Myers Grove School - Documentary on BBC2

[Sheffield History]

http://www.tvradiobits.co.uk/tellyyears/may1982.htm

BBC2 - 5:10pm - 'myers grove school'

There was a documentary filmed at Myers Grove School in about 1970 and it was a retrospective then & now thing.

If anyone has a copy we'd love to see it !

Viewing Notes:

A film made about Myers Grove Comprehensive School, Sheffield. The opening titles tell us that the music is played by the school band.

The film starts with exterior shots of the school and we hear where it is located. There are 1,800 pupils and we see some of them arriving in the morning.

We see the band practicing before going to the chemistry laboratory where the pupils are using apparatus and bunsen burners. Next we visit an art class and then the library. A bell rings and we see girls walking down the corridor, self consciously aware of the camera. They go into the dining hall and we see them eating lunch.

In the sixth form common room the pupils study on their own. There are shots of them working in booths. In the language laboratory the teacher operates a console while the pupils listen through headphones. In the commerce department we see girls learning to type. We move on to the woodwork and metalwork rooms where we see boys at work. Girls make pastry and cakes, etc, in the cookery class.

Outside, the girls put on a fashion show of clothes they have designed and made themselves. Exterior shots with snow on the ground introduces 'The Grove Game', played each year on Shrove Tuesday between four teams of boys on the rugby ground. This turns out to be a chaotic rugby game with 25 per team. There are matches between staff and pupils, rugby for the men and hockey for the women.

We see the summer fair and the narrator lists the many activities going on. We are shown penny rolling, golf, crockery smashing and swing boats. The event attracts 8,000 people and raises £700, and we are told that this is to be spent on equipment for the school.

In May 1970 there is a dinner to celebrate 10 years since the school opened. We see the guests arriving, one of them looks like Roy Hattersley.

Movie Link - http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/BESPOK...amp;filmID=2048

There is a copy of the original 1970 film in the Yorkshire Film Archive in York where you can go to view - http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com

[Guest Desy]

I was one of the first pupils to attend Myers grove and go all the way through in 1961 to 1967

[Henry Pond]

There was a Panorama documentary - this one I think http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/programme/LCA1523A - which comapared the approaches two Sheffield schools - Rowlinson? and Abbeydale? - had taken to the comprehensive system.