THE WIND OF CHANGE Pulling Together As costs began rising throughout the late '60s and early '70s and new teaching aids became available fund-raising became an annual whole school enterprise led by the Parents Association. In the Autumn of 1966 the first school bazaar was held by the Parents' Association, 3011 was raised and several articles were bought for the school, including a television set. In November 1967 another bazaar was held in the school and over 410 was raised. The following year saw the launch of the school Minibus Fund and to augment the fund which had a target of 500, the school offered to print letter-heads and business cards, at reasonable rates, for Old Scholars and friends of the school, on its own printing press under the supervision of Mr Keenan. In November another bazaar was held and by January 1969 the School was able to purchase its first minibus. As a result of the 1971 Spring Fair organised by the Parents' Association, amplifying equipment was bought for the Hall. Another bazaar was held in November '72 and at this one I've read that the queues to visit Santa Claus (Mr D. Cheshire) stretched to Greenford Broadway. This was followed later in the year by a great sponsored walk involving staff, parents and over two hundred pupils. This raised over 700 which together with the money from the sale of the old school minibus enabled a new P.S.V. minibus to be purchased. The walk was over an 11 mile course in the Denham-Harefield area and report has it that one member of staff ran the course. The following Christmas the Parents Association and the School held one more bazaar before reorganisation. Expansion and Unrest In 1969 there was a big increase in the numbers staying on in the Sixth Form (the School acquired three extra classrooms to cope with them) but that same year in December, saw the beginning of that unrest that was to plague the teaching profession throughout the '70s and '80s as, for the first time, the school was closed for two days by an N.U.T. strike. There were break-ins with the loss of some microscopes and musical instruments (7273). In her farewell report to the Governors in 1973 Miss Smith blamed poorer examination results the previous summer on increasing truancy and absences something which virtually every secondary school was experiencing during this period. In spite of this the School still had its high fliers, David Grubb (U6th) came 8th in the National Mathematical Olympiad, and went on to represent great Britain as one of a team of 8, competing against Hungary in Hungary in July 1970. He and Victor Coleman, both with 4 top grades in their A levels went on to King's College Cambridge. Four years earlier P West had been awarded an Open Exhibition in Mathenmtics for Downing College Cambridge and in 1973 Marion Grubb was awarded an Exhibition to Oxford University. Between about 15 and 20 pupils went on to Universities or other institutions of Higher Education each year. This period saw some improvements and additions to the School. In 1966 the new school oil-fired heating plant began to operate and the school was re-painted inside and out. In the Spring of 1971, a language laboratory was installed in the school. In the year 1972-73 another mobile classroom was allocated to the school, and a form room and the Prefects' room were converted into junior and sixth form art rooms. In 1971 someone undertook a survey of parking needs at the School and we gain from it such vital information as that the 32-year-old-school, catering for Greenford, Southall, Northolt, Hanwell and Ealing, had 494 pupils with a staff of 35 teachers and 25 non-teaching staff. Only 18 staff used a car to school so all were able to comfortably park at the front of the school. The average service vehicles daily were 4. Only one pupil drove his own car to school but parked outside the school premises. For the Evening Classes there was adequate parking except for the chaos and complete bottlenecks which occurred during enrolment periods and the beginning of terms aggravated by the lack of parking signs! During the winter of 1971 the 0ld Scholars were concerned at the financial cuts which meant that 'the school's groundsman and assistant were transferred leaving the precious expanse of greensward in the hands of two one-day-a-week part timers. Despite rumours to the contrary 0 Level gardening will not be on the '71 syllabus.' The November '73 Old Scholars Association News Letter carried an article about problems with the huts: Those Old Scholars who, at some point in their academic careers, were assigned to the Music Room and Room 19 Form Rooms will no doubt nostalgically recall long, cold winters when frozen hands, feet, bottoms and brains (usually in that order) were thawed out in front of the large coke-burning stoves which had pride of place in the corner of each room. Such was the intense, friendly warmth that this process didn't normally take long, though some brains proved remarkably heat resistant. Alas such time honoured practices would now appear to be in jeopardy as the walls of the beloved huts have been rent asunder by one inch cracks appearing. The more romantic and cynical amongst us blame the gods who are showing displeasure at the approach of the school's death as a grammar school. The more practical blame sinking foundations. Whatever the reason these thirty-year-old buildings have been evacuated whilst the Council ponder over their fate and their inhabitants have dubbed themselves refugees and moved into mobile classrooms. It is reported some of the refugees are a little unhappy at such an enforced move so maybe the old boilers are still delighting Greenford's present generations in their own inimitable way. By August 1974 the Old Scholars reported: a Sixth Form Centre has been built on the lawn adjoining the condemned 'huts' (formerly the music room and Room 19). One comment on this addition to the school scenery from an anonymous source 'unfortunately the building has engulfed the little lawn and garden that was one of the pleasantest parts of the school and a favourite of the late Mr James'. The price of progress maybe but it is interesting to note how little the school has altered since it was first built. page 62