The story of the next twenty-five years is one of steady growth and development, with an empirical fluidity that allowed procedures to be adapted to circumstances. The pattern of the years changed, like a kaleidoscope, with no harsh line of demarkation as one pattern merged into the next.
Apart from the regular school concert, all the other annual ceremonies which had marked the Collegiate year were revived. The House Singing Competition, House Parties, and Speech Day, (which had never been allowed to lapse completely) were restored almost at once, and the School Party was held again at Christmas 1949. House Parties lived only until 1948, and the Singing Competition, first reduced from two choirs to one choir for each House, persisted until 1958. The School Party was abandoned in 1957 as more modern forms of entertainment were at first substituted for it and then in their turn abandoned because of changing teenage customs. Speech Day returned to the Palace Theatre, but without the white dresses, and then to the Winter Gardens until economy sent us to the Grammar School Hall in 1969.
The School societies were also revived but the full and regular pro-grammes of the old Literary and Scientific Societies were never again equalled. Demands had changed. The Discussion group, a product of the war, flourished and eventually became a Senior Debating Society with a middle school off-shoot. S.C.M., later to be called C.E.M., drew a constant audience and in 1958, 59 and 60, gave a Passion Play, proceeds of which contributed to the Chapel of Unity in Coventry Cathedral. Junior Hobby Groups were introduced for those left out of the senior activities. Other societies, like the Chess Club, grew and declined according to the presence of interested senior girls in school to run them. In 1958, the Literary and Scientific Societies were amalgamated into the Friday Club, but as school syllabuses grew wider and television provided specialist programmes, support weakened and eventually lapsed. There were so many channels for ever opening to canalise the energies of the willing.
In the early years of this post-war period there were three major ceremonies which the school celebrated.
In 1946 the school came of age. To mark this, a cot was endowed in the School’s name and the £500 for the endowment was raised by pupils, old girls, staff, parents and friends. The Staff Play, "Ladies in Waiting" raised £170 and a School music concert brought in £35. Mrs. Forgan recalls that the last £16 was acquired by a working weekend when each girl earned a shilling and each member of staff 2s. 6d. The school enjoyed this so much that the method was repeated on other occasions. On July 12th, the school walked in crocodile to St. John’s Church, under police escort. At the service of thanksgiving and rededication, Canon C. H. Lambert preached. The next day, a Garden Party was held with consider-able panache. Miss Dunn attended both the service and the garden party and she cut the large birthday cake, made by Joyce Greenwood. A cricket match between fathers and the school concluded the afternoon’s activities.
Four years later the school celebrated its quarter century. On July 21st, the school, headed as before by the staff in academic dress, pro-ceeded to St. John’s where, On this occasion, the Bishop of Blackburn gave the address. The Garden Party, held on July 15th, had been attended by Miss Dunn and her sister and on July 24th there was On Open After-noon at which the usual displays of work were augmented by a play the Junior Drama Group and a production by the Senior Choir of the Papageno story from "The Magic Flute". During these end-of-t~ celebrations a grand piano for the music room, purchased as a result many efforts, was duly presented to the Governors.
The last ceremony was a national one. In 1953, the year of Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the school presented "Merrie England" with Barbara Robotham, now of international fame, as Raleigh. This spectacular production won universal praise. In the Town’s process of historical tableaux, our float represented a scene in the Pump Re at Bath in the eighteenth century. The school was decorated with roundabouts and heraldic lions and portrait sketches of famous women. On June 4th a head-dress competition, which gave scope for much ingenuity, was judged and school drank the Loyal Toast from the newly presented Coronation Mugs and ate little cakes with crowns on them. The Staff and guests from the P.T.A., Old Girls, and Governors had slices ceremonial iced cake, made by Miss Lewis (Mrs. Hoggett) and Shirley Fry.
The major building addition of this period was the provision o dining-room-kitchen in the
grounds. By 1950 the number of girls taking school dinner had become so great that the existing
arrangements could in no way cope with them. The obvious site for the new building the smooth
turf of the Tournament Court, Court Three, which stood I splendid isolation, flanked by a border
of flowers around the surrounding netting. To the chagrin of many this was where the "purpose
built" walls arose, replacing the grace and aesthetic delight of the cherished grass -court by
its utilitarian unwieldiness. Dinner became no longer a nightmare but it could never again be
a social occasion.
The old basement dining room was turned into a Library and kitchen into a craft room. The
magazine recorded,
"Important to the intellectual life of the school is the conversion
of the old dining room into a Library, where, in the quiet bays
between the bookshelves,
the Senior School is discovering something
of the peace and concentration which learning, in its widest sense
must have. Perhaps
some great scholar of the future will have her
first introduction to the pleasures of the
life of the mind in this
studious atmosphere."
Two new hard Tennis Courts were provided to compensate for the loss Court Three and, at long
last, hot water was laid on to two of the cloakrooms.
Although the pattern of these years is fluid, certain fixed ceremoies do emerge. Speech Day, now with the interpolation of spoken observations by girls, remained the climax of the Autumn Term. At Christmas, a school performance of either drama or music or a combination of both was regularly given. Sports Day and the Garden Party came to mark the ending of the session, though Sports Day was moved to May in 1970.
Drama and music were not confined to Christmas and many p1ays and concerts were performed during these years. 1948 saw ‘Alcestis’, 1949 ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, and also three one act plays by the Staff. The proceeds from these went to provide, at last, stage lighting and back curtains. ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast’ started the fund for the coronation piano. The choir was still the hub of the school’s music and in 1948 it first broadcast, in ‘Children Singing, as it was to do later on more than one occasion.
In 1953 girls were included for the first time in the Grammar School play, on this occasion ‘Our Town,’ and a long co-operation began. In December, 1952 staff and girls gave one act plays, ‘Everyman’ was pro-duced in 1955 and ‘The Brontés’ in 1957, a memorable tour de force. The opera ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ was given at Christmas 1958 and 1959, with universal acclaim.
The musical life of the school was enriched in 1956 by the founda-tion of the orchestra. Instrumental classes for girls seeking admission to the orchestra began and Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. Kershaw started their magnificent string tuition. Later, tuition in wind instruments was included. The orchestra appeared for the first time in public at a carol concert in 1957 under the baton of Miss Burns, to whose musicianship much is due.
The school has always been rich in musical talent. Many gifted musicians have been willing to share their love of music by contributing generously to the musical activities of the school. We heard first in school the names of many who were to distinguish themselves nationally and internationally. Phyllis Boar became the accompanist for opera at the Royal Academy. In 1960 Barbara Robotham won the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society’s competition for contralto singing and is now one of the youngest-ever Fellows of the Royal Manchester College of Music. Felicity Leslie is one of the finest recorder players in the country and her oboe playing is winning her distinction. Joan Atherton was recently the Gold Medallist of the Royal College of Music and has a brilliant career before her. Ann Pickup is the accompanist at local festivals and a gifted concert pianist, and there have been many more.
In 1945 the parents met to elect their representative which, following the changes of 1944, they were entitled to have on the school’s Governing body. Mr. J. K. Starkie was elected and the meeting decided to form a Parent-Teachers’-Association. So the P.T.A. was born. The founder members were extremely active and social activities included a musical concert given entirely by talented parents. The Year Meetings were established when, each year, all parents have a chance to discuss their children’s progress with members of staff and each year from the begin-ning at least one evening has been devoted to Careers. Occasional meet-ings have been arranged as demand has arisen.
Mrs. Robinson’s chief aim was that the school should make as many contacts as possible with
the outside world. In her foreword to the 1948 magazine she wrote,
"We are fortunate that there are so many possible ways to explore, in tracing the pattern of
contemporary life, thought and culture."
She always wished the school to be outgoing and linked in many ways with the society outside
its doors.
The Charities Fund, established in 1945, flourished after the war and is one of the school’s finest contributions to the material service of others. Special appeals have been generously met in addition to the regular contributions. An unusual venture in 1964 was the financing of an Arab refugee teacher-trainee from the camps of the Middle East. On a visit to Palestine, Miss Humphries, who herself did so much in extra-curricular activities to foster service to others, met one of the adopted trainees and visited her college. Kathleen Gray, as editor of the school magazine, commented on the adoption scheme that "with so much to do, both in work and play, it is often easy for us to forget that we are fort-unate to have an education which allows us so many chances of using our talents."
School was always encouraged to save in the National Savings Scheme as a useful habit and a public spirited one. During the first two years of the war school had saved £8,889 and the total for 1947-8 was £2,395.
Miss Fletcher, Miss Drew and Miss Edwards urged the school to become one hundred per cent. savers, though this goal was never reached.
An interesting link with wider horizons was the adoption of a ship in 1946, the first of a succession of such adoptions. In 1948 Captain and Mrs. Harrison came to school to present a model of the then current ship, H.M.S. Wheatfield.
Visitors from abroad came frequently. Two American teachers exchanged with members of staff, Miss Helen Ansley with Miss Astle in 1951 and Miss Janetta Wright with Miss Drew in 1954. In 1965 Mr. Van Zant joined the staff for a year. As early as 1949 Fräulein Fielitz had spent some time in school studying British education and several German girls from time to time have snent a term in school, working with our girls. On occasion. a Collegiate girl has spent a term in a French or German school. Two Russian teachers came in 1957 for several weeks and stayed with members of staff. French assistants were re-introduced after the war and in 1968 and 1969 we shared, with the Grammar School, an additional German Assistant. It is a pity that, because of economy, no more assistants are allowed. For several years, from 1950, Miss M. L. Taylor organised in school a two day Reunion Culturelle Scholaire to which distinguished lecturers came.
In 1950, too, the first girls attended, in London, the New Year Conference of the Council for Education in World Citizenship, which was to become an annual event. In 1959 groups of sixth form girls studying Advanced Biology and Geography first went on Field courses. This ecological study became an integral part of these advanced courses and practical field work became a necessity.
Excursions within this country as occasion arose have been legion. A memorable week in Stratford in 1947 was one such outing and a vast variety has been organised, whether to London for the Art Galleries, or, very frequently, to the Lake District for walking.
Journeys abroad expanded from those which would help with French or German linguistic proficiency to include holidays concerned with places and activities. Soon after the war a party went ski-ing to Switzerland. The Netherlands and Norway as well as France and Germany were visited during the next few years. Scarcely a year has passed without a journey abroad and in 1964 Miss Berryman and Miss Doughty took the first party from school to embark on an educational cruise, to Greece and Istanbul.
After the Russian teachers returned in 1957, Mrs. Robinson attended a reception at the Russian Embassy. She found that the Russians were "vague about the value of the rouble in English money, but we reckoned the cost of a visit would be in the region of £300, so it is clear that there will be no School Journey yet behind the Iron Curtain". Eleven years later that school journey took place when Miss Berryman, Miss Doughty and Mr. Firman took over thirty girls to the U.S.S.R.
During these years, all kinds of new activities have constantly offered more and more scope for the talents of the pupils. School took part in "Top of the Form" on the wireless and was twice invited to join the Grammar School in asking the questions in Granada’s "Youth wants to know" once to Sir Compton Mackenzie and once to Bernard Levin. In 1959 the school won the Blackpool South Rotary Public Speaking com-petition as they were to do on three subsequent occasions. This was essentially the fruit of the successful training provided by Miss Humphries in the ever-active Discussion Group. In 1962 Heather Barnes won the Eric Alton travel scholarship and went to an international work camp in Germany. Trevis Wilson, Margaret Grundy and Ann Morton won national fame in swimming and Ann swam for Great Britain in the 1956 Olympics and Margaret in the Commonwealth Games. Rita Bentley became a Hockey and Tennis international. Elizabeth Martlew was English Schools 150 yards Champion in 1955 and 1956. Regularly French and German candidates from the Sixth Form went to Easter language courses in France and Germany. In 1965 Karen Gains went to Israel for a year on a kibbutz before returning for the Sixth Form course. Averil Parker went as a Community Service Volunteer to work among immigrant children before training for Social Work. Sixth Form leavers began to take less orthodox courses at college. Joan Cridland became our first woman civil engineer and her talk to the school inspired at least one other girl to follow her. Kathleen Grey is now working on Geological Surveying in Australia. Averil Mansfield (Dring) is a distinguished surgeon.
House activity widened to include more non-athletic ways of gaining House recognition. The Golden Book was introduced in 1955, to record in tangible form the record of work well done and signatures counted for the Houses, to balance the censorious measures of detention and order marks. The Singing Competition, which was discontinued in 1958 because of the pressure of rehearsal for ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’, was not revived, but in its place a House Festival of the Arts was established as a school entertainment on the last day of the summer term. This grew into the House Drama festival which reached a high standard before the fragmentation of the end of the summer term made rehearsal extremely difficult, though the Festival was held until 1970. House Public Speaking was for several years held at the end of the Easter Term.
In retrospect it is obvious that the year 1961 was the watershed. After thirty-one years in
school, eighteen as Deputy Headmistress, Miss E. M. Taylor retired. Mrs. Robinson said of
her,
"If she was a staunch upholder of Feminine Rights, she was an
even stauncher advocate of Feminine Responsibilities . . . we are
conscious of the richness of her contribution to the life of the school." In 1961, too,
two old friends of the school died. Mrs. Nickson had been elected in 1943 as the first
Old Girls’ representative on the Governing body and had for many years been its chairman,
presiding with charm and dignity at public functions, until ill health forced her to resign
in 1956. Her interest in school had been deep and generous and school owed much to her
wisdom and sound judgment. She was succeeded, as Old Girls’ representative and later as
Chairman, by Mrs. Woosnam, her daughter, who, as Miss Nickson, taught Domestic Science in
school from 1947 to 1952. At Christmas the same year, after a very short illness, Mr. Robinson
died after nearly twenty years of untiring interest in school affairs. He had been a regular
attender of all school functions and school missed his warm and friendly presence.
It was in this same 1961 that the first flurry of the wind of change
began to be felt as a current of air blowing our way, when the reorganisa-tion of Palatine
School led to our absorption of 120 pupils and three members of their staff. Mrs. Robinson
wrote
"The re-organisation of Palatine School brought four forms to join us in a building already
over-crowded. So as soon as the long awaited new Grammar School at Highfurlong was completed,
we took over the old Grammar School and sent the second and third form to work there while
the staff shuttled backwards and forwards between the two buildings.
A new regime, reflecting life at the Collegiate, was worked out. Monitresses from the thirds took over the daily duties that made for smooth running. Some fathers declared the desks, in which their daughters now sat, were once theirs, long ago, and we agreed that this was very likely!
Once a week the girls returned to the old building for practical subjects, and as they hurried down Leamington Road laden with cookery equipment, games equipment, yesterday’s homework and today’s books, they must have sympathised with all beasts of burden".
The provision of three prefabricated classrooms and a laboratory made the rehousing of the school on one site possible and in September, 1963, the school was again all together. Miss Small (later Thornton) had been in charge of the Annexe and to her and the staff and girls Mrs. Robinson offered congratulation that their initiative and their cheerfulness had made so happy a solution to a difficult problem.
These terrapin classrooms took most of what was left of the garden and all pretension to environmental amenity went. The surface of the tennis courts began to show signs of wear but repair was not allowed because of the uncertainty of the future of the school so that by 1971, tennis was virtually impossible as a school game. For already there was rumour of general educational re-organisation. The Palatine move had been the first step. Nothing definite was postulated but it was beginning to be a possibility that the days of the school were numbered.
Miss Humphries, after thirty-three years of sterling service in a vast number of directions,
retired in July, 1964, and another pillar was removed. The session from September 1964 to
July 1965 was very much Mrs. Robinson’s year. Her illness overshadowed the opening, her
marriage to Mr. J. B. Forgan enlivened the middle and her retirement dominated the end (Indeed,
during this dramatic year, we nearly lost the school by a fire, fortunately spotted in time,
which occasioned a fire drill that was not a practice, though few suspected it at the time!).
After twenty-four years as Headmistress she left, for Norfolk and 2nother kind of busy life.
The appreciation in the magazine read,
"The word ‘service’ has been the one most frequently used by Mrs. Forgan when she has addressed
the school . . . Her ideal has never been an ivory tower sheltering a cloistered virtue. Rather
she has offered to her girls the challenge of the hurly-burly of everyday, and to her that
challenge has meant the ability to discriminate (another of her favourite words) choosing what
is worthwhile, while disregarding the less worthy among the pressures and influences which are
the content of life in any modern community. Mrs. Forgan hands over to her successor a school
which she has made vigorous, alert, well-informed and in touch with the world."
Mrs. Forgan’s successor was Miss Roberts, the holder of a First Class degree in Biology and the first scientist head, following a Historian and an English specialist. She gave the school a smooth transition and innovations came gradually.
Miss Roberts brought her Yorkshire heritage of the satisfaction of work well done and her personal code of consideration for others. A perfectionist, she has demanded close attention to detail and has waged war on the slipshod and the superficial.
Certainly there was no stagnation. Soon the uniform navy blue was changed for a more pleasing "Collegiate" blue, and the summer dress was altered to allow a pink or blue version. The Windsor Woollie skirt with braces, which the juniors had worn for some years, was abandoned in favour of the more sophisticated uniform skirt and blouse.
Each year still saw some dramatic or musical public performance. Two operas, ‘The Happy Prince’ in 1967 and a revival of ‘Amahl’ in a new production in 1969 and the play ‘Antigone’ in 1968, bore witness to continued activity. Visits, courses, meetings, matches, concerts and examinations proliferated in the school’s year. Parties went abroad and to London, groups went walking in the Lake District, and working to the Snows Heights Centre. Social service flourished and expanded. To the party for under-privileged children, given at Christmas since 1963, was added consideration for the elderly. The Garden Party, re-christened, with scientific accuracy, the Summer Fair, brought in record takings for the Charities Fund, and the P.T.A. extended its social activities with a Social Committee and a Social Secretary to plan them.
For over twenty years there had been regular annual careers evenings. These continued, but with Miss Pilling now as Careers Mistress, much detailed care was given to the recording and directing of girls’ aspirations.
Termly meetings of the year groups in school were initiated at which suggestions could be made and discussed before being handed on to Miss Roberts for her consideration. A course of General Topics was planned, to forge a link between academic work and the teenage world. In time-tabling, Languages and Science were fostered, in the belief that in those directions lay the development of the future.
A new school dog, successor to the official Jock and the unofficial Prince, appeared, and Pat settled down to her academic routine.
The Sixth Form grew steadily in numbers. From the select pre-war band there had been a sharp wartime rise which had never diminished. Palatine girls had come direct to the Sixth Form in 1960 and during the second half of the 60’s, transfer from Secondary Modern Schools became common. To help to acclimatise aspirants, both from the Collegiate and elsewhere, a Pre-Sixth Form Course was introduced in 1968, at the end of the summer term.
The three weeks which followed the public examinations and lasted until the Summer Term ended increased in momentum as the decade neared its end. In 1968, for example, as well as the Pre-Sixth course, a programme of talks for leavers included six lectures or courses from out-side speakers on social security, child care, beauty culture, hospital work, the treasures of Lancashire, and training for occupational therapy, while eleven members of staff gave their time to address the group. A full Careers Day and the Sports Day took place and parties from various sections of the school visited Townely Hall, Platt Hall Museum, Malham, the Lake District, Grasmere and the Wordsworth shrines and the Stan-low Oil Refineries. House Drama, a Tennis Tournament and House Matches were also included. No one could say that the end of term pro-vided nothing to do!
The school, in fact, went on its way as if it were immortal and as if Miss Roberts could look forward to many years of continuing construction. But the plan drawn up following the "1065" Ministry directive was passed and the sands were running out. By 1970, building had begun at High-furlong and no further reprieve was possible.
Life in school, as well as Out of it, has become increasingly complex since 1925, and the ordered serene days of ‘before the war’ seem a long time ago, as, comparatively, they are. Autre temps, autre moeurs. But there is no doubt that the school which ceases to exist on 16th July, 1971, has been a growing and vital community for the forty-six years of its life. Denied a half century, it can nevertheless look back thankfully and with pride upon its progress through the years.
It would be inhuman of us not to experience sharp regret that such a vigorous and positive concern is now to be no more, denied the continued expansion which has been so characteristic of it. This is no ancient foundation hallowed by history; it is the product of twentieth century advance in the education of girls and in this it has played no ignoble role, offering, as all schools should, identity, security and opportunity. Many are grateful to an alma mater who has taught them the virtue of sincerity and the sanctity of the individual. Many have received from her the intellectual stimulus which has enriched their lives. Many have learnt from her how to come to terms with themselves.
We will give Mrs. Robinson the last word. She once wrote:
"‘Meliora sequamur’ should be to us more than a motto on a badge. It should shape the
lives we lead and the plans on which we build, for it is these plans and lives that bear
witness to what the years have taught us in this school, and by them we shall be judged".
Last Girls School Magazine index
Last Girls School Magazine next page
Pages Maintained by Website Prefect