Post by radged on Jun 3, 2013 0:35:55 GMT
Benton and beyond
an interview with Barry Mills[/size]
questions by nick watson
barry and wendy leek, german exchange to meinerzhagen, 1983
A combination of good teaching and an enthusiastic peer group in the language department at my Essex secondary school led to a 4-year honours degree in German at Leicester University followed by a PGCE and my chosen career in education. After two years teaching at an Aufbaugymnasium in Herdecke, North Rhine Westphalia, a wedding and six years in two Ayrshire comprehensives I moved from Principal Teacher of German, Galston Academy to Head of Careers at Benton Park in 1978 where I stayed until May,1986. Though much of my teaching was in Pete Simms‘ language department I was mainly responsible for careers activities and Personal and Social Education, assisted by Geoff Scott. The next 17 years were spent as Deputy Headteacher at Crawshaw School, Pudsey mainly in charge of teacher training and staff development until my early retirement in 2002.
Benton has been important to me and my family. My wife, Janet, also taught there after I had moved to Pudsey and both our daughters enjoyed their secondary education under the tutelage of my former colleagues who helped them both towards degrees at Cambridge. Dave Welbourne’s history department and Steve Hinchliffe’s science team aided by Dave Spalton and John Cresswell as 6th form managers can claim the main credit for that.
Benton Park was a very positive professional experience for me. Excellent staff who welcomed new colleagues like me and in spite of frequent and colourful complaints about the hardships of teaching in the Thatcher era were amazingly committed to their job and their students (pupils at that time). There was a good mix of experienced and young staff and the school was “on the up”. Extra-curricular activities were a feature… particularly music under Patrick Lee and the foreign trips to Meinerzhagen with Tony Martin, Three Capitals with Richard Hoban and skiing with Les Taggart. My memories of Bentonian students at that time are almost all positive… this could be the effect of old age and memory loss, of course. I am pleased to note that several of you have gone on to establish lives in Germany or make good use of your German connections. I shall probably not recognise any at the reunion nor remember names but I am sure they all meant something to me once upon a time and I’ll be pleased to have my memory jogged.
Janet and I have stayed in Rawdon and remained in touch with some Benton staff and parents over the years. Patrick Lee and Keith Robson followed me to Crawshaw and shared some interesting and great times, particularly with the Crawshaw Connexion and a run of musicals. I still see Patrick regularly and I was very touched by the number of ex-Benton staff who came to my retirement “do” after so many years beyond my Benton era.
In recent years I am back in contact with Benton regularly as a member of Aireborough Rotary Club and as Chairman of the Yorkshire Canary Club. The former is a relatively new enterprise for me and I am pleased through Rotary to be able to help support current Benton students in summer leadership and sailing courses, the young musician competition, Technology Day and annual Kids Out day at Lightwater Valley.
barry at work for the rotary club
The avicultural hobby is one I’ve pursued most of my life since I was a teenager. It was a hobby I shared with my father and has often served a therapeutic role in those inevitable stressful times in one’s life... some people go home and kick the cat, walk the dog or hit the bottle while I kept, bred and exhibited Yorkshire Canaries which are a particular breed of canary just as Yorkshire terriers are a particular breed of dog. For those insane enough to want to learn more about both these hobbies check them out on the web:
www.aireborough.rotary1040.org
and
www.yccuk.com
And there’s a superb book produced by the YCC about all aspects of the Yorkshire Canary from shell to show bench which I can let you have at a discount…… supplies can be available at the Black Bull or the reunion….just ask!
barry and friends
Benton has been the home of the Yorkshire Canary Club for about four or five years now since the Victoria Hall in Saltaire, our former base for over fifty years, became too expensive. We hold two meetings in March and July and two annual bird shows in October and January. The late Geoff Scott, as the then site manager at Benton, helped to accommodate us and we’ve been regular contributors to the school’s lettings income ever since. Beyond the YCC I’ve held various positions on national avicultural bodies and have been a regular contributor of articles and reports to the national weekly Cage and Aviary Birds newspaper for twenty years or so.
YCC handbook
Since retiring Janet and I have undertaken volunteer work locally for AVSED (do your research!)*, for the National Trust at Fountains Abbey and for the past two years I’ve been a wildlife volunteer at Rodley Nature Reserve, a local gem of which too many local people are totally unaware. Check it out:
www.rodleynaturereserve.org
rodley nature reserve - Your very own Springwatch on your doorstep..… and it’s free!
I hope to make it to the reunion and promise not to talk about any of the above but rather to listen to what all of you – former colleagues and students - have been up to in the intervening decades.
Best wishes
Barry Mills
* AVSED - Airebough Voluntary Services to the Elderly with Disabilities.
an interview with Barry Mills[/size]
questions by nick watson
barry and wendy leek, german exchange to meinerzhagen, 1983
A combination of good teaching and an enthusiastic peer group in the language department at my Essex secondary school led to a 4-year honours degree in German at Leicester University followed by a PGCE and my chosen career in education. After two years teaching at an Aufbaugymnasium in Herdecke, North Rhine Westphalia, a wedding and six years in two Ayrshire comprehensives I moved from Principal Teacher of German, Galston Academy to Head of Careers at Benton Park in 1978 where I stayed until May,1986. Though much of my teaching was in Pete Simms‘ language department I was mainly responsible for careers activities and Personal and Social Education, assisted by Geoff Scott. The next 17 years were spent as Deputy Headteacher at Crawshaw School, Pudsey mainly in charge of teacher training and staff development until my early retirement in 2002.
Benton has been important to me and my family. My wife, Janet, also taught there after I had moved to Pudsey and both our daughters enjoyed their secondary education under the tutelage of my former colleagues who helped them both towards degrees at Cambridge. Dave Welbourne’s history department and Steve Hinchliffe’s science team aided by Dave Spalton and John Cresswell as 6th form managers can claim the main credit for that.
Benton Park was a very positive professional experience for me. Excellent staff who welcomed new colleagues like me and in spite of frequent and colourful complaints about the hardships of teaching in the Thatcher era were amazingly committed to their job and their students (pupils at that time). There was a good mix of experienced and young staff and the school was “on the up”. Extra-curricular activities were a feature… particularly music under Patrick Lee and the foreign trips to Meinerzhagen with Tony Martin, Three Capitals with Richard Hoban and skiing with Les Taggart. My memories of Bentonian students at that time are almost all positive… this could be the effect of old age and memory loss, of course. I am pleased to note that several of you have gone on to establish lives in Germany or make good use of your German connections. I shall probably not recognise any at the reunion nor remember names but I am sure they all meant something to me once upon a time and I’ll be pleased to have my memory jogged.
Janet and I have stayed in Rawdon and remained in touch with some Benton staff and parents over the years. Patrick Lee and Keith Robson followed me to Crawshaw and shared some interesting and great times, particularly with the Crawshaw Connexion and a run of musicals. I still see Patrick regularly and I was very touched by the number of ex-Benton staff who came to my retirement “do” after so many years beyond my Benton era.
In recent years I am back in contact with Benton regularly as a member of Aireborough Rotary Club and as Chairman of the Yorkshire Canary Club. The former is a relatively new enterprise for me and I am pleased through Rotary to be able to help support current Benton students in summer leadership and sailing courses, the young musician competition, Technology Day and annual Kids Out day at Lightwater Valley.
barry at work for the rotary club
The avicultural hobby is one I’ve pursued most of my life since I was a teenager. It was a hobby I shared with my father and has often served a therapeutic role in those inevitable stressful times in one’s life... some people go home and kick the cat, walk the dog or hit the bottle while I kept, bred and exhibited Yorkshire Canaries which are a particular breed of canary just as Yorkshire terriers are a particular breed of dog. For those insane enough to want to learn more about both these hobbies check them out on the web:
www.aireborough.rotary1040.org
and
www.yccuk.com
And there’s a superb book produced by the YCC about all aspects of the Yorkshire Canary from shell to show bench which I can let you have at a discount…… supplies can be available at the Black Bull or the reunion….just ask!
barry and friends
Benton has been the home of the Yorkshire Canary Club for about four or five years now since the Victoria Hall in Saltaire, our former base for over fifty years, became too expensive. We hold two meetings in March and July and two annual bird shows in October and January. The late Geoff Scott, as the then site manager at Benton, helped to accommodate us and we’ve been regular contributors to the school’s lettings income ever since. Beyond the YCC I’ve held various positions on national avicultural bodies and have been a regular contributor of articles and reports to the national weekly Cage and Aviary Birds newspaper for twenty years or so.
YCC handbook
Since retiring Janet and I have undertaken volunteer work locally for AVSED (do your research!)*, for the National Trust at Fountains Abbey and for the past two years I’ve been a wildlife volunteer at Rodley Nature Reserve, a local gem of which too many local people are totally unaware. Check it out:
www.rodleynaturereserve.org
rodley nature reserve - Your very own Springwatch on your doorstep..… and it’s free!
I hope to make it to the reunion and promise not to talk about any of the above but rather to listen to what all of you – former colleagues and students - have been up to in the intervening decades.
Best wishes
Barry Mills
* AVSED - Airebough Voluntary Services to the Elderly with Disabilities.