Donna Toon.
Midday Supervisor Stubbin Wood School + Supply Teaching assistant
I work at Stubbin Wood school and as well as that my brother went to Stubbin Wood from 1981 to 1986.
I went to Shirebrook School from 1979 to 1984 at that time it was a Comprehensive school not an academy.
If I think back to my School days the one thing that has changed now computers. They are everywhere and all the children use them a lot, they are marvellous. I first used a computer when I was at school in a physics lesson. We learned how to turn it on, open a word document and then typed our name and address. That took us a double period which was from lunchtime until we went home. That is about two hours to do what you lot would do in a minute or two. And before you ask, no I didn’t have a really long address.
I had loads of friends and we did lots of after school activities because we were all very sporty. I was captain of the hockey team and the netball team. I ran cross country and did athletics. My main events were the 800 metres, the 1500 metres, discus and shot-put.
If you look at where the new school is being built that is where our running track used to be. It was an oval grass track and I loved running on it. Most of my friends were into sports and they were in the netball and hockey teams with me. I remember that on Fridays if you had done something good you had to go up on the stage and get a prize of some sort. Because our teams were so good we got lots of prizes but I don’t know where they are now.
I keep in touch with my old school friends and see them pretty often. Only one of them has moved away and we talk to each other on Face book.
I have one special friend who grew up with me. When we moved into the new houses on Thickley close her family moved in at the same time. We were both five years old when we first met. Her birthday was Febuary 14th and mine was August 16th. We started school at Brookfield together and then moved up to Shirebrook comprehensive. When we were at the lower school we were in different classes but as soon as we moved up to top school then we were together. She was my bridesmaid and I was hers. She is the god mother to my children and I am the god mother to hers. I can tell you the teachers I liked at Shirebrook. Mr Milne was my PE teacher and since I was loved sports he was my favourite. I remember once when I was in a cross country race I came running back onto Common lane and I was winning. I caught up with Mr Milne who was trying to get the winning line set up. He was astonished to see me and asked me what I was doing. I told him I wanted to win and ran as fast as I could. He began to race me and I made it to the line just as he did. I won the race though.
Mr Harris made me laugh. When the boys had been naughty he would make them hold his hand at break times and walk around with him. We would laugh at them so much that they didn’t mess about again.
Mr Rogers made every lesson fun. My form teacher Mrs White was lovely. She was like a mum to us and if you had any problems you could always talk to her.
The uniform at Shirebrook was a black blazer and skirt. We wore a maroon tie with grey stripes on it and a thin yellow line running through it. I have pictures of me in that uniform.
Better than that are the photos of me when I was a teenager. I liked listening to Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and the Human League. These were new romantic bands and we dressed up in amazing clothes to go out. I also dressed as a “Modette” which was a totally different look. We wore Parkas and I raided my grandmothers wardrobe and borrowed her 1960s clothes. I have some pictures of me with my friends and all of us were in Ski pants, very nice we looked as well.
I will be sad to leave Stubbin Wood and there are some things I will really miss. One thing I will definitely miss is the atmosphere at Stubbin Wood. As soon as you walk in you know it is a happy place and it feels so nice to be in school. What makes it nice is all the pupils who are there. They are amazing. The only thing I don’t like are some of the school dinners.
If Aliens landed what would I show them. Well I would be tempted to take them to Mr Floyds office to see if they could catch him doing some work. But being serious for a change I would probably take them to the cookery room to sample the fantastic coking you lot do. It smells so good that they would never want to leave.
