David Viner

Special Measures? More like special memories!

As I sit here now staring pensively at a blank page, or rather more appropriately at an empty Word document, and begin to wonder how I could possibly fill it with my memories of Millbrook Academy (formerly Brockworth School) - the task seems impossible! Where do I start? In many ways it makes sense to start with the here and now.

It seems hard to believe that I left the academy only four years ago, so much seems to have happened since then. I graduated with a 2:2 in History from Swansea in 2001, and worked for a time as a Support Worker in Cardiff for people with physical and mental disabilities. Recently, I moved to Birmingham and I am currently studying towards an MSc in Information and Library Management at the University of Central England, working part-time as a Senior Library Assistant for Solihull College. I got engaged to my girlfriend Sana at Christmas whilst in Dubai, and we are due to be married this year. Oh, and I forgot to mention I've been on the winning side in a cup final at Lords, but I'll get on to that in a minute!

For those of you who are too young to remember me, or who have simply just forgotten! I left Millbrook in the summer of 1998 eagerly armed with a fist full of change for the toll at the University of Wales, Swansea. Being well versed in the rhetoric of Dylan Thomas and of the blood spilled on either side of Offa's Dyke, I was looking forward to the challenge of student life in the 'Land of Song'.

Anyway, let me take you back to September 1990 and my first memories? I clearly remember being in awe of 'big school' and the huge sixth formers. Even at the age of eleven I think it would be fair to say that the sixth form and a place at University were quite a long way off for me. I was placed in Mr Cook's tutor group which at that time was still under the old house system, which meant I was in Coopers. I had some really good friends such as Russell Hopson, Tara Vance and Deborah Smith who I have sadly lost touch with over the years, and for those still there who recall this period will remember me then as somewhat mischievous, but in a pleasant kind of way! Or maybe that's just me being optimistic. In 1995 I took my GCSEs achieving three Cs and stayed on into the sixth form to do a GNVQ in Business under the watchful eye of Mr Langworthy. This was my most productive time socially and academically at Millbrook and I really began to establish myself as something of a fixture around the Academy and particularly in the foyer of the sixth form block.

I began to join in with more creative activities and took to writing my own prose and poetry, some of it tinged with a footballing theme, inevitably inspired by Mr Butler! My best experience associated with this was an evening of creative writing I helped co-ordinate and arrange, standing up in front of a packed Drama Hall, made me realise how far I had come from those tentative and timid first few weeks of year 7. I really fancied myself then as a southern equivalent to Alan Bennett, yet since leaving the academy I've hardly had the time to push my creative side any further. Again, I had some really good friends in the Sixth Form, to single people out in particular is difficult but Hannah Pedley and Stephen Pye (during my GNVQ) are two people I became synonymous with for various reasons I won't go into! I firmly believe that there can't have been a group like the 'Class of 98' since but then I would say that I suppose! There was a real sense of harmony and community during the upper sixth which I think in many ways is the real epitome of sixth form life.

The last few paragraphs make life sound quite sweet for me, but early academy was difficult at times, I am registered partially sighted, and I encountered problems with initially settling in and making friends, support from members of staff in the VI unit was invaluable to me. Also, during early 1996 I had a freak accident on the way home from the academy and missed the remainder of that year, and again I have the staff to thank for getting me through this traumatic time in which I spent the next nine months basically unable to walk and concentrate fully.

When the A-Level results were published I guess I was slightly nervous of leaving Millbrook, scared of the big fish in a little pond set up that I had become so accustomed to. But I needn't have because there is one thing that I did learn to do at Millbrook Academy, and that was socialise and therefore I was able to fit in comfortably and relate to many different groups of people at university.

Finally, the Lord's Cricket Final. While at Swansea I became associated with a visually impaired cricket club, who play essentially the same game as standard cricket but with a few adaptations, which for want of time and space I won't bother to go into! Anyway, I started playing for the South West Dragons in 1999 and last season we won the league and cup double, performing every cricketer's dream by playing at Lord's. Having a commentator describe me fielding deep on the mid wicket boundary in front of a cheering crowd (well alright my mum) is a real thrill.

So, to conclude, like a good old fashioned essay, what did Brockworth do for me? Simple, it helped shape the person I am today, my interests, my academic success and to some extent my personal successes too are largely due to the support and interaction I had with my teachers and peers. Sadly, like many other schools and academies, Millbrook has suffered its fair share of attention from government agencies, but that aside it is nice to think that wherever life takes me next, a small part of Mill Lane goes with me.

David Viner

Written in 2003