George Ernest Hardy wasn’t happy with me either. There’s an understatement !! Our relationship was strained to say the least, and his refusal to place me for any GCE’s would be illegal today. He screwed up a potential career as a chef when he “put his oar in” with Thanet College, and a place promised by the then Principal was mysteriously withdrawn. George also flatly refused to give me any form of reference when I was about to leave the school some weeks later. I was forced to write my own which, when I presented it to him for his signature, he rudely tossed across his desk at me. He then caned me for tearing a page out of an exercise book – on which I had written my own reference.

His parting words to me, over the top of his half-rimmed spectacles, were, “Mitchell! Nothing would give me greater pleasure than for you to come back and prove me wrong”.

I left school with no qualifications whatsover. Except, perhaps, for a determined refusal to look back as I walked away in July 1961.

George died before I had passed several senior exams in Industrial Management, Quality Control etc., and eventually gained a Company Managing Directorship. I hasten to add that I’m no Alan Sugar, and although approaching retirement age I am where I am despite GEH, not because of him.

Many of my peers are still close friends, but GEH’s attitude (and it has been substantiated by many other ex-pupils of the time)left a great deal to be desired. Many of them have done well for themselves, despite GEH’s best (or worst) efforts.

If you didn’t shine at maths or sport for the school, forget it.

He must have thought that Borden was his “University of Sittingbourne”.

He was in some sort of time-warp, and the advent of the teenager and young men’s self-confidence during the late fifties/early sixties must have been anathema to him. He and many of the masters must have wondered what the blazes had hit them – they only had one course of reaction, but they certainly wouldn’t survive within today’s education system – they’d be locked up for assault. Vicious assault at that.

Still, I have reasonable English grammar, and I can recall much of my Trig and French Language. Geometry has stood me in good stead. I have greater mechanical aptitude than a grammar school education would have imparted, but that’s probably more to do with my paternal genes.

I achieved a Private Pilot’s Licence in 2003 (at 59), and flew over the school on several occasions (rudely, but pleasurably, sticking up two fingers at it).

I’ve been to only three reunions – two Sheppey ones, and one at the school. I exorcised many ghosts at the latter.

Smoking? We used to lay, face-down, in the form of cart-wheel spokes (so that, as lookouts, we could cover all points of the compass), just within the fence between the school field and the Rec. A pile of grass at the hub was a repository for the cigarettes if we needed to scarper.

I was “kept down” to repeat my time in 3b, following a disastrous academic year. The indignity was probably GEH’s last-gasp attempt to either shatter me, or give me an opportunity to redeem myself.

One particular morning, all fourth-years and above were kept behind after assembly to be lectured on the perils and consequences of smoking in school.

I was caught by a Prefect a week or so later.

George had forgotten that I wouldn’t have attended the morning lecture, due to being a second-time third-year, and wrongly mistook me for a fourth-former.

I was promptly expelled. That was on a Thursday.

I didn’t tell my parents, and feined going to school the next day.

During the Friday, GEH must have realised his mistake (I’d love to have seen his face – he must have been apoplectic !!), and sent a class-mate home with a message that I was to return to school the following Monday.

Relief all round, and a pleasant weekend.

During Assembly on the following Monday, GEH declared that I was to report to his study immediately afterwards.

He thrashed me. He panted the reasons as he did so: “Those three are for smoking, and these three are for not thanking me for having you back at school”…..

Can you wonder why I have mixed feelings about the school? I would lay a pound to a pinch of snuff that I’m not alone in my views.

Back in 1959, a Newington lad and I started a “pop-group” while at the school. Well, it was fashionable. It was what lads did. We had great fun, playing at local “gigs” in and around the Newington area.

We parted company when I left the school in 1961, and met for the first time since at a local band reunion in April 2009. The musical evening, purely by coincidence, was held at the Bowater Clubhouse, shown in the above photo, therefore just yards from where the “pop-group” was conceived.

All three guitarists on stage in this clip were educated at Borden !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbAaXRly-IQ

Hopefully, George was turning in his grave……………

David JM, Birchington, east Kent

Top left is an L-shaped outbuilding. It was completely out of bounds. It was filled with all kinds of fascinating biological specimens preserved in jars. I think some perverse soul placed them there specifically to tempt small boys into sneaking into what was, next to the master’s studies and common room, the most out of bounds area in the school.

The pavilion was also out of bounds generally. However, since it was almost never locked, it was an ideal place for the more daring small boy to hide from the vagaries of the winter weather and light his cigarette by merely touching it to the top of the ever-burning stove.

The roof structures bear out my memory that the assembly hall was an immense room at the back of the school.

At the extreme corner between the school and the pavilion can be seen two small blobs. When I was at Borden in the late 1950s that side of the school was noted for its bushes. These brought forth purplish berries which rather got thrown around a lot and trodden underfoot by small boys.

Now, if only I could remember my lessons as well as this!