Mr. Witriol's Journal
Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Joseph Witriol, Teacher at Barnsbury Secondary School for Boys
Notes from the Website Editors: The following text is the unedited transcription of Mr. Witriol's personal journal entries. They are reproduced with permission from Mr. Witriol's son, Philip, following an e-mail exchange with the website editors in October, 2019. Part of these memoirs describes the Barnsbury teachers' strike of 1961. If anybody has recollections of this action, please advise the website editors. The image at the end of this article shows three teachers, the left hand one being Mr. Joseph Witriol. We believe the photo was taken in Paris on a school journey. However, confirmation is required, and also identification of the other two teachers. Any help in this regard would be appreciated. For an additional story involving Mr. Witriol and Johnny Williams, please refer to the separate article in the Teachers section.
19th May 1960: Started at Barnsbury. On the whole, the move has justified itself. I have classes to take which are as difficult as the one I left at Hargrave, but, and I think this will prove decisive, I never have any one class for more than an hour at a stretch, and no class for more than four periods a week. There are difficulties, of course; although I will probably be able to average five free periods a week, I will probably have to spend a couple of hours a week in marking. (I am time-tabled to have seven 35/40 minute free periods and one 1hr. F.P. I also get another 35 minutes sitting in with a class). Today we had off; a bye-election at the Camden Road school buildings – “glass box” – housing the Upper School (3rd, 4th & 5th years). I am in the Lower School in Eden Grove, a dingy street opposite the Northern Polytechnic. I do a morning and afternoon at Camden Road taking history with three 3rd-yr forms. I found myself reading Trevelyan on Charles II to-day. One of the classes is very dim, but fortunately there are only twenty of them.
7th June 1960: Have got through my first half-term at Barnsbury. Some lessons are just as nerve-wracking to take as was 3D at Hargrave, but much virtue in that “some.” I have 5hrs. 25 minutes official free periods, and one “sitting-in” lesson. This will make all the difference. Even if I have to take over for an absent master I shall usually be able to tell them to get on with their HW, while I can get on with mine. I think I shall be able to “cope” better than I could at Hargrave; and if this proves to be the case, it will be enough. Nevertheless, the large staff at Barnsbury – must be well over 40 – tend to show up the buses I have missed. For the record. The Senior History Master at Barnsbury was one Sam Freedman, a homely Leeds Jewish type. He told me he had applied for a job teaching cadets at Hendon Police College – “I didn’t think a Yiddishe boy would have a chance, but so I’d lose another sixpence.” He got the job. He has a glass eye, in the room of one of his own he lost treading on a mine in the war, I gather. I suspect the glass eye got him the job. He’s to teach English, I gather, with some history. His degree, I gather, was in commercial subjects, but he struck me as being quite articulate.
2nd November 1960: A week’s mid-term holiday. Apparently, we can get a week for each of the three mid-terms, in addition to six weeks in summer. I had thought one would get only two mid-term days in the secondary school. Presumably there will be very few, if any, “occasional closures.” Prize giving at Archway Central Hall the other evening. Edward Blishen presented prizes. I enjoyed his speech, though his ad-libbing was not to the taste of Leece, the Eden Grove P.E. man. Blishen said he would start off with what he imagined must be a unique opening on these occasions “Revenge is Sweet”. He said Barnsbury was the first school he was sent to, after having presented himself at Divisional Offices, a dungeon wherein sat a number of pallid young teachers obviously trying to persuade themselves they did like children.
27th July 1961: Barnsbury struck. I arrived at Camden Rd. in the morning, we had assembly as usual and I was going up with the kids to the classroom when an announcement came over the loud speakers telling all boys to re-assemble in the hall. The kids told me that the staff at Eden Grove had gone on strike. After about five minutes I found I was the only master left in the hall. I went up to the staff-room, where Leece, Bath and Leff of Eden Grove had arrived to tell a hastily convened meeting of the Camden Road staff that they (the Eden Grove staff) had in fact gone on strike and sent the boys home. They wanted to know whether or not we would follow suit. To my surprise a majority voted in favour and the kids were sent home. I feel rather depressed about the whole thing myself, but must admire the determination shown by the Eden Grove instigators.
11th September 1962: Am now not merely No. 3 in the French hierarchy of Barnsbury Boys’ School, which I was last half, but No. 2 in the hierarchy of the Eden Grove French Dept. (whereas last half I was No. 1 at Eden Grove, vice Davis who had left for a post with an allowance elsewhere). Depressing: C—b—l says his allowance has come through, W—ch got his post with allowance last term at the school, Ch—n takes over at the Assembly this morning – he’s the chap who got the English post for which I put in. I keep on saying I must accept that I shall remain an ungraded teacher, and so what, I had been prepared for this when I started teaching, but it is depressing to have the same status as a girl or boy in their twenties – a lower status, often – too tired to write any more. It is questionable whether individual teachers would benefit financially when the battle was over but as Madley, Senior Master in the Lower School said, one was striking to make a stand, to demonstrate that one could not always “take it out of the teachers.
17th January 1963: The Eden Grove boys’ (and one staff) toilets froze up, as a result the Eden Grove teaching staff had two days off. A bit of luck that I do no teaching at all at Camden Road this year; in previous years I have “shuttled” between the two buildings, and the shuttlers had to go in to teach their Camden Road lessons.
Notes from the Website Editors: The following text is the unedited transcription of Mr. Witriol's personal journal entries. They are reproduced with permission from Mr. Witriol's son, Philip, following an e-mail exchange with the website editors in October, 2019. Part of these memoirs describes the Barnsbury teachers' strike of 1961. If anybody has recollections of this action, please advise the website editors. The image at the end of this article shows three teachers, the left hand one being Mr. Joseph Witriol. We believe the photo was taken in Paris on a school journey. However, confirmation is required, and also identification of the other two teachers. Any help in this regard would be appreciated. For an additional story involving Mr. Witriol and Johnny Williams, please refer to the separate article in the Teachers section.
19th May 1960: Started at Barnsbury. On the whole, the move has justified itself. I have classes to take which are as difficult as the one I left at Hargrave, but, and I think this will prove decisive, I never have any one class for more than an hour at a stretch, and no class for more than four periods a week. There are difficulties, of course; although I will probably be able to average five free periods a week, I will probably have to spend a couple of hours a week in marking. (I am time-tabled to have seven 35/40 minute free periods and one 1hr. F.P. I also get another 35 minutes sitting in with a class). Today we had off; a bye-election at the Camden Road school buildings – “glass box” – housing the Upper School (3rd, 4th & 5th years). I am in the Lower School in Eden Grove, a dingy street opposite the Northern Polytechnic. I do a morning and afternoon at Camden Road taking history with three 3rd-yr forms. I found myself reading Trevelyan on Charles II to-day. One of the classes is very dim, but fortunately there are only twenty of them.
7th June 1960: Have got through my first half-term at Barnsbury. Some lessons are just as nerve-wracking to take as was 3D at Hargrave, but much virtue in that “some.” I have 5hrs. 25 minutes official free periods, and one “sitting-in” lesson. This will make all the difference. Even if I have to take over for an absent master I shall usually be able to tell them to get on with their HW, while I can get on with mine. I think I shall be able to “cope” better than I could at Hargrave; and if this proves to be the case, it will be enough. Nevertheless, the large staff at Barnsbury – must be well over 40 – tend to show up the buses I have missed. For the record. The Senior History Master at Barnsbury was one Sam Freedman, a homely Leeds Jewish type. He told me he had applied for a job teaching cadets at Hendon Police College – “I didn’t think a Yiddishe boy would have a chance, but so I’d lose another sixpence.” He got the job. He has a glass eye, in the room of one of his own he lost treading on a mine in the war, I gather. I suspect the glass eye got him the job. He’s to teach English, I gather, with some history. His degree, I gather, was in commercial subjects, but he struck me as being quite articulate.
2nd November 1960: A week’s mid-term holiday. Apparently, we can get a week for each of the three mid-terms, in addition to six weeks in summer. I had thought one would get only two mid-term days in the secondary school. Presumably there will be very few, if any, “occasional closures.” Prize giving at Archway Central Hall the other evening. Edward Blishen presented prizes. I enjoyed his speech, though his ad-libbing was not to the taste of Leece, the Eden Grove P.E. man. Blishen said he would start off with what he imagined must be a unique opening on these occasions “Revenge is Sweet”. He said Barnsbury was the first school he was sent to, after having presented himself at Divisional Offices, a dungeon wherein sat a number of pallid young teachers obviously trying to persuade themselves they did like children.
27th July 1961: Barnsbury struck. I arrived at Camden Rd. in the morning, we had assembly as usual and I was going up with the kids to the classroom when an announcement came over the loud speakers telling all boys to re-assemble in the hall. The kids told me that the staff at Eden Grove had gone on strike. After about five minutes I found I was the only master left in the hall. I went up to the staff-room, where Leece, Bath and Leff of Eden Grove had arrived to tell a hastily convened meeting of the Camden Road staff that they (the Eden Grove staff) had in fact gone on strike and sent the boys home. They wanted to know whether or not we would follow suit. To my surprise a majority voted in favour and the kids were sent home. I feel rather depressed about the whole thing myself, but must admire the determination shown by the Eden Grove instigators.
11th September 1962: Am now not merely No. 3 in the French hierarchy of Barnsbury Boys’ School, which I was last half, but No. 2 in the hierarchy of the Eden Grove French Dept. (whereas last half I was No. 1 at Eden Grove, vice Davis who had left for a post with an allowance elsewhere). Depressing: C—b—l says his allowance has come through, W—ch got his post with allowance last term at the school, Ch—n takes over at the Assembly this morning – he’s the chap who got the English post for which I put in. I keep on saying I must accept that I shall remain an ungraded teacher, and so what, I had been prepared for this when I started teaching, but it is depressing to have the same status as a girl or boy in their twenties – a lower status, often – too tired to write any more. It is questionable whether individual teachers would benefit financially when the battle was over but as Madley, Senior Master in the Lower School said, one was striking to make a stand, to demonstrate that one could not always “take it out of the teachers.
17th January 1963: The Eden Grove boys’ (and one staff) toilets froze up, as a result the Eden Grove teaching staff had two days off. A bit of luck that I do no teaching at all at Camden Road this year; in previous years I have “shuttled” between the two buildings, and the shuttlers had to go in to teach their Camden Road lessons.