Memories of Moorside.................................1959

I must say Lindsay Bell and Elaine Robinson are doing a splendid job delving into Moorside’s past. In the last two weeks we have met some interesting ex Moorsiders, previous staff and students.

I really wanted to know what Moorside was like in 1959. Lindsay and Elaine managed to find both a member of staff and a student who was here at the very start.

Let’s begin with Bill Stockdale who was a Head of Science when the school opened in 1959. Actually, he was here before the school opened because for the whole of the summer holiday, he along with Jack Ellison, the first head teacher and a fellow called Horace Brown supervised the workmen and unpacked all of the resources in order to get the school opened on time.

September 1959 arrived and all of the children arrived. Both children and staff were previously from Leadgate County, Leadgate Church of England, Consett Church,Consett County and Allendale School. Moorside was a huge change for them having been used to very small schools where they didn’t change classes for lessons and had the same teacher all of the time. They were now in a building with three floors, a lot of teachers and different subjects.

According to Bill it began as a very happy school and continued to be happy. Until two weeks ago Bill had not been back to Moorside since leaving in 1969. What does he think of it now? Well, he told us he thought it was a very delightful school, he knew of its success and he was impressed with what he saw.

Joy Raisbeck started at the same time as Bill, as a pupil. She told us that she enjoyed being at Moorside and particularly enjoyed and excelled at field sports. Joy told us about when she was in the fourth year (that is year 10 now)they sat tests and if you passed the girls were put into 4C – Commercial and the boys were 4E – Engineering. She studied subjects like shorthand, typing, secretarial English, and accounts. Joy must have really liked it at Moorside because when she was 15 (the school leaving age then) she applied for a secretarial post at the school and got the job.

Joy was now a member of staff. She remembers Mr Ellison (the Head teacher) asking her to ring his bell twice when a phone call came through that he was expecting. He was in another part of the school and did not want to miss it. Well the call came but instead of ringing his bell Joy rang the school bell. Everyone thought it was a fire drill and the whole school evacuated the building, standing outside in the yard. Joy has a lot of good memories of Moorside . To quote her “I enjoyed my time here”.

Well Moorside is still a happy school as well as being very successful. Like the children of 1959 our current students now face change. I am sure they will adapt and rise to the challenge as their predecessors did so long ago.

Moorside Performs Again. Best result ever!!!

You may think that this start to my first blog does not relate to the title but read on and you will find the link.

I remember that as a student at school (yes I know it was a long time ago) I always strived to work to the best of my ability. From the age of 17 this process went on throughout my initial working life in the civil service. Whilst there I completed my ‘A’ Levels part time before leaving to join my husband in Cyprus in the forces. In Cyprus I completed 2 years of an Open University course (I know I could have been enjoying the sun) whilst also looking after my first child, Emma Rodham in Maths!!

On leaving Cyprus I completed two further degrees whilst having two further children, Zara another teacher and Paul who is completing at medical degree. I have also completed further educational qualifications but by now you are probably thinking, what is this all about.

My point is that when Jeff Allan, Mike Stokoe, Daniel Jamieson and myself were in my office working out the results for the whole school. I think you can imagine that the atmosphere was tense to say the least. I cannot explain the sense of achievement and pride that we all felt on that day. The closest feeling must be winning the lottery because I felt as though I had. We were all looking forward to seeing our students come in the next day to receive their well deserved results.

I think all staff, governors and parents who were in the hall on results day would agree that it was exciting and emotional to see students open their results and realise they had achieved their first aims and ambitions making all the hard work worthwhile.

What is the formula for our success? Well it is quite simple, the commitment of all staff, governors and support from parents and I thank each and every one of you.

The link with my story shows that school is the initial and the most important part of your early life, but the learning does not end at 16. No matter where life takes you, you will always have opportunities to achieve your aims if you continue to work towards them.

Our result of 72% A*-C including English and Maths is the best that Moorside has achieved since the school opened in 1959. I wonder if the teachers of 1959 ever imagined that Moorside would one day be one of the highest achieving schools in County Durham.

This term we would like to celebrate the life of our school and one way of doing this is by looking at it’s history. If you have had a past association with the school and can help we would love to hear from you.