Spelling List Cliff Ehala.jpg

Images from Cliff Ehala.

Kath Simpson commented :- Punishment from the prefects for any little misdemeanours. Words from the book were written in columns. The columns - written in exercise books with pages folded into four - were ‘marked’ by the prefects and a mistake was a rewrite. If you acquired twenty columns in a week led to detention. 

I spent a lot on time in detention = Tuesday was the normal 1/2 to 1 hour detention and occasionally on a Friday for a 2 hour stint. It wasn't that I was a trouble maker it was just I was always late for school and if you were late three times in a week then you got detention. As my mam used to drag me out of bed to get down to Patrick's newsagents for 07:30 every day to do my morning paper round when I got back home I used to fall asleep, getting ready for school, SITTING on my bed. For the last two years of my school life I spent almost every Tuesday in detention. I even remember the one week I was at school, on time, every morning. I was the fifth form class rep and one of the duties of the form reps was to read a passage from the bible for two mornings in assembly. So on the Monday we had to turn up before 09:00 for rehearsal and then be there before 09:00 for the two readings on Tuesday & Wednesday. So I completed those three morning and therefore couldn't have been late three times that week. However on the following Monday when the names of those for detention on the Tuesday were read out my name was there. off I went to see the deputy head, Mrs (or Miss) Smith to correct the error. She said something like - Edgar it seems a shame to blemish your record, you are part of the detention fixtures, I must have just added your name automatically and I think you should just attend. She smiled, patted me on the head and my two year record remained intact.