OLD AZURIANS

This is obviously not a definitive history of the School. I have had to select my material strictly and I am well aware that my choice of what to include is highly personal and probably eccentric. Names have presented especial difficulty: the staff of the School during its lifetime can be counted in hundreds, the boys in thousands, so that it has been impossible to be just to very many who deserve a place. Moreover I realise that in writing of the changing staff, organisation, curricula, buildings, policies, and so forth I have dealt only with the surface of things. The essential School slips through; the life is missing. For the School has been a countless number of people, activities, experiences, ideas, attitudes - millions of moments and memories that can never be recorded - and what is written here can be no more than a starting point for each reader's own recollections.

 

In the early nineteen-twenties public provision for schooling consisted of free elementary education for the vast majority of children, who left school at the age of fourteen, in infants' schools followed by "seven-standard" schools, and of secondary education up to sixteen, or eighteen or nineteen, for a much smaller number. There were also a multitude of private schools ranging from the excellent to the execrable. Public secondary education was still based on the old endowed grammar schools now aided by grants from county and county borough councils; in areas where the number of such schools was deemed inadequate the county authorities were empowered by an Act of 1902 to create new ones of a similar kind. In West Sussex, twenty years after the Act, there were three grant-aided grammar schools and the local authority was just thinking of establishing county secondary schools in the largest towns, Chichester and Worthing.

 

The High School for Boys, Worthing, opened in January 1924 as a county maintained secondary school, and remained so for the next twenty-two years. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the pupils gained admission, from the age of ten onwards, on passing an internal entrance examination, and their parents paid fees averaging £15 per annum. The other pupils were admitted at eleven on the results of an external competitive special place examination; fees could be nil or graded according to a means test. The curriculum and syllabi were geared to a, considerable extent to the requirements of the School Certificate examination, to gain which a pass was needed in six subjects including English Language, and the Higher School Certificate in which it was necessary to pass in at least three main subjects. There were eight forms, most of them later divided into streams as the school grew in size. The first form contained the ten year olds and was a kind of 'prep' form; the eleven-plus entry went into the second form, and there were lower and upper fifths.

 

The School's beginning, on January 15th 1924, was a modest one. A hundred and thirty boys and eight staff assembled for prayers in the one quadrangle framed by wooden buildings which, it is said, were intended to be temporary but are still being used in 1974. A hall was omitted, according to an official note of the time, to reduce costs. The Headmaster was Mr. R.G. Martin; the other 'founder' members of the staff were Mr. J.T. Turner, the Second Master (the official term then for Deputy Head); Mr. W .E . Rees and Mr. L.E. Littlewood (the Major); Mr. J. Johnson, Mr, A.V. Scudamore and Messrs. T .R . Holland and A.H. Martin both of whom left in the early years. And pupils of that time will not forget Mr. Banfield, like most caretakers, a strong believer in discipline. In the first two terms a tremendous amount seems to have been done in establishing the social and sporting activities; within fourteen weeks of the opening the first ‘Azurian’ appeared, its not-too-obvious title being taken from the County coat of arms – “martlets proper on a field azure”. The Old Boys adopted the word for their Association when it was launched in the following year. Meanwhile it had been decided that Rugby would be the official winter game. By the third term the two houses, “A” and “B” into which the school had been initially divided, had expanded into four – the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings which were to remain throughout the School’s life.

 

In Sectember, the number of pupils was 250 and more masters arrived, among them Mr. H .D. Cochrane, Mr. G. Coombs and Mr. W.T. Hazard. Between then and 1930 came several further members of the staff who were to stay for many years; in 1925 Mr. C. Jenkins; in 1926 Mr. S.H. Earnshaw and Mr. E..J.G. Bates; in 1927 Mr. J.R. Peryer and Mr. M.H. Fuller; in 1928 Mr. H.G. Cooling and Mr. R. Essex; in 1929 Mr. H.O. Anderson and in 1930 Mr. A. Rae. A little later, in 1934, Mr. R.P. Macrae, Mr. E.H. Foinette and Mr. K.N. Strange joined the staff. All these masters, with the original ones, contributed very much in their own individual ways to the establishment of the institutions and traditions which have given the School its particular quality.

 

As the numbers in the school grew to 300 the premises expanded, and by 1930 two smaller quads had been added; first a Dining Hall had been built, this having precedence over the Assembly Hall-cum­-Gymnasium which wasn't in use till 1929. The latter was provided with a bare platform that a number of devoted masters and boys, in the following years, turned into one of the best-equipped private stages in the country.

 

The thirties, as far as the School was concerned, was a period of quiet progress. It was sometimes said then (and in later times as well) that too much emphasis  was placed on marks and examination results, and certainly the custom of having weekly form orders gave some support to this view. The obvious reply is that where so many careers depended - and still do depend – on examination results it would have been a dereliction of duty not to have concentrated on getting pupils through examinations. But, in fact, any old boy of that period would have been bewildered by the suggestion that the School could have been considered a crammers' establishment. The teaching was broad, the social side of the School was extensive, with practically everyone engaged after 4.15 in some society; there were annual school camps; the Dramatic Society in particular blossomed and even toured Germany, while every Friday afternoon the school assembled in the Hall for that awesome, if not awful, affair - the great Debate. Above all there seemed to be a strong feeling of belonging to a community. The friendly atmosphere in the School that was noted by H.M. Inspectors after a week's critical observation in 1949 was there from the beginning.

 

Most boys - and this was true of nearly all endowed and county grammar schools at the time - left after the School Certificate year. Upper and Lower Sixth forms rarely contained more than twenty each, and in W.H.S.B. those taking Mathematics and the sciences were more numerous than students of the humanities. There were, of course, far fewer Universities than now and much less public provision for those attending them. To help and encourage boys to go on to further education a University Endowment Fund was established by the School in 1930, launched on the proceeds of  a grand three-day bazaar and largely maintained by subsequent annual festivities of a similar kind.  As the decade proceeded there were growing academic successes: in 1935 came the first State Scholarship to be followed by ten Open Scholarships and Exhibitions to Oxford and Cambridge in the next five years. Numbers in the School still increased, and most forms up to and including the Fifths had three streams by 1939.

 

Before the end of the summer holidays in that year the staff were recalled to billet hundreds of  evacuees from London. When the term began the country was at war and the School was sharing its buildings with Battersea Grammar School, each attending half time. The situation was not as gratifying as some present juniors might think; inconveniences abounded; but were minimised by the friendly co-operation between hosts and guests. Playing field space became restricted as air raid shelters were built round the edges, a large area was turned into allotments and, for a time, a searchlight was planted on the cricket pitch. For the first but not the last time games periods involved a trek to Broadwater Green or West Worthing.

 

With the fall of France in 1940 Worthing changed abruptly from a safer area to a front line one, and the Battersea School was re-evacuated. The school remained open during the summer holiday, with staff and boys digging allotments, helping with defence works, painting windows with (hopefully) blast-proof adhesive, even doing lessons. There followed the Battle of Britain and the shelters had many and long periods of use; but they were resorted to less as winter came on, for the School then remained in the classrooms during ordinary air-raid alerts and only sprinted to the shelters when a ‘purple’ warning was sent by the Observer Corps. The South Coast was the haunt of tip and run raiders who, as often as not, had dropped their bombs and were out to sea again before anybody was under cover. A junior of that period later wrote: "I was not at all frightened by the thought of the bombing, but was quite frightened of the shelters, and I would always dawdle so as to get a place by the entrance'.

 

Early in 1941 it was believed that the Germans were again contemplating invasion, and the School was evacuated in March to the Newark-Southwell area of Nottinghamshire, though a hundred boys chose to remain behind with Mr. Turner as acting headmaster. But the Germans attacked Russia instead, and after a quiet summer the bulk of the School returned to Worthing for the beginning of the Autumn term; all were back by Christmas.

 

Many of the staff had by this time joined the services, among the first being two of the oldest - Major Littlewood and Mr. Brooks, an ex-naval man who had succeeded Mr. Banfield as caretaker. But uniforms now appeared on the premises too as staff and boys joined the newly-formed School Air Training Corps under Mr. Turner as Flight Lieutenant, and the Army Cadet Force under the command of the Headmaster. Both continued after the war, and were later amalgamated to form the Combined Cadet Force with Mr. Harridge (Major Harridge on Fridays) as C.O. It was dissolved after the ending of National Service in 1960. One result of the cadet forces was the construction of the rifle range on the field and the formation of the Small Bore Rifle Club, a notable feature of the old school.

 

From 1941 regulations required that all public buildings, factories and so forth should be occupied at night by groups known as 'fire-watchers' to deal with incendiary bombs, and until the end of the war a rota of sixth and fifth form boys, under the supervision of a master, kept watch in the school every night-from 10 pm. to 6 am. Fortunately no bombs were ever dropped on our extremely vulnerable wooden buildings. Another war-time activity was farming; fourth, fifth and sixth forms in turn spent one afternoon a week during the term and a week at a time in the summer holidays labouring on farms within an eight mile radius for nine (old) pence an hour on time rate, or on the standard rate where the job allowed piece work.

 

One permanent addition to our institutions came in this year when the Parent-Teacher Association was formed. In the three following decades it was to contribute immensely to the School in many various ways. As the war came to an end, the normal out-of-school pursuits began to reappear, and with them the activities of the Old Azurians Association. But seventy-one old boys had died on active service.

 

In the immediate post-war years the implementation of the 1944 Education Act brought considerable changes in the nature of the School. The outstanding features of the Act were the abolition, by name, of the public elementary schools, already by 1940 divided into separate infant, junior and senior schools, and the attempted establishment of free secondary education for all in grammar, secondary modern and technical high schools (the last, where introduced, being usually indistinguishable from grammar schools) – all, in theory, with parity of esteem. In this School, as in all county and endowed grammar schools except those singled out for direct grants, fees were abolished, entrance was by special place examination (the so-called ‘eleven plus’) only, and the original prep form of ten-year olds disappeared; many old boys with families became aware with dismay that they could no longer take it for granted that their sons would go to their old school. Formerly Worthing, as a non-county borough, had had charge of elementary education only, but now, as an ‘excepted’ area, it controlled secondary education as well, and in 1946 the School was transferred from the County Council’s care and placed under the immediate administration of Worthing Borough Council.

 

Before the end of the war Messrs. R.E.R Evans, J.H. West, W. Hannaford Turner, B. Bush, H.B. Gilpin, A.H. Wurr, J.E. Waugh and C.S. Harridge were already on the staff, and Miss Gaertner (later Mrs. Rathbone) had become Catering Supervisor; now in the early post-war years they were joined by many more who were to remain long in the School: Mr. J. Brooke, Mr L.J. Allchin, Mr. J.C. Ludlow, Mr. H. Jay, Mr. N. Dickinson,, Mr. C.E. Joslin, Mr E.C. Cater, Mr. C.J. Hunt, and Mr. D. Silverwood. Mr. E.C. Newman, who had been a pupil from 1926 to 1933, was the first old boy to return as a master; he was soon followed by Mr. J.F. Gravett and Mr. J.A. Macleod, and in later years by Mr. L.G.Fuller, Mr. M.L. Graham Mr P. Buet, and Mr. R.C. Quittenton. Some of the long-established members of the staff had by now retired or left for other scbools and colleges, Mr. Scuddamore in 1939, Mr. Bates in 1944, and Mr. Roe, Mr. Essex, Mr. Hazard, Mr. Littlewood and Mr. Hills, the School Secretary, between 1945 and 1950.

 

By 1947 the School had seven hundred boys and a four-stream entry. New buildings were obviously needed. After the summer of 1946 tennis, hitherto played in the front quad, had to be abandoned as two new concrete structures appeared in the middle of it, one for Geography, and one to house the Library which had been forced out of its quarters in Room 19 to make more teaching accommodation and had been cramped for two years in what had previously been the Art Storeroom where it had practically ceased to function. In the following terms Advanced Physics and Chemistry Labs were added in C Quad: a Music room, sensibly placed at a distance from the main block, was built in 1947 and one of the cloakrooms was halved to provide a Latin room. Soon after the beginning of the Autumn term in 1947 Mr. Rolfe Martin died, after a sudden illness. He was 57. He more than anyone else had built up the school to what it was, had ensured its now considerable reputation in academic circles and could have been expected to continue to lead the School for several years to come. His sad death seemed to mark the end of an era. The change would have appeared even greater had not Mr. J.T. Turner, after several months as Acting Headmaster, been appointed to succeed him in September 1948. Shortly afterwards  Mr. Johnson, a popular choice, became Deputy Headmaster.

 

In May 1949 came the Silver Jubilee celebrations - a week of events, some festive, some more solemn. Among them was a Commemoration Service held in St. Paul's Church at which the Bishop of Chichester  preached, a Grand Bazaar and Fete, Morning Prayers at the Stoke Abbot Road Assembly Hall, a social for parents and old boys, and a performance by the old Azurians Dramatic Society. The recently formed School Orchestra changed its colours, chameleon-like, according to the environment, becoming the Palm Court Orchestra in the Bazaar tea-room, the Broadwater Buccaneers at the prefects’ and parents’ socials and reverting to its more ambitious self at the public concerts.

 

In 1951 the School and Higher School Certificates were replaced by the General Certificate at Ordinary and Advanced Levels. It was no longer necessary to be successful in a specified number of subjects to obtain a certificate; one pass only would qualify. Speech Day comments on the new system by the Headmaster reflected doubts held by many of the staff; it was thought that it would encourage the trend throughout the country towards earlier specialisation and that the raising of the Ordinary Level pass mark to the former credit standard would have a depressing effect on some normal steady pupils. In fact any pessimism there was proved unfounded; the junior and middle school curriculum was not narrowed and the choice of subjects available to sixth formers expanded from fourteen to eighteen - and in the next decade to twenty-three. Again, the majority of boys appeared to be taking the higher standards in their stride and, even allowing for the growth of both fifth and sixth forms, statistics showed that examination results at both levels were increasingly good throughout the decade. Moreover, between 1950 and 1958, thirty-eight State Scholarships and seventeen Open Scholarships and Exhibitions to Oxford and Cambridge were gained, besides further industrial and architectural awards. At Speech Day in 1951 the Guest Speaker was P.A. Reynolds, the first but by no means the last old boy to reach the status of University Professor.

 

Societies now appeared in such numbers that no ‘Azurian’ could cope with their reports but had to allocate space to them in rotation in successive issues. Sport, too, flourished; five School rugby teams were being fielded in 1951 and four School cricket teams by 1953; cricket had, of course, to compete for man-power with a greatly extended inter-schools athletics programme. The ‘Azurian’ of December 1953 notes that M.L. Graham, then School Cricket Captain, and R.H. Hewison were chosen for the English Schools XI and H.J. Bateman gained the Schools Inter-County National High Jump record. The following year the Old Azurians R.F.C. turned up in a poem in ‘Punch’.

 

Numbers continued to increase until there were nearly eight-hundred boys and some forty-five staff by 1958; the main body of the School only escaped a five-stream organization by having form numbers well above previous levels. As pressure of numbers grew a new dining hall was built on the part of the field bordering Carnegie Road in the summer of 1953 and occupied at once, though the west wall consisted of tarpaulins and the kitchen had not risen above the foundations. It was not in fact completed until the beginning of 1954, and from June until Christmas a cheerful band of volunteer barrow-boys had fun with the school truck running a shuttle service between the old kitchen and the new hall in summer suns, autumn rains and December snows. Return to the old dining hall-was no longer possible; it had been converted into three classrooms. An asphalted area outside the new hall, created in 1954, made tennis possible again and relieved the lunch hour congestion in the main body of the school as a sixth form classroom was built in the last unoccupied quadrangle. But even this and three further pre-fabricated classrooms erected on the field by the end of 1958 still did not prevent the English and Library storerooms from having to be used for some of the smaller classes.

 

Among the newcomers to the staff in this period were Mr. G.W. Corden, Mr. R. Cowley, Mr.J.T. Samuel, Mr. J.T. James and Mr. W.D. Charles; and Mr. A.C. Hide succeeded Mr. Brooke as Caretaker. The death of Mr. R.E.R. Evans in 1952 was a sad loss; in the following years Mr. Coombs and Mr. Hannaford Turner retired while Messrs. Newman, Bush and MacLeod went to other posts and Mr. Scarisbrick became Headmaster of a grammar school in Cambridge. Then in 1958 came the retirement of Mr. J.T. Turner who, first as Second Master and then Headmaster, had taken such a large share in shaping the School from its first day. The departure with him of Mr. Rees, another 'foundation' member of the staff, and of Mr. Cooling who had come four years later, made it an even more prominent occasion in the School's history.

 

The new Headmaster, Mr. T.A. Evans, was previously head of Coalville Grammar School, and before that had had administrative experience in industry. There was no significant break with the past, but Mr. Evans naturally introduced changes; probably the most important was the re-organi­sation of the form system and the curricula. Forms had a common curriculum in the first three years, but in the fourth and fifth years there was a variety of sets and options so that each boy could study, in addition to Mathematics, English and French which were taken by all, the subjects in which he had most ability; in 1959 some seventy different time-tables were being followed by the hundred and thirty fourth-formers. Moreover, in an attempt to counter any ill-effects of streaming, boys in the first five years were grouped in unstreamed forms under their houses, though taught in sets after the first year. This organisation of the junior and middle schools was in operation, with only minor modifications, up to 1973.

 

Of the long-serving members of the staff Mr. Cochrane retired in 1959 and Mr. Peryer in 1961. Mrs. Slimming left in 1960, her place in the office being taken by Mrs. I.M. Curtis. Mrs. Rathbone, too, left in 1960, to be succeeded by Mrs. D.F. Stringer, and Miss Phillips, assistant cook since 1929 and remembered by thousands of old boys as 'Emmy', also-retired in 1961. Among the masters who joined us between 1959 and 1963 were Messrs. G.A. Light, S.R. Kingston, R. Harrison, R.G. Osborn, R.R. Mohile, D. Knox, R.L. Austin, C.G. Martin, J. Hodson and M.L  Graham.

 

From 1958 onwards there was a reduced intake in the first forms brought about by a policy of zoning which occasioned some disquiet, but in the early sixties the School shared in the nation-wide increase in the size of the sixth forms so that our total numbers hardly ever dropped. By 1963 almost a third of the boys in the School were sixth-formers. In 1960 the Ordinary Level results were the best in the School's history, and better still in 1962, while there was no diminution in the Advanced Level standards. In 1963 we had the best Advanced Level results up to that time and could have expected ten State Scholarships had they not been discontinued in that year; as it was, twenty-four State Scholarships were gained between 1959 and 1962 in addition to six Open Scholarships and many other Kitchener, industrial and service awards. Increasing numbers of boys were going to the universities; in 1962 there were thirty-two entrants, well above the national average for a school of this size.

 

All this was achieved under considerable environmental strains. Before the retirement of Mr. Turner it had been decided, as a preliminary to transferring an enlarged Worthing College of Further Education to our site, to erect laboratories for the College on the field. Building operations began in earnest in September, and Mr. Evans, on taking up his post, was immediately faced with running a still expanding community in a visibly shrinking space. By November as mechanical diggers, pneumatic drills and concrete mixers had moved in, the noise was such that the outlying rooms were abandoned (except that of  Mr. Gilpin who said he could make himself heard above the noise of any excavator). Ordinary and Advanced Level Examinations in 1959 and subsequent years were held in the quieter premises of the Worthing Tabernacle in Chapel Road, while games were scattered to Broadwater Green, Sackville Road and West Park. The last pitch went out of use in the Rugger season of 1959-60.

 

Meanwhile representations from the Local Authority for the building of a new Boys’ High School, for which land had long been acquired in Durrington, were received with no enthusiasm by the Ministry of Education. For over a year there was stalemate; not until late in 1959 did the Minister indicate that he was prepared to consider favourably the inclusion of the new High School for Boys in the County’s 1961-2 building programme. In the meantime there was some irony as visitors to the school, viewing the handsome laboratories of the  College now taking shape on the field, congratulated us on the first instalment of our new buildings. Work at Durrington began, six months behind schedule, in the early Autumn of 1961.

 

Amenities additional to those provided for in the new school plan were now envisaged. The Parent-Teacher Association guaranteed funds for the purchase and re-construction of an organ to be installed in the hall. In 1961 it was decided to build a swimming pool; the County promised a grant and to raise the rest of the money, boys, staff, old boys and friends of the School organised a multitude of activities which culminated in 1963 in a mammoth Bazaar and Fete, graced by the presence of members of the cast of "Dixon of Dock Green° and making over £1,000. The P.T.A. as usual did splendid work. In 1961 the Headmaster proposed the acquisition of original paintings for the walls rather than reproductions; in the next seven years four were purchased and friends gave many more.

 

The time came to leave Broadwater. The wooden buildings, subject for so long to so much vilification, had housed the School for nearly forty years; for thousands of old boys and staff they were the School. They hadn't been so bad after all. A contributor to the Azurian expressed, perhaps, more than his own feelings of mingled regret and anticipation when, leaning heavily on seventeenth century poets, he wrote:

 

“Poor slighted Edifice, how could we know

Til this oure Parting that we lov'd you soe':

Time calls, we goe; then bidde you sad Adieu

Tomorrow to fresh Woods, and Pastures new. "

 

The actual move began at the end of June 1963. It was a thoroughly planned, logistical operation, took five days and proceeded with no major hitches, and the absolute minimum of loss and breakage. The last ten days of the term were spent in the new building, finding our way about it and generally trying it on for size.

 

Of course the new building, ceremonially opened by the Duke of Norfolk in November, is an improve­ment on the old though, seen from the south, it looks, with its preponderance of glass, more unsubstantial and 'temporary' than the Broadwater premises ever did. Viewed externally, it is an assemblage of heterogeneous structures in one, two and three stories with an unimpressive approach and main entrance; it was obviously and rightly planned for its interior convenience and the various rooms, many like the assembly hall and library very attractive, are logically disposed with regard to the entrance hall and each other. It is a pity that a building with so many amenities should have been marred by two major defects – the general narrowness of the corridors together with the absence of any thoroughfare on the upper floors of the three-storey block, and the deficiencies in ventilation and shade. A modern flat-roofed, glass and concrete structure needs much more sophisticated air-conditioning than has been provided in the Bolsover Road buildings.

 

Work  continued on various parts of the school until Christmas 1963; the swimming pool was completed in October and used by a number of the stouter-hearted in November; the organ was ready for the beginning of the 1964 Summer term. In 1965 the room opposite the tuck shop was equipped as a language laboratory through the generosity of Mr. A.G. Linfield, father of an old boy.

 

The initial difficulties with the flinty pitches on the Broadwater field in 1924-5 were repeated in 1963-4 at  Durrington, but the cricket teams had good seasons nevertheless, and the rugby sides continued the successes of previous years. (In 1963 the performance of the Sevens at Roehampton had been singled out in the national press). Societies, some ephemeral, some like the Chess Club forty years old, flourished or staggered on. Among the most populous were the Livestock Society, with ground on which to expand again, and the Links Society, begun in 1962 and quite unconnected with golf. The Dramatic Society, always among the most prominent and successful since its debut in 1925, now had a much  larger stage, equipped with lighting of professional standards.

 

A year after the move, Mr. Johnson, the last of the original staff and a quietly effective Deputy head since 1948, retired, to be succeeded by Mr. D.R.V. Chewter from Purbrook Grammar School. The arrival of Mr. P.L. Buet in 1964 brought the numbers of old boys on the staff up to three again. In 1966 Mr. Charles left us, Mr. C. Kelynack, Mr. J.M. Crocker and Mr. R.J. Kenn joined the School and Miss A. Hardman became the first permanent woman member of the teaching staff.

 

Within three years space in Bolsover Road began to get tight, for 750 boys in the Autumn term of 1966 were accommodated in buildings intended for 630. It was partly the result of even larger sixth forms, now 250 strong. The former academic standards were more than maintained, and still more going to the universities, fifty-three in 1964 and sixty-two in 1968.

 

This increase in the number of sixth formers and university entrants was, of course, not confined to this School but reflected an ever-widening demand for advanced education. With it, the dissatisfaction with the system of secondary education established by the 1944 Act, which was current in the fifties grew in the nineteen-sixties not only in educational circles but among the public at large. The secondary modern schools had seldom achieved the intended "parity of esteem”, for the grammar (and, of course, the public- private schools) practically monopolised the access to the universities and professions. Moreover grammar school place provision varied widely in different areas and the idea of deciding a child's future at the age of eleven by what was in essence a competitive examination caused increasing concern. It had not originally been intended that secondary modern schools should enter pupils for the G.C.E. examinations, but a large proportion, including those in Worthing, had provided at least for Ordinary Level by 1960, and their pupils were entering grammar schools at sixth form level. In 1967, for instance, eleven boys from our own sixth from who entered universities had failed to qualify for admission to the School at eleven plus. The establishment of comprehensive schools gained growing support among local authorities of all political complexions and West Sussex County Council made a start on a comprehensive system before 1960 and Worthing Borough Council introduced new plans in 1966: some secondary schools were to be merged, but the Boys High School, with additional buildings, was to be a comprehensive school by itself. Two years later, in a revised scheme, it was decided that the School should be a Sixth Form College.

 

As the years went by it was inevitable that more and more of the older staff should reach retirement age, and in 1968 we lost Mr. Earnshaw, Mr. Fuller, Mr. Ludlow and Mr. Cowley. Mr. Jenkins, too, was to have retired but agreed to stay on for another year when we suffered a sad blow in the death of Mr. James who was to have succeeded him as Head of the Chemistry Department. And in this same summer Mr. Evans left us to become the first Headmaster of the new Comprehensive School at Steyning. A man of outstanding administrative ability, who had directed the School during what had probably been the period of its greatest academic successes, he will be remembered also for the very human qualities he brought to his work.

 

Once more continuity was ensured by the prompt and welcome appointment of the Deputy Head, Mr. D.R.V. Chewter, as Headmaster, soon to be followed by that of Mr. C.G. Martin as his second in command, though for the first two terms, while he was on sabbatical leave, the work of Mr. Martin was performed with great success by Mr. Anderson, then 'father' of the School. Among the newcomers to the staff were Mr. J.R. Daw, Mr. J.A. Edwards and Mr. G.A. Eversfield. In 1969 there was a further exodus of long-serving staff when Mr. Anderson, soon to be appointed a Governor), Mr. Strange, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Joslin and Mr. Samuel retired; Mr. Gravett and Mr. Austin left in 1971, and Mr. Foinette, Mr. Macrae, Mr. Osborn and Mr. Wurr in 1972. In the same year Mr. Martin left to become deputy head of a large comprehensive school in the West Country, to be succeeded, after a term in which Mr. Allchin carried out the duties with his usual imperturbability, by Mr. D. Hughes. There were three sadder departures when we lost Dr. Burnet in 1969, Mr. Jay and Mr. Dickinson in 1973, all through death. Returning old boys were finding fewer and fewer masters they knew. In September 1973 only a third of the teaching staff had been in the School for more than five years, a quarter had taught in the Broadwater Road buildings, and just three masters had served under Mr. Rolfe Martin.

 

The Borough Education Committee submitted its proposals for re-organisation to the Department of Education and Science and hoped to begin the School’s period of transition to a Sixth Form College Form College in 1972. The Department, however, delayed its acceptance of the scheme until early in 1973.

 

There was no basic change in the School's organization till the Autumn of 1973, but a great deal of planning and committee work was done to prepare for future developments. Mr.Chewter introduced form councils early on, and there was a greater variety in the presentation of morning assemblies. The 'Azurian', now under new management, took on a fresh and brighter look but, in the inflationary and austere seventies, could appear only twice a year instead of termly. In 1972 the builders again appeared on the premises to begin the first of three instalments of new buildings and structural alterations for the Sixth Form College. As a result Room 19 became part of the Worthing and District Teachers’ Centre and for the first time since 1930 the School had no stepped lecture room. But the really interesting development was the addition, opened in July 1973, of a two-storey building housing a sixth form common room, writing room and coffee bar with a luxuriance of decor and upholstery that the staff in their bleaker quarters could never hope to emulate.

 

Academic successes continued - indeed the year 1972-3 was, scholastically, possibly the best in the history of the School; there were five open awards, ninety-two Grade A’s at Advanced Level, and sixty-six boys went on to degree courses at universities and polytechnics. In September 1973 there was no first-form intake and the School became officially the Worthing Sixth Form College.

 

And so, as we celebrate the Golden jubilee of the Worthing High School for Boys in 1974, that School has already ceased to exist - at any rate in name, for the present fourth, third and second forms will keep some part of it in being for another three years. Even those who fully believe that the educational system introduced by the 1944 Act, with its divisions at eleven plus, can no longer meet the requirements of the present time, will not be able to supress deep feelings of regret at its passing. On the other hand the grammar school which we have praised so highly was a creation of this century and bound to be ephemeral like its predecessors; the grant-aided endowed schools of 1920 had little in common except name with the same schools of 1820, 1720, 1620 and 1520, and even a school with such a comparatively short life as ours was very different at its close from what it had been at its beginning. The vast retrospect of history shows the old order constantly yielding place to new, and though the story is far from being one of uninterrupted progress and the new has not invariably been better than the old, it has not always been disastrously worse.

 

J. H. WEST (Staff 1943 - 73)