For me, not the greatest educational establishment.

            But that's for a rather unusual reason, more of which later.
Grove School which sits on Keelings Road (formerly Keelings Lane) on the edge of Northwood in Stoke-on-Trent. The school is bordered by Turner Street(to the right), Myatt Street (to the left) and Avoca Street (to the rear). The boundary of Northwood and Birches Head was always explained to me as being along the line of Turner Street and thus I believed Grove School to be in Birches Head, although it is always referred to as being in Northwood.
The school was originally built in 1891 as a County mixed infants and girls school. In 1902 the senior section incorporated boys. Following a minor series of changes to the senior section of the school in 1906, the oldest girls were moved to Northwood Seniors and the oldest boys moved to Broom Street School. In 1932, amongst a major reorganisation of the city's schools, it became a County Secondary School alongside the County Infants.
It operates as a primary school now under the name Grove Academy.
In pictures from 1963 there were temporary classrooms all along the near railings and along Turner Street to the right, although a picture which is said to date from the 1950's does not show them.
There are conflicting accounts about the use of either the tower or the cupola behind as a chimney for the school boiler. The tower looks more likely to me as the boiler would  tend to be located on the outside of the building to allow delivery of coal or coke. The cupola sits directly in the centre of one of the older buildings, there have been some modern extensions here and there.
My time at the infants section of the school was not a productive part of my education and one from which it took me some time to recover. It wasn't until I was seven years old that I was found to have rather bad eyesight during an accident at the backyard of our home where I was hit in the eye with a snowball by my brother. At a similar time I was found to have hearing problems too. The school never picked up on either of these issues and treated me as having learning difficulties which they treated by moving me further back in the classroom and thus only exacerbated the problem.
It was only during the last year of my junior education that I achieved the top tier of the two streams at the school. Even at that point my class teacher seemed rather annoyed that I could not do joined ip writing.
I'm sorry if that sounds like I blame anyone or didn't have fond memories of the school, that's far from the case, I remember the school fondly and presume that I probably just wasn't present when any eye tests or the like were carried out.
   

Taken in: UK / England / Hanley (show map)

Taken on: December 28, 2023

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Sets appears in: • My past. • Northwood and Birches Head. more » • Staffordshire • Victorian architecture. • Educational establishments and libraries. • Urban shots • Stoke-on-Trent • Hanley. « less

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Camera: Nikon D500, f/8.0, 1/60 sec, 16mm (=24mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D500
Lens:	12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	16mm (35mm equivalent: 24mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	+4/3 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Fine Weather
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 21.0 (Windows)
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