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New School Magazine

In 1975 a new school magazine was devised called “Back Home”. This was a community magazine produced by the school twice a year. The new magazine ‘to take back home’ con-tained news and features about the school, about home and about Ascot. It was contrib-uted to by staff, pupils and parents. Each is-sue was designed to focus on some important issue to do with present day education. Other articles included what it was like to start a new school and, from a community point of view, there were articles on the lack of recrea-tional facilities for young people and care of our local elderly people

Staff Who Started 1975-1980 Mrs Reed Mrs Priestley Mr Boreham Mrs Westgate Mrs Barrett Mrs Mahon

Mr Screen Mrs Pooley Miss Kelly Mr Davies Mr Kittle Mr Thomson Mr Myers Mrs Whatley Miss Smith Mrs Bradley Mr Kaynes Mrs Arnold Mr Atyeo Miss Case Mrs Clarke Mrs Detyna Mrs Francis Mr Goodchild Mr Gray Miss Hoyland Mrs Lord Mr Jackson Miss Jones Mrs Sherwood Mrs Lennon Mr Lilly Ms McGeoch Mrs Moore Mr Rowley Mrs Behrens Mr Starnes Miss Brettingham Miss Gallagher Mr Benstock Mrs Butterworth Mr Cattran Miss Donald Mrs Ffoulkes Mr Hayes Mr Luker Mr Osmond Miss Player Mr Stagg Mr Tyson Mr Pratt Mrs Irving Mrs Birch Mr Barnett Mr Behrens Miss Careless Mrs Crowe Mrs Davies Mr Dishington Mr Fewster Mrs Marenko Mr Murphy Mrs Challinger Mrs Sedman Miss Williams Mrs Wright Mrs Preston Mr Price Mrs Sivarajah Mr Avery Mrs Taylor Mrs Channing Mrs Frith Mr Gordon Mrs Landers Mrs Lawrence Mrs Gibbs Mr Shagluf Miss Webber

Further expansion of the school By 1977 a growing Charters school faced severe overcrowding. The eco-nomic situation in the country at that time meant that cutbacks were being made all over and education was being hit badly. Charters school was hit very badly at this time. The school was still growing rapidly and further building plans to go with the increase in pupils were being put on hold. By October 1977 nine classes were regularly being taught in corri-dors, in the dining room, or in the other two halls. On a regular basis about 100 pupils were being taught in a non-classroom environment. There was no money for books ei-

ther, with homework deadlines hav-ing to be postponed because some classes only had one book between two pupils. By late October, the Council had supplied the school with two terrapin buildings to help with the overcrowding, but the perma-nent building project was not due to begin until 1979/80. By 1978, the local council proposed a £250,000 building programme to take place at Charters from 1980 onwards. The money was to provide a further 180 places at the school. The severe overcrowding of the pre-vious year had been slightly eased by the conversion of a kitchen and dining hall into teaching areas.

‘Miss Charters’

Competition

The 1970s was the hay day for beauty pageants, with Miss UK, Miss World, Miss Universe …. and Charters School was no exception to this craze. The school held its own ‘Miss Charters’ Competition in 1975.

Did you know? Charters School got its name because it was built on part of the grounds of a house by that name, formerly the home of Montague Burton, of tailoring fame. The origins of the school badge came from the opening day of the school. The school opened on 23rd April 1958, which was St Georges Day and Shakespeare’s Birthday. The red cross of the school badge comes from the cross of St George, the dagger symbolises Shakespeare and the stag is the symbol of Berkshire. The badge itself was to reflect courtesy, compassion, chivalry and scholarship.

CHARTERS SCHOOL IN BYGONE YEARS

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Their teacher was Mr Luker! So the big question is if, 24 years ago Mr Luker had the recipe for making 2½ million pounds in 6 months, why is he still working at Charters School now?

Where are the Charters Tycoons now? In the autumn term of 1977, a group of Sixth Form Economists joined the Institute of Chartered Accountants ‘business game’. 350 schools across the country entered. The purpose of the game was to make decisions on the employment of available re-sources in producing and marketing a consumer durable product. A com-puter then processed the schools’ decisions to determine who had made the most profits. By March 1978, the Charters team had made their first million and were one of the last 27 schools to go through to the quarter-finals. By mid-April the team were down to the last nine fac-ing the semi-finals, having made nearly 2 ½ million pounds! The only shame was that it wasn’t real money!

American Exchange Programme The period 1975-1980 saw the first American Exchange programmes take place. In 1975, a 4 week exchange pro-gramme took place with nine pupils from Charters visiting New York and Washington before living-in with Ameri-can families in McClean, Vir-ginia and following their daily school and home lives. March 1977 saw 10 Charters pupils off to America as part

of their ‘O’ level American Studies course. Charters school was one of only 25 schools in the country pioneering the new American studies course. After a brief stay in Washington to see the sights, the pupils went to Morris Knowles, New Jersey where they joined in with American students at school and took part in their normal school curriculum. The American pupils had a chance later in the year to come and stay with our pupils and follow our school day.

Excellence in Sport A 16 year old from Charters was se-lected to swim for Wales at the Com-monwealth Games in Canada in 1978 – he was the youngest male member of the British team and in the 5th Year at Charters School. Peter also swam for Bracknell Swim-ming Club.

American Studies Exchange 1977

Headmaster Retires In 1976 Mr Wad-dleton the foun-der Headmaster retired, Mr Buet took his place as the second head-master of Char-ters School.

Pupils sent home as fuel runs out A severe flu bug swept the country during February 1978 and hit fuel tanker drivers so hard that deliveries to local schools were cancelled. Win-dsor Boys’ Grammar School was the worst hit, when they ran out of fuel for heating, their pupils got a whole week off! Charters pupils in Years 1-3 were sent home on a Mon-day morning but a fuel deliv-ery did arrive the following day and school recommenced!

21st Birthday Celebrations

1979 saw Charters celebrate its 21st Birthday. The staff put on a play to which former staff members, gover-nors and parents were invited. This was followed by a celebration birthday party. During the first 21 years, Charters school had had to cope with going metric, going deci-mal, going comprehensive, a series of raising of school leaving ages and going into the Common Market.

School Crest with 21 Candles!

Mr Buet

St Basil’s Cathedral Moscow (left) 1977 Charters pupils in Russia (right)

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Teachers Tied-Housing To Go 1979 saw the end of the teachers tied housing at Charters. As explained in a previous issue of Bygone Years, some new teachers could apply for housing to be provided by the local education authority as part of the job because of the cost of housing in the Ascot area. Charters had three houses to house some of its teachers but, by 1979, the Headteacher Mr Buet wrote to the council asking for a further three houses, due to the increasing size of the teaching staff. However, it came as a great blow to the school when, rather than increasing the number of tied houses, the council decided to do away with the housing altogether, saying that they could no longer justify treating teachers as a special case where hous-ing was concerned. The current tied houses would be phased out as they be-came vacant.

School Trips 1975—1980

School trips during the period 1975-1980 had begun to travel further a field. Aside from the American exchange trips mentioned earlier, which took place every second year, 1977 saw the first school trip to Russia. The Russian trip was a ten day trip to both Moscow and Leningrad. They flew to Moscow and spent 5 days visiting such sights as the Kremlin, Red Square housing St Basil’s Cathedral (above) and Lenin’s tomb, then off to the Moscow state circus and other cultural exhibitions. They then boarded the overnight train to Leningrad where they spent five days visiting places such as the Winter Palace, the ‘Aurora’ gun ship, the St Peter and Paul Fortress and the Hermitage museum. The school visited Russia again in 1979. During the five year period trips were made each year to France for a week. In 1976 they visited chateaux and vineyards in Vouvray and then moved on to Paris to see the sights, whilst in 1978, a trip went to Normandy to see the D-Day landing sites and the

Bayeux Tapestry. There were trips to Spain and also mention of skiing trips to St Moritz, and Mediterranean cruises! Closer to home there was camping on Exmoor and Youth Hostel visits to Dorset. Spanish Trip