Published in Windlesora 20 (2003)
© WLHG
School for me was an enjoyable part of my early years attending the above school from the age of seven until I was fourteen at the outbreak of war (1932-1939). The school consisted of junior and senior departments. In the juniors the headmistress was Miss Slater. The classrooms were large and held forty pupils. Large windows allowed plenty of light for the black board, which was on an easel. Girls sat at the front of the class and boys at the back. Two pupils shared a double wooden desk with inkwells on top and a lid with a compartment for books underneath. The design of the building was one long single-storey building accommodating both junior and senior sections.
The playground was divided for juniors and seniors. At the rear of the school was a very large grassed playing field for gym. At the furthest side was a building shared by girls for cookery classes and woodwork for boys.
I recall when pupils reached eleven they filed along a corridor and through a door into the senior school. That moment for me was ‘magical’.
The headmaster was Mr Pasco, who lived in Clarence Road. The teachers were Mr Monk for physical education and maths, Miss Smith for French and needlework, Miss Davis for art, English and foreign countries, mainly India, and Miss Bruce who taught geography. She always wore vivid, colourful patterned dresses. Miss Smith and Miss Davis both lived at the YWCA in Clarence Road. One teacher’s name escapes me, but she was very strict on spelling and chose several of the class for a Spelling Bee competition in the school hall. Needless to say we won.
Before going into school in the morning many pupils visited a nearby sweetshop (Smith’s I think), choosing confectionery that did not attract the teacher’s attention.
I return to my first sentence, an enjoyable part of my early years.
Ellen Dollery
Windsor Local History Group 