A bit embarassing, but this is a press release issued by the school
today:


BABLAKE SCHOOL PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release


BABLAKE SCHOOL'S WEATHER STATION CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF READINGS

As we near the 30th anniversary of the Bablake Weather Station on
Wednesday 19th September, no-one can deny its very humble beginnings.
A Fairy Liquid bottle as a rain gauge and a few other basic tools were
all the station had to its name 30 years ago. Back in 1977, wind speed
and direction were based on human observation, the first records were
scribbled in a small exercise book by the eager students and the
station ran on a mix of enthusiasm and generosity; even the school's
Vice-Principal chipped in to buy a £5 barometer.

By 1979, the local paper, The Coventry Evening Telegraph, was using
our weather data and by January 1984, after advisory visits from
weatherman Ian McCaskill, the Met Office officially registered the
station. Until 1998, the statistics had to be recorded in person 365
days a year, in all weathers. The dedication of the many student teams
and the enthusiasm of the station's founder, geography teacher Steve
Jackson, have been immense.

With a website, chatroom for enquiries, 24/7 webcam and state of the
art equipment to capture the information, our Weather Station already
provides forecasts and Met Office approved data for the local region
and handles individual enquiries by phone and email.

The BWS is already the most established and longest-running Met Office
registered school weather service, but its future is even more
exciting. Next year the Met Office will be upgrading the equipment and
taking on maintenance of the station, while allowing the school and
its students to continue recording the data and handling enquiries

30 years on, the weather station is still under the expert guidance of
its founder, and we have no doubt Steve will be the proudest man in
Bablake on the official birthday.

Further Notes:
· Website address for Bablake Weather Station is: www.bablakeweather.co.uk
· Mr Steve Jackson, Head of Geography, has been at Bablake since 1975.
· Key dates: BWS set up- 19th Sept 1977; Coventry Telegraph using
data-1979; Met Office recognition- Jan 1984; website 1995; webcam
March 2007.

Media Notes:
· Telephone contacts: Mark Woodward (Press Officer) 07968-263610,
024-7627-1220; Bablake Weather Station/ Steve Jackson 024-7622-3141 or
07971-616103

· Email contacts: or
;

· Address: Bablake School, Coundon Road, Coventry CV1 4AU

Written by Faith Hannon (current L6th/ Year 12 student) and Mark
Woodward (Head of Careers/ Webmaster/ Press Officer/ i/c School
Magazines)

17th September 2007

Steve J wrote:
A bit embarassing, but this is a press release issued by the school
today:


BABLAKE SCHOOL PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release


BABLAKE SCHOOL'S WEATHER STATION CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF READINGS

snip

Well done that man!

The dedication of the many student teams
and the enthusiasm of the station's founder, geography teacher Steve
Jackson, have been immense.


If I'd realised I'd met somebody so famous I would have got your
autograph!

All the best

Graham
Penzance

16.0C max here today - Lowest max since June.

Well Done Steve, quite an achievement.

Phil

On 18 Sep, 19:12, Steve J wrote:
A bit embarassing, but this is a press release issued by the school
today:

BABLAKE SCHOOL PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release

BABLAKE SCHOOL'S WEATHER STATION CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF READINGS

As we near the 30th anniversary of the Bablake Weather Station on
Wednesday 19th September, no-one can deny its very humble beginnings.
A Fairy Liquid bottle as a rain gauge and a few other basic tools were
all the station had to its name 30 years ago. Back in 1977, wind speed
and direction were based on human observation, the first records were
scribbled in a small exercise book by the eager students and the
station ran on a mix of enthusiasm and generosity; even the school's
Vice-Principal chipped in to buy a £5 barometer.

By 1979, the local paper, The Coventry Evening Telegraph, was using
our weather data and by January 1984, after advisory visits from
weatherman Ian McCaskill, the Met Office officially registered the
station. Until 1998, the statistics had to be recorded in person 365
days a year, in all weathers. The dedication of the many student teams
and the enthusiasm of the station's founder, geography teacher Steve
Jackson, have been immense.

With a website, chatroom for enquiries, 24/7 webcam and state of the
art equipment to capture the information, our Weather Station already
provides forecasts and Met Office approved data for the local region
and handles individual enquiries by phone and email.

The BWS is already the most established and longest-running Met Office
registered school weather service, but its future is even more
exciting. Next year the Met Office will be upgrading the equipment and
taking on maintenance of the station, while allowing the school and
its students to continue recording the data and handling enquiries

30 years on, the weather station is still under the expert guidance of
its founder, and we have no doubt Steve will be the proudest man in
Bablake on the official birthday.

Further Notes:
· Website address for Bablake Weather Station is:www.bablakeweather.co.uk
· Mr Steve Jackson, Head of Geography, has been at Bablake since 1975.
· Key dates: BWS set up- 19th Sept 1977; Coventry Telegraph using
data-1979; Met Office recognition- Jan 1984; website 1995; webcam
March 2007.

Media Notes:
· Telephone contacts: Mark Woodward (Press Officer) 07968-263610,
024-7627-1220; Bablake Weather Station/ Steve Jackson 024-7622-3141 or
07971-616103

· Email contacts: or
;

· Address: Bablake School, Coundon Road, Coventry CV1 4AU

Written by Faith Hannon (current L6th/ Year 12 student) and Mark
Woodward (Head of Careers/ Webmaster/ Press Officer/ i/c School
Magazines)

17th September 2007

Congratulations, and all the best for the future. I rather wish I had
been fortunate enough to attend a school such as Bablake.

Ian,

Raunds, East Northants.

Congratulations - here's to another 30 years.....

I must admit, I was a little frightened when I saw you were a
Geography teacher - my most feared teacher at school back in the 70s
was a Geography teacher who used to jump on your desk (without the use
of his hands for leverage!) when you weren't paying attention.
Needless to say, I paid attention more often than not!

Paul

I had a geography teacher, "Pokey" Whitehead, who had the most amazing
talent. Incidentally, kids today don't seem to use nicknames. My 14
year old get furious with her old Dad when I refer to her form tutor,
a Mr.Almond, as "Nutty Almond".

Anyway, Pokey would be writing away at the blackboard but apparently
in the reflections in his glasses, could see what was going on behind
him. He would spin round and with no more than a millisecond's
hesitation, aim a piece of chalk with an accuracy that would do any
professional darts player credit. We would burst into applause. I
guess that sort of skill wouldn't be allowed in today's litigious
world.

Jack

In uk.sci.weather on Wed, 19 Sep 2007, "Jack )"
wrote :

Anyway, Pokey would be writing away at the blackboard but apparently
in the reflections in his glasses, could see what was going on behind
him. He would spin round and with no more than a millisecond's
hesitation, aim a piece of chalk with an accuracy that would do any
professional darts player credit. We would burst into applause. I
guess that sort of skill wouldn't be allowed in today's litigious
world.

Has even spontaneous applause been outlawed now?
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham (change 'invalid83261' to 'blueyonder' to email me)

On 19 Sep, 15:54, "Jack )"
wrote:
... I guess that sort of skill wouldn't be allowed in today's litigious world.

Jack

Totally OT, but at my school - coincidentally also in the Midlands and
with its own official climatological station - we suffered two
geography masters who could aim a board rubber with that level of
accuracy, and frequent forehead bruising was the result of mere
seconds of inattention in class ...

Worse was one of our chemistry masters, no names although I'm sure he
will have retired by now (perhaps 'retired hurt'), who kept firework-
type bangers in his pocket, lit them quietly in the ubiquitous bunsen
flame at the front of the lecture theatre without missing a word of
his lesson, let them burn almost to the end of the 'blue touch-paper',
then aimed them with equal accuracy at anyone who looked to be nodding
off in class. When one of these went off right in your face (very
funny to the rest of the class of course) you didn't snooze again
(probably because your eyelids took several weeks to grow back on).
The dry-cleaning bills were also pretty serious I think.

How no-one was ever killed in chemistry I do wonder. It was great fun
though (and I managed O and A-level, so I must have learned something
too ... )

Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire

wrote in message
ups.com...

How no-one was ever killed in chemistry I do wonder. It was great fun
though (and I managed O and A-level, so I must have learned something
too ... )

Yeah great fun to see your mates having explosives going off in their face.
No doubt you would have been rolling in the aisles at a serious burn injury.

I'm no fan of today's namby-pamby approach to school discipline but
I don't think we should regret the passing of the days when such a
serious assault was counsidered acceptable.
--
Col

Bolton, Lancashire
160m asl