Posted by mr. lata on June 13, 2010 at 11:38:50:
i recall a conversation in the common room where after much deliberation as to jaffa's exact role- (apart from stamping around in steelcapped boots so that he never had to confront a miscreant) was as a SCAPEGOAT.. in other words someone to blame for everything, and I am sorry to say that that is exactly what we did to the poor man..
by the late 70s, the once well-conducted Parents' Evenings had deteriorated to such an extent that a good number of the staff would retire to the Horse and Farrier until just before the first parents were due.
On one such occasion a phonecall to the pub (no mobiles in those days) from our snout (P.O W. parlance for'lookout') warned us that MOONEY was on his way to winkle us out. With exquisite timing so that there was no chance of meeting en route, just as Mooney entered the front door, we rushed out of the back door. By the time the Ayatollah (as in Ayatollah KhoMOONEY) was back at school we were all quietly seated in our allocated places sucking on mints
anyway.. to Geoff Matthews whose role in this instance was to ring a really irritating school bell every 5 minutes so that the parents moved on to the next teacher... over to the Technology Department who prepared a substitute bell with the gong muffled with felt then painted to look like the real thing.
Halfway through the evening the bells were duly swapped.
I am still almost crying with laughter at the look on Jaffa's face as he inspected the dud bell from which not a sound came as he shook it vigourously.. and the sight of the shaking shoulders of those colleagues in the know.....