Astrid came to the UK in 1965 and started school in Lady Bay. She came to Radcliffe onto Douglas Close (on the Canadian estate) in 1966 and went straight into second year juniors in the new building off Cropwell Road. She then went into the Annexe in third year and back to the new building for fourth year.
She remembers it being new and spacious and the layout was the same as it was in the 80s when her son went there. She remembered having to go to swimming lessons in Langar (or Plungar). She remembers the toilets outside and the split playgrounds.
She went to the secondary modern in 1969, when Mr Ford was the headteacher. It was a wooden building and the clasp buildings hadn’t been built. She remembers holes being dug and then concrete buildings just appearing (which were the new comprehensive school). The library was up a set of steps opposite the gym (which later became the main school office). The canteen was next to the front door (in what then became the library) and there was a serving hatch where dinners were served. Teachers she remembered were Mrs Allington, Mr Froggatt, Mr Jones and Miss Claridge (was a French teacher). She did her 11+ and could have gone to West Bridgford Grammar but she didn’t want to because she had made friends in Radcliffe. Mr Ford assured her dad, Major Alfred William Griffen, that the qualifications coming in with the school becoming a comprehensive wouldn’t hold her back and she would get the equivalent qualifications she would have got at the grammar school.
When she was 16, as part of O Levels she did some work experience as a teaching assistant for a few weeks at the Annexe. She also worked in the school kitchens later after having her children.
Troy Jenkinson 