Interview with Mr. Kimberley by Form 8S, May 2009

Conducted and written by the pupils of the Year 8 scholarship form in their English lessons.

 

The two photographs below show Mr Kimberley.  The Photograph to the right is Mr Adler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Form 8S interviewed Mr. Kimberley, a former teacher at Ranby House School.  We discovered many things from him about the early days of Ranby House School. He taught at Ranby from 1956 to 1994.

 

 

Bill Adler:

Bill Adler, otherwise known as ‘Old Bill’ was the Headmaster of Ranby House School during the period between 1948 and 1970. Mr. Adler was a very good teacher in the classroom and on the games field. He was excellent at hockey, and also good at cricket and most ball games. Bill Adler was a very eccentric man, and had very harsh punishments for the children. His favorite punishment was the cane.

 

Bill Adler gave the cane on many occasions, sometimes for the most minor issue. For example, if any boy met a lady in the grounds and didn’t raise his cap to her, Mr. Adler would give them the cane. He gave the children 3 strokes of the cane or 6 strokes, which in the old days were called 6 of the best.

 

At lunch time Mr. Adler would say grace before and after lunch. After the boys had eaten and said their prayers, he would give them a lecture of their manners or behavior. This would waste the boys’ free time as he would talk for as long as possible.  On one occasion, as remembered by Mr. Kimberley, he stood up and told the boys that their manners were appalling, at lunch and at breakfast.  He said that he had been watching them at breakfast, the way they slurped their tea was like watching ‘pigs in a trough’.  He then picked up a tea cup and spent as much time as he could showing the boys how they drank.  Then he said that women are so polite of how they eat, and drink their tea, and that boys should be the same.  He then gave them a demonstration of how to drink politely. Mr. Kimberley found this incident very amusing!

 

Mr Adler liked giving the cane.  Mr. Kimberley told us a story of Mr. Adler when he was being particularly devious.  One day Mr. Kimberley was teaching the class A3, the boys who struggled with their work, but some didn’t do any work what so ever.  Mr. Adler came along to the class A3 and said ‘Do you have a boy named Greenfield in your class.’  Mr. Adler very well knew that Greenfield was in that class.  The boys stood up and Mr. Adler peered over his specs, and told them to sit down.  He then looked at Greenfield a fairly big boy and said ‘Greenfield you great big stupid lump!’  He had just assessed the boy’s weekly marks as he did every fortnight and discovered that Greenfield’s marks weren’t high enough. ‘ You have done no work.  When all these boys are up at Worksop College, you will still be here in your knickerbockers.’  He then sent Greenfield to stand outside his study;  it was obvious that he was going to receive the cane.  When the boy had left he asked Mr. Kimberley if he could have a word with Form A3.  He then said to Mr. Kimberley ‘I just want to make sure that his knees are knocking when I get there.’

 

 

Uniform:

 

In the days of Mr. Adler, the uniform was extremely different to how it is today. These were the days when there were no girls at the school, so there was only the boys’ uniform to design.

It consisted of grey shorts, a grey shirt, grey socks, a grey cap with a Ranby House School badge on it and black shoes.

This of course is very different to the uniform nowadays which is grey trousers, or shorts for the summer, navy and white checked shirts, and short sleeved for the summer, grey socks, a yellow and navy striped tie, a navy blue v-necked jumper and a navy blazer.

Most Interesting event of Mr. Kimberley’s time at Ranby House School:

 

A father of a pupil was in the Royal Air Force and also the leader of the Red Arrows, an aerial performance team.

This father brought the Red Arrows over the school and the children went out and saluted them. He also brought a helicopter to school for the pupils’ enjoyment.

 

 

Extra information provided by Mr. Kimberley:

 

The Gobi obtained its name by the fact that it was open, thus windy, as well as being extremely rocky. The boys had to pick the rocks off the field when it was being changed from farm land to a sports pitch Due to all these characteristics it was compared to the desert and the name has stuck. In the early days the land where Chequers Close stands was owned by the school, but Mr. Adler decided to sell it to raise funds to raise the roof of the then Games Room. The old Games Room was above the current Year 4 classrooms. It then moved to the Old Library as this new space became new classrooms. When Mr. Kimberley came to the school the classrooms on the right hand side of the quad still looked like stables. In said classroom there was sash windows that pushed up providing some brief relive from the hot summer days.

One of the school’s most secretive buildings is the Catholic bolt holes. When Ranby House was a big Tudor manor, the Catholics would hide in the bolt hole if they suspected a raid or needed to escape in the direction of Reford.

 

 

 

The photograph below shows Mr Kimberley teaching a class of boys.