Nine Till Three and Summers Free : Life At A Teachers' Training College: A Memoir Paperback / softback

Prequel to the well-received A Life At The Chalkface. Mike Kent's new book Nine Till Three and Summers Free describes the extraordinary three years Mike spent as a residentstudent at a London training college in the sixties.

Facilities were basic,many eccentric students seemed less than suited to the rigours of teaching,lecturers struggled to keep abreast of the enormous changes happening inprimary education, and only a handful of GCEs were needed to gain a place. With humour and insight, the authordescribes the extraordinary events, situations and characters he encounters -the physics lecturer intent on taking his students to pieces, the field courserun by an eccentric major, and the hilarious attempt at starting a college filmsociety, the chaotic Freshers' Hop and the viva examiner who had a passion forGuernsey.

Amongst other students we also meet Dudley Hornpipe, a most unlikelycandidate for teaching, David Barton, always willing to shave his hair off fora bet, and Simon Daines, who could probably have been a nuclear physicist, butchose teaching instead.

Additionally, the book details Mike'sfirst teaching practice at a school in a socially deprived area of London, hisaffection and nostalgia for the children clear as he describes the school thatset him on the path to a highly successful career in primary education.