On Wednesday May 15th President Diane Bush. She welcomed members and pointed out the appearance of the Cockpole Green banner. Our speaker was the Head Mistress Phillipa Chan, whose talk was entitled The History of the Village School. She was accompanied by 4 pupils, Jocelyn, Sophie, Emma and Leah from year 5, who enjoyed researching the history of their Church of England school.
Sophie, Leah, Jocelyn and Emma.
Jocelyn told us that there had been a school on the same site in Crazies Hill since 1861. Thanks to the efforts of the local people it was opened on 16th July at a cost of £752 and 2 pence.
One hundred years later it was replaced at a cost of £16,000. In 1989, with help of the PTA, another classroom was built. Due to rising popularity a third classroom, funded by Berkshire LEA was added during 1997 at a cost of £80.000; a 4th followed in September 2001. The girls learned from an old map that teachers once lived at the school and even had their own garden.
Sophie spoke about the punishment book from 1932. All schools had to keep a log.It showed that corporal punishment was relatively common; punishment was one or two strokes on the hand – either light or hard. Untruthfulness, disobedience and fighting were just some of the reasons noted. corporal punishment was banned in 1986. Nowadays, the children have lots of rewards to encourage good behaviour. If rules are broken, they miss playtime and if more serious, Mrs. Chan contacts the parents to discuss their behaviour.
Emma found some Log Books dating back to 1873 through to 1980. They contained details of visitors and special events held at the school.
The Church inspection of 1934 talked about their impression of the school as follows: “It was a pleasure to visit this school. As usual it maintains its delightful family atmosphere. Devotional tone was excellent and very pleasant singing. Infant’s class very good indeed and the middle group showed how earnestly the teacher had undertaken what must have been an additional labour. The senior boys and girls were, as I expected, thoroughly well grounded bright and responsive”.
Mentioned as well were the usual school subjects such as reading, history and recitation. Another quote “Hand writing is neat and much of the English composition is sensible and accurate. The seniors have quite an exceptional knowledge of wild flowers and birds, their physical exercises and country dancing are very good indeed. A word of praise should also go to the sensible way in which the needlework lessons were handled especially in the mending of clothes”. This made members smile! A vote of thanks, given by Maureen Fennemore, praised the children for their excellent talk.
During a delicious tea served by Sue Griffiths and Hilary Kinnersley, the girls mingled with the members showing them photos of how differently the children dressed for school in 1912, 1920s and 1945. The Log book and Register were also passed around showing that entries were neatly made with an ink pen. Today the computer has taken over!
Since this year is the centenary for the Berkshire WI, there was an invitation for 2 members of each Institute to attend the Centenary Afternoon Tea at Easthampstead Park on Wednesday 14th August. To everyone’s surprise a ballot box appeared (not been seen for years) inviting members to participate in a vote The lucky winners were Carole Ellis and Ruth-Mary Vaughan
Our next event is our annual Garden Meeting, which will take place at Diane Bush’s delightful home, Gibstroude Farm (RG10 8LT) , Crazies Hill on Wednesday 19th June at 2.30pm.
Selina Avant
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