I was part of the original intake of pupils to the 'new' Howard School in September 1975.
The transformation from Rainham Secondary School For Boys into The Howard School had involved a lot of new buildings, some of which were still under construction in Sept 75. There was mud and debris everywhere and we would all go home with filthy shoes and trousers. My mother was one of many parents who complained directly to the school, but as with all things 'Howard' issues were ignored.
The school had a 13 form entry, 9 'A' stream classes and 4 'Alpha' stream. A system of apartheid/discrimination was rigidly enforced with all of us 'A streamers' reminded constantly how useless we were and the 'Alphas' were given many privileges denied to us 'oiks'.
John Hicks, headmaster, only seemed to be interested in the rose garden outside his office and any ex-grammar boys who had made it to Cambridge or Oxford. The P.E. teachers were all sadists, but a couple of the metalwork teachers were OK.
The basic problem with the school is it was simply too big. A lot of crowd control and not much education. We had the longest academic day of any school in Kent 0835 - 1550. John Hicks was very proud of this, we pupils did not share his enthusiasm.
My 5 years at the school felt like a never ending prison sentence, I hated every minute of it.
A little respite came at Xmas 1979, when Pink Floyd were top of the charts with Another Brick In The Wall. The teachers loved us singing "we don't need no education"!
