I had a very, very happy school life and loved going, learning and being with my friends. Education wise, it wasn't the best but back then it was all that was available to disabled children. I took 7 CSE's exams in 1983, I took them alone in the school library as there was no-one else leaving that year. I passed all 7 with various grades from a 2 in Art & Design to a 5 in Maths!
I'm a big fan now of children of all abilities being schooled together and still wish I'd gone to a 'normal' school as I wish I'd received a better education. Highfurlong did it's best and the teachers were great but like I said the education was basic. I did History, English, Maths, Music, Geography, Domestic Science, Games (including swimming) & Art. No languages, no chemistry, no physics, nothing too challenging. Careers lessons were pointless as I was never ever inspired to even go on to further education let alone have a career.
During my senior years 4 children from Highfurlong who were considered the 'brainiest' were chosen to go to Collegiate School (the grammar school next door) for Biology, Chemistry, Physics & French lessons and I was luckily enough to be one of the four. I loved it, the whole fact that there were tons of kids everywhere, the school was noisy and people didn't really pay me much attention although I did encounter a little bit of staring and name-calling but that had always happened to me so it was bound to happen at Collegiate too. The classes were huge, about 30 kids in there sat in rows at benches unlike my school where the classes were of about 15-ish and very relaxed compared to this. The teachers were strict and work was done quietly. I loved it. I especially loved French, sitting in a lil booth listening to French language tapes and repeating words and phrases. At the end of term exams I came 2nd out of the class in French with an overall score of 94%
However, Collegiate offered to take us all on full time after that but it was thought, but who I'm not sure, that I needed a school nurse too much so the 3 boys I'd gone with left Highfurlong and went on to finish their education at Collegiate and I went back to Highfurlong and lost interest in school a bit.
When I left school I started an ex-pupils society with one of my best mates, Beverley Youles, or Bev as everyone knew her. She was ace, a proper character. She was a couple of years older than me so was not in my classes but we socialised outside of class and outside of school. She suffered from brittle bones and because of it was very short, only about 4ft tall and walked with a walking frame. I wore callipers on and off back then (depending on my mood and bolshiness at the time) so you can imagine what an odd couple we looked, me wobbling next to Bev pushing her frame, her Mother used to have kittens whenever I was round at her house, sure I would fall at any moment and land on her reducing her to a crumbled heap of dust & bones!! I never did fall near her, well not that her Mother saw anyway. I did fall lots of times but I was an expert in how to fall I'd be doing it since I was a tot and always fell out of the way of Bev. We had a great laugh and I loved her to bits. She's no longer with us sadly, having had a huge heart attack in her mid 20's.
The ex-pupils society didn't take off really, there weren't that many ex-pupils to be fair as it was only a tiny school (100 pupils when I was there from age 4 to 15). We did however have a very successful reunion at The Savoy Hotel in Blackpool back in around 1985 (I think).
Yesterday (November 2013) I visited the school again, over 30 years after I left. It's being pulled down to be re-modelled on a new site and merged with another school so I thought I'd have a last look before it disappeared into history. The lovely Cheryl showed me and Hari round and fundamentally it hadn't really changed, the layout of the classes are the same although they have different names now, the headmasters office is in the same place with the secretary's office next door.
The children stay longer now, til the age of 19 but they are much more severely disabled than they were in my day. Children with disabilities like mine and the people who attended Highfurlong with me are now, quite rightly integrated into 'normal' schools. When I was there the majority of my school friends had asthma, nothing more nothing less, I still don't know why others were there, one girl had a cleft pallet! Imagine now sending a child to a 'special school' for having a cleft pallet. It was scandalous really back then.
The outside of the school which has barely changed.
The hydrotherapy pool.
This used to have much higher sides which I guess meant it was a lot deeper. I loved swimming in it, it was always so warm.
The Assembly/dining hall. The flooring used to be parque wooden blocked, gorgeous it was so it was a bit disappointing to see it like this. And the stage where we did concerts had gone also as well as the gym apparatus and the heavy theatre curtains.
This new classroom used to be part of the playground, between classes 2 & 3 in the junior end of the school.
This was the domestic science kitchen back in the 70's/80's. Friday morning was always double domestic science with Mrs New. It was a lot more like a classroom then with work benches each with an oven and a few sinks.
Mr Dentith used to take us for Maths in this classroom - S1. There were rows of wooden desks and chairs facing what is now a wipe board but back then was a good old fashioned black board. This is one of the class rooms I used to gaze out of the windows at the view of the Pennines when I was day dreaming.
The view from the woodwork room. The lawns used to be much bigger and rolled down hill to the boundary with the land Collegiate stood on. It seemed most of it had gone which looked very odd. There used to be sports days on there.
The trees had grown in the past 30 years too blocking out the view of the Pennines.
