Hoping to get back to my blog after a long time. I still don't really know what I am doing so forgive me if I mess it up.  I am  eventually going to go back to my schooldays and also my teaching 'career' - brief as it was. I was recently accused of 'nepotism' but I was able to point out that I was the only candidate for the job when I went to teach with my Father as was the case in every job interview I   ever had.

In February 2025 my brother David and I went to the Wade Deacon Grammar School Reunion organised by  ex-pupils David Hopkins and Ray Trivasse. It was only one morning but was organised so well by the school and the pupils it ran like clockwork. We had to be there early on the Saturday morning and we had to be gone by 1pm as the gates were going to be locked. Archie drove me there and the weather was kind as it was early in February so might well have been snowing. 

The school main hall was set out as if for a wedding, tables for nearly 200 people. There was a display of photographs and documents and a screen on the wall showing photos of staff members and newspaper articles. Our Father , D J Huntingford known to the boys as Tally Ho appeared on the wall as if to greet us - 24 years almost to the day that he died. 

We were looked after by the pupils, plied with drinks and cake and taken in groups on guided tours around the amazing new building. From the road the facade of our old school looks unchanged but behind that there is a new building which is just amazing. The young people were a delight and their teachers must have been very proud of them. All of them had given up part of their weekend to look after us.

None of my fellow pupils were there, sadly but I did meet up with some of the boys that I taught in the year 1968/69, now old men themselves. I was 21 when they were 11 so we were only 10 years apart in age. That year of teaching with my Father as my Boss was wonderful. I was married by then so we had different names and he really looked after me. Woe betide any boy found outside my classroom . He made a point of walking past the room where I was teaching. Not that I had any discipline problems as the boys were very well behaved and a delight to teach.