Derek T's lessons? Among lots of other things were (can you think of others?):
- clause analysis: how to link sentences, including relative pronouns with prepositions
- spellings of difficult words
- finding alternatives to "nice"
- the difference between:
- "such as" and "like"
- "less than" & "fewer than"
- "due to" & "owing to"
- "its" & "it's"
- "there", "their" & "they're"
- "the boy's books" & "the boys' books"
- colons and semi-colons
The points above are to be honest absolute basic English, but the times I see them wrongly used EVEN IN NEWSPAPERS is astonishing - especially "it's/its", "fewer than"/"less than" and "like/such as". They must surely be taught today, no? But Doc was clear and thorough and made us love getting it right - and after WHS we almost always DID.
In the late afternoon classes he would often read us a story: "Prester John", "The 39 Steps", "the Ruhn" ...... happy days.

Chris Hopkirk: “Now I know why I hate the word “Nice” to describe things.”

Chris Snuggs: “Bruce Forsyth obviously never went to WHS! I suppose "nice" has its place, but Doc clearly felt it was overused by those who were lexically challenged!”

Bill Kitchen: “I didn’t have Doc for English. However, our RI and PE lessons with him were truly memorable.”

Chris Snuggs: “What on EARTH did he teach you in R.I.? I had GHB (whom I liked very much) and some others, but I cannot remember ANYTHING from those lessons.”

Richard Cyster: “I remember Doc Thornbury's English lessons, one in particular. Teaching us English grammar, he climbed on top of a vacant desk and roared out at the top of his voice, "THEN IS NOT A CONJUNCTION!" I've never used it as a conjunction since!”

Keith Farley-Pettman: “Richard Cyster he certainly knew how to make his point memorable. I was in the Metalworkshop one day towards the end of the spring term when the grounds staff were dismantling the rugby posts. Derek had his first year class lined up along the dead ball line, with hands behind their backs, while he addressed them.”

Jon Kemp: “I remember one lesson he was 'demonstrating' Anger. He started shouting at me to leave the room. Because I thought he didn't mean it, I remained at my desk. But he kept on to the point where I did get up to leave. At that point he told me he didn't mean it and to sit down again. Which I did. And then he started shouting at me!”

Nigel Parkinson-Wadsworth: “An amazing teacher both inside and outside the classroom.”