John Lennon’s Report Card And Detention Sheet At Age 15 Are Exactly What You'd Expect
- Daniel Holland
- Jun 12, 2023
- 2 min read
In September 1956, a young John Lennon took home a dismal report card–the kind that many smart, wayward kids can probably relate to.
French teacher: “An intelligent boy who could be very much better with a little concentration in class.”
Maths teacher: “He is certainly on the road to failure if this goes on.”
Physics teacher: “His work always lacks effort. He is content to ‘drift’ instead of using his abilities.”
Religion teacher: “Attitude in class most unsatisfactory.”
Headmaster: “He has too many wrong ambitions and his energy is too often misplaced.”
Not surprising was the good feedback from his art tutor.
Around the same time, the reasons given for putting Lennon in detention are equally as unsound. The detention sheets detail various misdemeanours, including “sabotage”, “fighting in class”, “nuisance”, “shoving” and having “just no interest whatsoever”.
On two occasions, the future Beatle was handed three detentions in one day. The sheets come from a class detention book that was rescued from a bonfire at the school in the late-1970s.
During a summer break at another school, teachers were asked to make space in a store room for the arrival of another teacher. The instruction was to burn everything in the room, although the teacher saw the name Lennon, written on the top left corner of each page, and decided to hold on to a few as a keepsake, although some of these were later damaged.
They have since been authenticated by Lennon’s childhood friend and original member of Lennon’s first band The Quarrymen Pete Shotton, who wrote ‘John Lennon: In My Life’, first published in 1983, and remained close to The Beatles throughout their time together. The sheets cover the periods when he was in Class 3B between May 19 and June 23 1955, and in Class 4C from November 25, 1955 to February 13, 1956.
As far as I can make out, the misdemeanours are as follows (I'd love to know what he did that could be considered sabotage!)
Peter Beech, Lennon’s general science teacher at the time, said: “The sheet is typical of John Lennon, he was an extremely cheeky boy. He did, however, know his limits. In the classroom, if you settled John down, you generally settled the class down.
“His chemistry teacher Eric Oldman said that John could actually go far.”
