John Port was not the only co-ed grammar

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THE former senior geography teacher at Spondon Park School has taken issue with John Port Grammar School’s claims to be the only co-ed grammar in the area in the 1950s.

Thomas Longford, who joined Spondon Park on the day it opened in September 1954 and remained on the staff until his retirement in 1979, told Bygones:

“We opened two years before John Port with 137 pupils of both sexes, drawn from the eastern side of the borough of Derby, including Chaddesden, Spondon, Ockbrook, Breaston, Alvaston and Chellaston,” said Mr Longford, of Uttoxeter Road, Mickleover.

“We were a grammar school until 1968-69 when, like John Port, we became comprehensive, joining Spondon House School.

“We were on two sites as the site of the grammar school was in West Road and the former secondary modern school was on Park Road.

“For the first two years, we shared our woodwork and metalwork teachers with John Port. They would come to us for three days and to John Port for two days.

“When we could both eventually afford full-time teachers, they both came to us.

“I’m surprised that no pupils have pointed out that Spondon School was a co-ed grammar long before John Port. ”

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