Chemistry teacher setting his beard on fire – we have been doing organic chemistry and studying the ‘cracking’ processes at refineries etc. He explained how oil was cracked into fractions with the more dense substances being produced first.

He set about showing us a fractional distillation of a crude oil sample that he had – each fraction was put onto a small ceramic tile and he tested the volatility of each one using a lit splint.

The first he tried was bitumen – not very volatile so little flame when he lit it. This continued for a couple more samples until he came to Naptha ( i think) – for some reason he bent over the tile to light it – there was a flash, a bang then a crash as he reacted to the flash and triped over his chair. There also followed the nasty smell of burning hair as his beard / hair was smouldering.

Different chemistry teacher – putting sodium into water – normally
a teacher would cut a thin slice from the sodium disc (about the size of a extra strong mint) and put the rest away.
Not this teacher – she held the jar of sodium over the water tank as she tried to get one disc out – unfortunately about half the contents came out and into the water – there was a almighty bang , the water tank shattered and the teacher, her desk and most of the front row were rather damp.

In a physics class we had a fellow pupil carry a battery from the class back to the store – unfortunately he had it upside down so we had the pleasure of watching his school blazer disintergrate during the rest of the day.

Same physics class – different pupil & a model of a car ignition system. Pupil did not believe how powerful the spark was – teacher said “ok, put your finger on the end of the plug then” and the pupil did – silly boy. The force managed to throw him about 7 or 8 ft across the room.

I also remember the time in assembly a pupil (well known as a trouble maker) poured lighter fluid over the arm of his blazer and set light to it.

We also had the deputy head rip out an ear stud from a pupil who kept breaking the rules re ear studs (ie must be covered up when in school)