Phil Warren was born in Newcastle during the 2nd World War, the elder of two brothers.  He was a pupil at the Royal Grammar School, where his skills as a photographer first became noticed.  The famous school camps, such as the one to the Isle of Eigg, gave Phil a love of the ‘great outdoors’ which has never left him.  From the RGS Phil went on to Newcastle University where he obtained a degree in Chemistry and a postgraduate qualification to allow him to teach.

In September 1965 he began his probationary year as a teacher at Blaydon Grammar School.  Joe Lockett was still the head, with Charles Mitchell as his deputy.  Together they gave Phil the sound grounding in the practicalities of school mastering that was to stand him in such good stead.  Promotion to head of Chemistry followed the retirement of George Brown.  By now Henry Nattress was Head and the school was in the process of changing from a Grammar to a Comprehensive, with the inclusion of Secondary Modern pupils from Blaydon and Winlaton.  New buildings and excellent sports facilities had been provided for the greatly enlarged school and in 1974 Phil Warren became the first Head of the Faculty of Science.  This promotion coincided with the transfer of the school from County Durham to the infant Gateshead MBC.  These were heady days, catering for the whole ability range and dealing with the changes brought about by the raising of the school leaving age to 16.

Despite the heavy workload Phil played an active life in the wider school community.  He ran a thriving film society which made as well as watched movies, chronicled the events of the life of the school with his camera and came along on numerous geographical and geological expeditions, both home and abroad.  Behind the scenes Phil was a valued assistant to Charles Mitchell in his administrative duties.

When Charles retired, Phil replaced him as Deputy Head.  Tim Cowey was Head and the school was bulging at the seams.  Nearly 1300 students and a split site made timetabling very complex.  The re-location on to one site resulted in the erection of large numbers of temporary classrooms, pending the LEA's eagerly awaited new building programme!  Phil navigated these unknown organisational waters with aplomb.  He had a natural bent for unobtrusive management and here he excelled.

The mid-80s brought a bombshell.  Gateshead decided to replace 6th Forms with tertiary colleges.  Blaydon with its central location and good facilities, was chosen as the Tertiary College in the West of the borough.  Within two or so years all Blaydon pupils were to be transferred to neighbouring schools.  A powerful parent body was set up to oppose the changes.  In the midst of this confusion Tim Cowey retired and Phil Warren took over as Head Teacher.

These were difficult years.  Although the battle to overturn the LEA’s decision was eventually won, it took its toll.  Open enrolment and deregulated bus services, coupled with local anxieties that the school no longer had a secure future, led to a decline in pupil numbers.  This in turn led to reduced funding and the need to shed teaching staff.  One bright spot was the revival of the Old Blaydonian Association in 1987 to coincide with the 75th Anniversary of the school’s foundation.  The OBA was to become a valued ally in the school’s fight for survival.

Nobody could have had a more challenging custodianship than Phil Warren had at Blaydon.  Yet in spite of  all the problems, his calm management of personnel and finances kept the school ‘on track’.  He was greatly helped by a splendid staffroom spirit and by a Board of Governors freed from the constraints of acting under party orders.  That the school came through its OFSTED inspection with flying colours is a great tribute to Phil’s leadership.  Right up to retirement in 1998, he never took his eye off the ball.  It was largely due to his astute financial management that staff redundancies were avoided and the education of the pupils was not damaged.  Possibilities of an exciting future opened up in the mid 90s, such as industrial partnerships and lottery grant applications to enhance the sports facilities but the removal of the 6th Form by the LEA signalled the need for radical action.  A parent ballot gave massive support for ‘opting out’ of LEA control.  Backed by his Governors, Phil oversaw the whole process and took the fight into the public arena.

By 1997 Phil Warren decided that the time had come to step down and in July 1997 he took early retirement from Blaydon, where he had worked for 32 years.  Even in the darkest days he never lost his belief in the school, the staff and the pupils.  Without him the school would have closed down long before its eventual, sad demise.  He was truly a Blaydonian to the core.

Today, Phil is enjoying a well-deserved retirement in the fastness of Tynedale and further honing his photographic skills, whilst commuting between retreats in Northumberland and the Lake District.  He remains an active Old Blaydonian.

 

D Telford-Reed writes of his immediate predecessor

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