdings was televised by the BBC in 2010 and is posted on here by me, along with one of my brothers films "Joy Rider", made in 1981 at the same location.

Now it turns out that Rowlinson school appeared on a BBC Panorama programme in 1974, a short clip of which appears in "The 70's", but wouldn't it be great if the entire programme exentually turned up, - and then got linked or posted on here.

How many other schools made local films, or appeared in them in the 70's?

If you know of any and we stand a chance of finding them, to post or link on here please let us know.

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How many other schools made local films, or appeared in them in the 70's?

If you know of any and we stand a chance of finding them, to post or link on here please let us know.

Not the 70's, but my School Gleadless Valley was "featured" in a Panorama in about 1987(?). I forget entirely what the point of the programme was. They filmed us playing some kind of daft game that simulated world trade (clunkily making the point that third world countries are shafted from the off), and then they got us in a circle and the reporter John Ware asked us some questions.

John Ware: "so young man, were you aware that the third world are so badly treated?"

Stupid Kid: "erm. No".

I was glad when that bit didn't make the final version, it took months to live that down. And I was one of the "brainy" kids. I hated John Ware, he was so intimidating: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-421978/Top-Panorama-reporter-quits-dumbing-down.html)

I recall when the programme eventually went out, it didn't show the school in a flattering light, but I'm baffled what the thrust of the edition was about.

Perhaps soon the Panorama archive might be released, so there's a chance of it popping up.

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Not the 70's, but my School Gleadless Valley was "featured" in a Panorama in about 1987(?). I forget entirely what the point of the programme was. They filmed us playing some kind of daft game that simulated world trade (clunkily making the point that third world countries are shafted from the off), and then they got us in a circle and the reporter John Ware asked us some questions.

John Ware: "so young man, were you aware that the third world are so badly treated?"

Stupid Kid: "erm. No".

I was glad when that bit didn't make the final version, it took months to live that down. And I was one of the "brainy" kids. I hated John Ware, he was so intimidating: (http://www.dailymail...mbing-down.html)

I recall when the programme eventually went out, it didn't show the school in a flattering light, but I'm baffled what the thrust of the edition was about.

Perhaps soon the Panorama archive might be released, so there's a chance of it popping up.

Thanks RichK, lets hope that the clip turns up, it;s amazing what does turn up at times and what long forgotten images and memories they can hold.

It doesn't have to be 70's of course, any era of old school on film is important, it's just that old 70's film seems to have been leaping out of long forgotten places at us over the last few weeks.

Gleadless Valley was another of our local schools, Matthews Lane I believe and now called Bents Green school, so it would be well worth seeing, even though it is one of the local schools that I have never been in.

The dialogue could have been better if the kid had my sense of humour, -

John Ware: "so young man, were you aware that the third world are so badly treated?"

Stupid Kid: "No, but I hope the other two worlds are better treated".

(Based on a line from an episode of the Likely Lads in a quiz, -

Questionmaster "Who built the Forth bridge?"

Rodney Bewes "I don't even know who built the first three")

lol

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I was the stupid kid of course!

I think I meant to say (in response to "were you aware the third world is royally shafted") something like "yes, whilst I was vaguely aware of the west's exploitation of the third world, I've found that this educational exercise has extended and deepened my knowledge and I intend to explore said matter further. I may even make a career of it, hoorah for the comprehensive system".

With the camera pointing at me, "erm, no" was the best I could do.

Gleadless Valley was demolished in the 1990's, probably increasing it's educational value.

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I was the stupid kid of course!

I think I meant to say (in response to "were you aware the third world is royally shafted") something like "yes, whilst I was vaguely aware of the west's exploitation of the third world, I've found that this educational exercise has extended and deepened my knowledge and I intend to explore said matter further. I may even make a career of it, hoorah for the comprehensive system".

With the camera pointing at me, "erm, no" was the best I could do.

Gleadless Valley was demolished in the 1990's, probably increasing it's educational value.

So it was not the school on Matthews Lane then?

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So it was not the school on Matthews Lane then?

Sorry for the long delay, I don't log on enough.

Yes, but only one of the schools. There was the Oakes Park School, Norton Free and Gleadless Valley all on Matthews Lane. The first two survive (I think the Oakes has a new name these days). Gleadless is now the houses here:

http://maps.google.c...154.54,,0,12.06

Edit to add: I've just read that Oakes Park School (a special needs school) became Talbot School and is now empty.

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Sorry for the long delay, I don't log on enough.

Yes, but only one of the schools. There was the Oakes Park School, Norton Free and Gleadless Valley all on Matthews Lane. The first two survive (I think the Oakes has a new name these days). Gleadless is now the houses here:

http://maps.google.c...154.54,,0,12.06

Edit to add: I've just read that Oakes Park School (a special needs school) became Talbot School and is now empty.

3 different schools all on the same street :blink:

I will have to get my head around that one to sort which one was which.

When they were all open I bet there were some right punch ups at breaks, lunchtimes and hometimes between the kids from different schools. lol

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No punchups that I remember Dave, Oakes Park was a special school and you never really saw any pupils there, they were bussed in I think. It was a bit of a mysterious building in many ways.

There was a lot of rivalry between Gleadless Valley and Newfield though.

And Norton Free was then a tiny primary school, still a village school main building with a few prefab mobile classrooms. It was expanded dramatically in the 1990's, presumably to take up some of the slack from the demolished Hemsworth School?

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There was a lot of rivalry between Gleadless Valley and Newfield though.

I did teaching practice at Newfield School in 1978 so I have some connection and attachment to it.

"Frithy" (an old friend of mine and Stuarts from Norfolk School) was permenantly excluded from Norfolk (ie Expelled) after some serious criminal incidents.

Of course he had to go to another school and the one that accepted him was Gleadless Valley School.

Now, as Norfolk had a reputation for being a "rough school" and as Gleadless Valley accepted the kids we had kicked out I often wondered what sort of a school Gleadless Valley was.

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Back to the original thread topic ...

Caught up with the last episode of the 70s programme, and Sheffield schools were re-visited. Some more corridor shots of Rowlinson, a classroom shot of a maths lesson (with Mr Kearley teaching), then, over some commentary about the radical left wing leanings, a shot of a teacher I didn't recognize, plus one of a young Kate Smith - later to become Liberal councillor Kate Dawson, so not *that* left wing then!

Because of the way the editors mixed up clips willy-nilly, there are also some shots of kids on a bus, then getting off at a school which is not Rowlinson. Now, I do have the programme saved to disk if someone can direct me to a useful "trimming" tool for linux.

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Back to the original thread topic ...

Caught up with the last episode of the 70s programme, and Sheffield schools were re-visited. Some more corridor shots of Rowlinson, a classroom shot of a maths lesson (with Mr Kearley teaching), then, over some commentary about the radical left wing leanings, a shot of a teacher I didn't recognize, plus one of a young Kate Smith - later to become Liberal councillor Kate Dawson, so not *that* left wing then!

Because of the way the editors mixed up clips willy-nilly, there are also some shots of kids on a bus, then getting off at a school which is not Rowlinson. Now, I do have the programme saved to disk if someone can direct me to a useful "trimming" tool for linux.

Sounds an interest collection of local shots many of us would like to see.

If it is stored to disk it make require more than just trimming to cut out the short school clips, you may also need to change the video format, - to WMV, AVI or MP4 for example (I think the disk will have recorded in the DVD MPEG 2 format, which is quite memory intensive, but I may be wrong)

But then of course you need some webspace to upload it to as sheffieldhistory does not support video, - you could link it to your YouTube account space or use some personal webspace as I do.

I didn't find postingpersonal videos (those not already available on the net which can be linked or embedded) easy.

I can't be much help with Linux software either.

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Thanks for the info, it was shown bfore I became a member of Sheffield History.

I really wanted to know of any old boys that went there as I seemed t have a very sheltered schooling. The very year that I started at Rowlinson it changed to a boys only. Also, they started renovations to the Sports Field and yes you guessed it, they finished on my last year. Made Soccer a bit difficult but Jordanthorpe helped out.

I would really like to contact old Rowlinson puplis and re-live the "experience".

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Thanks for the info but I wasn't on the History Site at that time.

What I am interested in is getting into contact with any OB's that may be around just to "chew the fat".

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Seems strange that Rowlinson went from mixed sex to boys school.

When schools went comprehensive in 1969 all single sex schools went mixed, - like Hurlfield school for example, - exactly the opposite change to Rowlinson.

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Seems strange that Rowlinson went from mixed sex to boys school.

When schools went comprehensive in 1969 all single sex schools went mixed, - like Hurlfield school for example, - exactly the opposite change to Rowlinson.

Rowlinson did go mixed when it changed to comprehensive (well, a year later to be precise, the 1969 intake was all boys. By 1970, the school had become much bigger and the intake was mixed and about 13 forms). The sixth form was mixed even when it was boys only.

I think Ianb is talking about an earlier time - the school was originally mixed, then went single sex when one of the girls schools opened.

There is a old rowlies website, but it's been "new site coming" for quite a long time now (older material is still available). Also a couple of friends reunited pages (rowlinson and rowlinson technical)

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Guest CoolHandSax

The clip of Rowlinson school students is just over 7 seconds long.

A capture of the clip is available on the link, without sound, to allow members to identify any people in the clip

www.sheffieldsteam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Rowlinson%20Clip.wmv

I was in that maths class & appeared in the original Panorama program, although not in the short clip featured. As I remember it was all a bit of a set-up, clearly Rowlinson wanted to portray themselves in the best possible light. The class was 'Set 1' (we were still streamed then) from third year forms C,D,E & F. Mr Kearly, who was head of the maths department, was not our regular teacher, although he had been the previous year and the lesson we were doing in the classroom was 2nd year work not 3rd year. To cap it off we were told that if the teacher asked the class a question to put up our right hands if we knew the answer & our left hands if we didn't! Hardly a balanced view in an extremely highly thought of BBC documentary series.

Just to finish I believe that the backs of the heads of the two pupils sitting at the table on the left belong to Rob Harris & Richard Latham (don't you just love those early 70's haircuts!)

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I was in that maths class & appeared in the original Panorama program, although not in the short clip featured. As I remember it was all a bit of a set-up, clearly Rowlinson wanted to portray themselves in the best possible light. The class was 'Set 1' (we were still streamed then) from third year forms C,D,E & F. Mr Kearly, who was head of the maths department, was not our regular teacher, although he had been the previous year and the lesson we were doing in the classroom was 2nd year work not 3rd year. To cap it off we were told that if the teacher asked the class a question to put up our right hands if we knew the answer & our left hands if we didn't! Hardly a balanced view in an extremely highly thought of BBC documentary series.

Just to finish I believe that the backs of the heads of the two pupils sitting at the table on the left belong to Rob Harris & Richard Latham (don't you just love those early 70's haircuts!)

Welcome to SheffieldHistory CoolHandSax and thank you for posting.

CoolHandSax, - I like it, a real Jazz musicians name that!

It's good that someone in the film has recognised themselves or can identify others in it as this can otherwise be a very difficult task.

When the Norfolk School film were donated by Eric Smith to the Yorkshire Film Archive they were digitised and given a public viewing to invited guests, - the guests being the cast and production team of the original film from 35 years previously. A woman called Karen put a lot of time and effort into locating the people in the film and only with limited success.

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There is a John P Brennan (aged 65+) listed at living at 50 Hallam Grange Crescent, Sheffield S10 4BD. Surely, this cannot be our old geography teacher. Our John P Brennan used to live on Abbey Lane when we were at school, but I do recall that when we both worked at the Polytechnic that he talked to me about moving/having moved to Fullwood.

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