Tilbury - Making a Difference - by Peter Leyland
Tilbury: Making a Difference Starting out as a teacher in the 1970s I was an idealist. I was determined to change the world… After a short spell teaching general subjects at a private school, I went to Tilbury with my then wife Viv, and started at a comprehensive school called St Chads, which doesn’t exist now. Apparently, it burned down but I haven’t been able to find out how. St Chad's was a converted secondary modern and looked it, except that an English department had been added - a bright new building at the back of the school - and that’s where I started with my own classroom. I had a BA (Hons) degree in English, and that’s all you needed in those days, no actual teaching qualifications. I could learn on the job. And learn I did, mostly that a lot of the children I taught couldn’t read or write very well and if they did, were not very keen on it anyway. The school leaving age had just been raised to 16 and most of them were not very keen on that either. ...