Could this really be the same school?

HAVING read the recollections of David Frost’s schooldays at the Herbert Strutt Grammar School, Belper in the 1950s, I came to the conclusion that it couldn’t have been the same school that I attended between 1949 and 1954 (“I left Strutt wanting to be a teacher. Why? Short hours and long holidays, August 5).

Mr Frost’s somewhat jaundiced view of his grammar school education and teaching staff is totally at odds with my own.

What school in this day and age has a well-maintained sports field, complete with cricket and football field and running track, apart from fee-paying public schools. Okay, so we took it granted then and only in later life did we realise how valuable it was to enhance our overall educational experience.

Nonetheless, I am grateful that Mr Frost has given me the opportunity to reflect on my time at Strutt’s. Looking back, I feel that, by and large, the teaching staff were good and my time there stood me in good stead for the future.

An area in which I felt the school was lacking was careers advice which was very sketchy. I had made my mind up to leave school at 16. If one was academically gifted, that child would be advised to stay on in the sixth form with a view to a university education, having achieved the necessary A-levels. The less gifted would be pointed in the direction of a factory shop floor. I was a sort of inbetweeny and received no positive advice at all, so I was left to my own devices.

My interest in chemistry directed me to a career in industrial chemistry which I maintained until my retirement.

Yes, I consider myself fortunate to have received a grammar school education and grateful that it was the Herbert Strutt GS.

John P Sheldon, Holbrook