Graham Forster - Orwell 59-67: Did anyone get any lines from a prefect called Johns? They started: "I must constantly endeavour to remember at all times that discipline is one of the fundamental principles of a well-run society therefore I must ..........."

John Dawlings - Orwell 64-71: Larry Howes used a similar format. “I must constantly endeavour at all times ....”

Chris Snuggs - Berners/Halls 58-64: Never heard or read the name "Johns" ..... what house was he in?

Graham Forster: Orwell - he was a prefect when I was in the 1st year.

Vin Gower - Hansons 66-73: There was an Adrian Johns in my year in Hansons.

Chris Snuggs: Peter Johns - Corners 58 to 60 is the only "Johns" in my database! Does that sound like the one?

Graham Forster: I started in '59 and I am sure that he was an Orwell House prefect. He was quite soft, the juniors used to shout after him: "Johns is a prune." never really knew why.

Chris Snuggs: He was soft, wrinkly and gave you the runs?

Dennis Alexander - Orwell 57-64: If I remember correctly when Orwell was still just a junior house (I think until 61) fifth formers from other houses acted as prefects. So it could be Peter Johns.

Graham Forster: Possible ...

Robin Boot - Orwell 67-72: During my time it was normally just “ write your name 1000 times”. I used to write them in advance during prep so that I could hand them in straight away. One of the Orwell prefects got wise to this and the next time I had to write out Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch 100 times.

Louis Parperis - Orwell 63-70: It wasn’t ...... was it?

Robin Boot: Louis, to be completely honest with you.......????.......I can’t for the life of me remember who it was. But during that time I did learn to spell and pronounciate the town name.??

Louis Parperis: I am delighted your English studies have not been entirely discarded, but it would be sufficient to ‘pronounce’ unless you are considering the possibility of speaking with an incumbent US President??

Robin Boot: Louis, I wouldn’t speak to the incumbent US President, DopeyDon, but have had a word with Obama whilst he was incumbent, does that count?

Louis Parperis: Robin Boot I hope you ‘pronounciated’ his name correctly. It’s surprising how many people struggle with Irish names given the success of so many of the Emerald Isles’ writers, singers and actors. It’s not as if Barry O’Barma is difficult to say.

Robin Boot: Bejesus, oi pronounciated it jus white!

Chris Snuggs: I have always been undecided over whether to nickname him "O'Blabber" or "O'Blather"; both have their merits ....

Grant Brewster - Hansons 72-79: I remember P-P Cutler making me colour in the 1mm alternate squares on a sheet of A4 graph paper?

Chris Snuggs: WOW! Give him credit for ingenuity. I assume you did not have to make each square a different colour; that would have been a bit OTT!! I remember Cutler. He taught us English in the Lower VIth. A nice chap, but not I think a Neil Clayton ......

I suppose the next stage after different colours would have been to write letter alternatelyback to front and then upside down and so on .... you would have ended up with something really artistic ..... Has nobody KEPT any of these line specimens except Mike O'Leary? The specimen below is fascinating, and NOW I know why Mike never makes a mistake with the possessive apostrophe .........
PS I have also had his handwriting analysed, but will not reveal the somewhat embarrassing results ......

Grant Brewster: The Cutler that I am talking about was in Hanson’s, think he was 6-2 in 1973/1974?

Chris Snuggs: Not the same one then ... I have a database of teachers - which is no doubt incomplete and inaccurate - and there is only one Cutler in it, a Mr D. Cutler who taught just in the Autumn term of 1963. What do you remember about the dates and roles of your Mr Cutler? Or was it the SAME one who after one term with us went away for ten years more training to prepare him for a second go?

Robin Skinner - Johnstons 67-74: 73-74 was his last year, same as me ... Peter-Paul ....

Louis Parperis: The geography teacher attached to Orwell House after Ben Turner stepped down and before Bob Skailes filled the role, Adrian (?) Allchin, regularly dished out lines beginning: ‘I must constantly endeavour, at all times and in all places, to ...’ and when he thought we were becoming too proficient in our factory production methodology, he increased the complexity of the task by requiring the use of different coloured ink for each letter. It may have been word, but his earlier career as a concentration camp guard we believed a change of circumstances had prevented him from following sits better with my narrative. He beat me and Tony Isaacs one evening in the third form for supposedly behaving badly in his wife’s biology lesson (Tony had been repeatedly dropping and rolling a pencil on the floor as she was walking around the classroom in Berners that she shared with Dick Waters (not a good idea to teach German so soon after the war in a room infused with the smell of gas, I have thought since) and I was only guilty by association.

John Dawlings: Allchin was my form master in my first year. My father, in typical dad joke style, would infuriatingly start singing, 'Allchin’s bright and beautiful ....' whenever his name was mentioned at home.

Chris Snuggs: I did a PGCE and in hindsight am really miffed that they did not have a course on appropriate punishments - which would have covered of course the subtle variations in line-giving that the average teacher might not have thought of ..... I think by then (1972) it was too late to have a course on slippering techniques, however, the practice having by then been abolished .... WHS teachers seem to have managed without one ....

Kyriacos ‘Zap’ Tsaparelli - Orwell 67-74: One of the lines I got was from Mr Ramsey and I still remember it:
“I must constantly endeavour all times to refrain from creating or participating in a disturbance, calculated to effect the diligence of my companions in their scholastic studies!”

Chris Snuggs: At least it taught you some long words! I think I would go for this:

"I am an exceptionally irritating, self-opinionated, cerebrally-challenged and inconsiderate pillock whose hyper-inflated sense of his own importance compels me to constantly disturb the precious education of those who unlike me seek to improve their minds and become useful and productive members of the human race, something to which any aspiration on my part would be worthy of insertion in 'The Guinness Book of Records" under 'The World's Greatest Delusions'".

(PS Just to be clear, this is the line I might have given, not something I am writing about myself ...)

Harvey Angel: Bogey Ben Turner used to regularly give me lines that said: "I must not drive Sir up the wall." So after he'd collected them and thrown them in the bin, I would rescue them from the bin for the inevitable next time. Simples!!

Chris Snuggs: Did you ever encounter ANY teachers who were capable of uderstanding the heights (or indeed the depths) of your deviousness?

Harvey Angel: Unfortunately I didn't get away with too much with my housemaster, Stan Goetzee. However, I did manage to slip out for all the Ipswich home matches on Saturday afternoons in the 6th form until the very last one, when I was finally caught.

Jon Kemp: HJR always gave us lines that started, "I must constantly endeavour ... ".