BLUE COAT’S WINDOW ON THE PAST, by the people who were there

Interviewers: Christine Holt and Peter Elson

Michael ‘Sandy’ Tittershill, born 1941: Sandy started teaching in 1965 and came to Blue Coat as a Physical Education (PE) teacher a year later, when Blue Coat was much smaller and different to now. He was a resident of the boarding house which was very spartan and difficult. School numbered 450 students (with 100 boarders) and was a Voluntary Aided Bi-lateral School: grammar, secondary modern and C streams, with no Sixth Form and boys leaving at 15. It was not an academic school. Arrival of Peter Arnold-Craft at Head in 1967 revolutionised school’s academic and sporting achievements. As Head himself, Sandy oversaw arrival of girls in Sixth Form in 1989 and from Yr 7 in 2002. He retired after 40 years at the School, proud of its “Outstanding” Ofsted rating.