On this page I invite you to meet the team of people that help make this site what it is today and help keep the Western Park Open Air School's memory alive.
                     
Hi I'm Glynn Finney and I am the original creator of this website and the forum. I was a pupil of the school from 1979 to 1992 and enjoyed my time there so very much. My family were a intergral part of the school for sometime after I left, helping out with the ocassional school rummage sale or car boot to help raise funds to buy school equipment of some sort. I can truely say that this school has and always will be a in my heart forever.
    
             

On the 9th July 2005 my family and I were invited to attend a final reunion and open day of the place which became my home for so many years. It's very sad to say goodbye to old friends and people that have seen you grow up to be the people you are today but sadly this is life and Western Park is no exception. I was reunited with a great many of my old school friends and teaching staff who were at the school when I was. It gave us a chance to see how much we had all changed over the years.

I had left school in 1992 and started Charles Keene College to qualify some years later in IT. Some had just qualified in their chosen subjects and were looking for a job and some had families, but as usual one thing did not change OUR SCHOOL Western Park Open Air School. The buildings were the same and the people were the same other than being a little older and perhaps wiser.
     
 

While we chatted away about the past and taking a browse through some old photos a large number of people mentioned that a school with so much history and some many happy and sad memories surely could not just disappear into thin air, never to be heard of again. This is where the idea for a website came about and I was asked if I could make that idea a reality. So here it is - a website and forum where the history and memories of pupils, staff and visitors can be documented for future reference and where ex-pupils and staff can still keep in touch.

No one is forgotten here as was the case at school. We were all friends no matter what the disability. Caring and sharing in the best way we knew how, the only way we knew how, helping each other through good times and bad and never ever forgetting our friends. Our school was truely a "Very Special School"
     
Hi all, Simon Parry here

I was a pupil at Western Park from 1983 to 1994. Since then, I first went on to Gateway Sixth Form College to do more GCSE's and then some A Levels (I came away with 1, Computing!). I then moved onto a training scheme run by Leicestershire County Council, where I did NVQ's in Business Administration and IT (Levels 2 and 3 folks!). Whilst on this training course I was sent on a work placement to Leicestershire County Council's HQ at County Hall where I spent 9 months working in their Training and Development Unit as a Clerical Assistant.
   
                               
I moved on in October 1998 to Leicestershire Society for the Blind (now Vista), continuing my training whilst working in their Fundraising Office as an Assistant, I secured a full time post with them in January 1999. In April 2000 I moved back to Leicestershire County Council, but this time as a permanent member of staff, as a Clerical Assistant in the Training and Development Unit (Does this sound familiar!). Since then, due to a variety of restructures (and I think we are about to have another one!), I'm now a Support Assistant in the Corporate HR Support Team.

Outside of work, my long standing interest is radio. Through a friend at the Society for the Blind, I got involved with an RSL (Restricted Service Licence) station in Market Harborough, HFM, on their broadcast in 2001, where I answered phones and made tea etc. On the broadcasts in 2002, 2003 and 2004 I was a presenter.

Since then, HFM has now been awarded a full time Community Radio licence and will go on air with a full time service to Market Harborough and South Leicestershire later this year (2006)..
 
Simon joined me in September 2005 and works closely with me in researching the history of our former school. I made him my “Assistant” enabling us to continue to keep Western Park Open Air School living in everyone's heart forever.
   
     
               
 

Hi I'm Keith Martin

I live in Weybourne on the beautiful North Norfolk coast with my parents Bertie and Pearl, who look after me. I suffer from Muscular Atrophy, a rarer form of Muscular Dystrophy with a curved spine and we're confined to a wheelchair. My disease is progressive and movement has degenerated greatly over the past few years, but I'm not going to let it get me down! My father is a retired Farm worker and my mother is a retired Domestic who worked at Gresham's School.
   
I first met Glynn through emails sent to me as Secretary of North Norfolk Amateur Radio Group in 2000, he was interested in GB2MC being a Short Wave Listener. We have become real good friends and we chat most days via MSN audio, or Skype. We are both mad on Computers...
             
G0GFQ  
 

Although Keith never attended Western Park Open Air School, he is an extremely good friend to me and my family and helps me in keeping this websites "School Yard" Forums, Arcade and Chat Room operational when i'm unable to due so because of my medical problem. I trust Keith 100% and know that whatever he does as a fellow administrator is for the good of everyone concerned.
 

I met Glynn through my work at the Braunstone Post Office, his interest in computers and hobby as a radio amateur encouraged me to venture into the unknown world of computers, he helped me choose my first computer, and install new programmes for the latest internet tools, this has proved invaluable and allows my wife Pauline and myself to keep in touch with our daughters Tracey and Helen who live in South America and Australia, the live chat and video streaming is brilliant.

Glynn is very good at solving computer problems of which I have given him quite a few, luckily he does not give up easily.
 
 
I was delighted when Glynn asked me if I would like to add the narration to some of the articles that he had prepared for this website and pleased to help Glynn in some small way. I trust that my narration does justice to the dedicated work that he puts into the Western Park Open Air School website. I wish him all the best for the future.

Mick Barton
   
 
   

Hi there I am Arthur also known as King Arthur.

It is my pleasure being able to write a small passage for the Western Park School site. Well to start with I have been a Radio Amateur for 49 years and my call sign is G3LTT known as Little Tommy Tucker, having been called this the very first time I went on air way back in June 1957.

   
                     

I have known Glynn s Mum and Dad many years before I met Glynn who sent me a post card after he heard me talking to another radio ham, so I asked him to call round so we could talk and how nice it was to see his mum and dad again.

From then Glynn and I every week talk about radio and pass on information about our hobby, as there are many of things that I know are a great help to him.

In return for the help I have given him he as more than helped me master the computer for which I am more than grateful, many thanks mate I owe you one.

My wife Jean has always encouraged me in my hobby and been a great help making cups of tea or coffee for visiting radio hams. As a final note I as a young boy of 17 years joined the British Army in Jan.1945 and then the Royal Army Service Corps until I was demobbed in April 1948.

73s and 88s

ARTHUR THE KING
 
 
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