School visitors

[Trickyvee]

Re: School visitors

I think it was collingwood school where we did our swimming lessons? We all got brought along on a priory coach and we had to wear those horrible rubber swimming caps. I did my 25 metres with one foot on the floor cause the teacher wasn't even watching properly.

It was, and if you check out this thread it might bring back some memories 😄
https://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/t...imming-lessons

[Littlelen]

Re: School visitors

Another visitor we had was Michael Palin. He was writing children's books for a while. There's archives of the visit on chronicles 'now and then'. The way I remember it was a couple of schools going to the library to hear him read but his train was late so we all went back to school disappointed. We had started normal lessons but got ushered in to the assembly hall and he actually came to the school and signed books. If you didn't have a book his illustrator drew a picture and Michael Palin signed it with a funny caption. I wish I knew where mine is. My dad probably tucked it behind a picture in a frame to keep it safe.

[Littlelen]

Re: School visitors

I think it was collingwood school where we did our swimming lessons? We all got brought along on a priory coach and we had to wear those horrible rubber swimming caps. I did my 25 metres with one foot on the floor cause the teacher wasn't even watching properly.

[Trickyvee]

Re: School visitors

It could well have been! I went to Collingwood Primary, left in '87 then went to Norham High.

[Littlelen]

Re: School visitors

haha it could have been. I went to monkhouse primary. Left 1991. I was so excited to find this forum and start joining in I hadn't noticed your post till about 2 minutes after I posted mine. I did give myself a virtual slap though.

Sorry I left 1989. Then went to John Spence.

[Littlelen]

Re: School visitors

haha it could have been. I went to monkhouse primary. Left 1991. I was so excited to find this forum and start joining in I hadn't noticed your post till about 2 minutes after I posted mine. I did give myself a virtual slap though.

[Trickyvee]

Re: School visitors

The " blind man" Did anyone else have him come to school? About twice a year we would all get crammed in to the school hall while he came and talked about being blind and wed all ask him ridiculously awkward questions before he left. I have no idea why but afterwards we all watched cartoons on a projector and I'm assuming the teachers nicked off to the pub for an hour. I'm pretty sure I haven't made this up.

I mentioned a blind man in the first post, and given your location, could it have been the same blind man?

[Littlelen]

Re: School visitors

Havasack That's some harsh imagery. I'd have been sat scraping my jaw off the floor. I'll bet it worked too.

[havasack]

Re: School visitors

Where we lived was a near disused railway which was to become part of the metro system. Some fella came out to give us a safety talk and he was great. In silence he rolled out a big mat, kind of like that vinyl outdoor table cloth material about 6ft by 6ft. He took his time smoothing it out, stood up, edged it round to make it square, measured the distance to the wall to make sure it was right, it was like a mime, complete silence, about 10mins, then he measured to the centre, places his finger there and while keeping his gaze on the centre reaches back into his bag and takes out an apple, places it in the centre, removes his finger, keeps gaze on centre, reaches into bag, takes out a mallet. Points at apple and says "you", raises mallet and says "train". Smashes apple with a whacking blow...."any questions ?"

[zabadak]

Re: School visitors

Our school fete was opened by Edward Woodward!

[Littlelen]

Re: School visitors

The " blind man" Did anyone else have him come to school? About twice a year we would all get crammed in to the school hall while he came and talked about being blind and wed all ask him ridiculously awkward questions before he left. I have no idea why but afterwards we all watched cartoons on a projector and I'm assuming the teachers nicked off to the pub for an hour. I'm pretty sure I haven't made this up.

[battyrat]

Re: School visitors

We only seem to have got visitors in primary. There was the blind man, don't remember much about this one. The native American woman who was a friend of one of the teachers, and a red Indian dance troop. There was the visit by a group of aircraft modelers. I think most visitors we had were just in the area anyway or known to the teachers or parent's of the pupils. Apart from them it was the usual visit by the police or fire men. Nothing even to really stir the imagination of a child let alone motivate one.

[darren]

Re: School visitors

i remember one time george best visited my primary school cantquite remember the year but everyone went wild.

[screamqueen]

Re: School visitors

We once had a random Chinese man come in to tell us about China and encourage us to learn to speak Mandarin. This was at a small village primary school in which there were exactly six children who weren't white, and none were Chinese. It was also in the early 1990s so they were a bit ahead of their time.

Other visitors included some orchestra performers, some other musicians who brought in unusual instruments to show us (I remember they had a bouzouki), a Theatre in Education company who did a play about recycling, the NSPCC talking to us about stranger danger, and the usual police/fire brigade. At my secondary school, we got a representative of the OB tampons company to talk to the girls about starting their periods - surely that was unfair product placement? Also remember a particularly nasty visit from the police in Year 10 who made us watch a video showing exactly what would happen if we fell off a motorbike and weren't wearing protective leathers. It did the job though, to this day I've never got onto a motorbike ...

[darren]

Re: School visitors

tes we ad the police and the fire brigade come quite a few times.

we also had a lot of well known northern ireland sports stars show up.