There have been a few people who have left comments to various posts asking if there is any history of Aycliffe Approved School. I don’t know if there is any official history, but as I work in County Hall I’ll make a point next week of looking in the records office.
These requests are quite timely given that the new Secure Unit is due to open in August of this year. I worked in the current Secure Unit for 11 years, and lived on site too for a couple of years before moving to Aycliffe Village.
If anybody has records or memories (good or bad) about the Approved School or Secure Unit, please feel free to share them here, bearing in mind that this is an open forum so you may need to be cautious or discreet about sharing personal information.
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June 24, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the interest in Aycliffe School. I was sent there as I kept running away from home. My parents were going through a divorce in 1959 and it affected me a great deal. I was eventually brought before a Juvenile Court, as being “beyond parental control” as when I ran away I was absenting myself from school too.
My first few months at Aycliffe were equally troubled. As I ran away from there as well. Running away from Aycliffe was not like escaping of course, as all one had to do was go to the bus stop and get on a bus and one was away.
I was returned, given the cane and eventually settled down. Looking back now with some ‘affection’ for the place, what was good about Aycliffe was the Gittins regime. Mr. Gittins, ran the place rather like a minor public school. The boys gained points or credits which gave access to the town, Newton Aycliffe and the Swimming Pool at Darlington on Saturdays. Mr. Gittins (the Principal) introduced classical music to morning Assembly and I have him to thank for my love of Bach and Handel et al.
I remember Owen Brannigan giving a recital on two occasions.
We attended the school block on Monday to Friday, had large football fields
and Tom Smith the PE Master sent us out on Cross Country runs around Copelaw.
What ‘made’ the place for me was that it was so open, there were no walls, fences, indeed, if you missed seeing the Sign that read Aycliffe school, a visitor would think it was just part of the then newly built Newton Aycliffe.
Mr. Laycock, the Headmaster ran an Art club and while I am far from being a Picasso the one thing that I learned there was free expression.
Yes, there was discipline, very little use of the cane, one simply ‘lost’ one’s pocket money for misdemeanours.
For me, most of what good has come of my life was initially inculcated at Aycliffe.