King Edwards Five Ways Grammar School

Location: Scotland Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham
Website: www.ke5ways.bham.sch.uk

I attended King Edwards Five Ways school from September 1969 until July 1976. My year's intake was the last to be streamed. The pupils were split into 3 forms; the brightest third were put into 1A. The rest were split by age into 1E (elder) and 1Y (younger). I was in 1A and I don't think we were really much (if any) brighter than the others. I know the teachers expected us to be better behaved and were rather put-out to discover we were like any other 11 year old boys: unruly and noisy. After my 3rd year (in 3A), the streaming stopped altogether and forms were named after the initial of the form teacher. I went into 4S (Mr Spencer), 5S and then into Science 2 for my 6th form (A level) course with Mr K H Thomas as my form teacher.

Here are some details of my forms and some photos:
The first two are formal class photographs. The Upper Sixth one was an informal one taken by (I think) Graham Barnhurst. The rather odd pose was based on a cartoon drawn by John Dell (also shown).

Class	Years	Teacher	Class Photo
1A	September 1969 - July 1970	Mr P. Stott
2A	September 1970 - July 1971	Mr John. G. Prince
3A	September 1971 - July 1972	Mr John. G. Prince
4S	September 1972 - July 1973	Mr Colin Spencer
5S	September 1973 - July 1974	Mr Colin Spencer
Lower 6th Science 2	September 1974 - July 1975	Mr Ken H. Thomas
Upper 6th Science 2 (cartoon kindly provided by John Dell)	September 1975 - July 1976	Mr Ken H. Thomas
Other Teachers who taught me :	Subject	Name	Photo
	Headmaster 1969-74	Mr Peter. R. Watkins
	Headmaster from 1975	Mr Geoffrey Sanders
	Art	Mr M. Brookes
	Biology	Mr Anthony .J. Benbow
	Chemistry	Mr L. O'Hanlon
	English (1969-70)	Mr D. Hancox
	English (also 'Games')	Mr C. A. Fox
	English	Mr Frank Gadd
	French (1969-70)	Mrs. B. J. Whittaker
	French (1969-70)	Mr H. Woodcock
	French (1970-on)	Mr Peter S. Fry
	Geography	Mr T. E. Lloyd
	German	Mr Peter S. Fry
	History (1969-70)	Mr. Robert Tebby
	History (rest of time)	Mr James Dykes ("Jock")
	Latin	Mr N. A. Halligan
	Mathematics (1969-70)	Mr. P. Stott
	Mathematics (1970-on) (Pure Maths)	Mr Ken H. Thomas
	Mathematics (1970-on) (applied Matths)	Mr David J. Wright
	Metalwork & Engineering Drawing (E.D.)	Mr W. Theo Fox
	Music (1969-70)	Mr P. Allport
	Music (1970-on)	Mr Anthony L. Shield
	P.E. etc	Mr Douglas
	P.E. etc	Mr D. J. Watson
	P.E. etc	Mr A. J. E. Miles
	Physics / Combined Science	Mr. P. Jacques
	Physics	Mr. M. Colley
	Physics	Mr D. Glyn Hughes
	Physics	Dr. Tesh
	R.E.	Mr H. D. D. Walters
	R.E.	Mr John Gareth Prince
	Woodwork	Mr Colin Spencer

We had two full school photographs taken while I was at the school. It is difficult to know how to present these on a website as they are far too big to view on a screen. I have scanned these in and joined them up, so you can download them; right-click on the link below and save (note the size).

NOTE: On the photos, below, I have tagged all the names I know (with lots of help from Peter Eckerlsey); just hold your mouse-pointer over a face and the name should pop up.
If you can add or correct any names, then let me know by email.

UPDATE April 2018: I have finally (with some help) managed to get the pop-up names working again on these photos below. It should now work in all browsers, but let me know of any issues.
Also I would be grateful for more names! (See just above for email address link)

1970 KEFWS school photo (3.2MB). 

1973 KEFWS School Photo (5 MB) (slightly battered, I'm afraid!)

1978 KEFWS school photo (4 MB)

I can't recall where I got this last photo from - it was taken after I left in 1976, but there should be some familiar faces there if only I could remember them!

Page created June 21st 2009. Updated: April 02, 2018