St Botolphs C Of E Primary School 1947 51

A Memory of Northfleet.

Before the 1944 Education Act most children attended schools up to the age of 14 years then they left to seek employment unless they had been fortunate to secure a free place at a Grammar or Technical School where they would continue their education until 16 years of age.
St Botolph's, like many schools had been founded by the local church community as had the local Catholic School while the third place of general education was a Council establishment known locally as The Board School.
By 1947 St. Botolph's had become a Primary School for children aged between 5 and 11 years with very strong ties with The Church. Its management had The Vicar as chairman with other church members making up the numbers. Mr. Tilley, Headmaster of many years, had just retired and a Mr. B.W.D.Cooke, ex-RAF, had been appointed. There were two Infant and four Junior Classes with staff of Miss Honor, Miss Biggs, Mrs. Allen, Mr. Clark and Mr. Lockyer, the latter retiring later in 1948 after many years of service, when a Mr. Davies was appointed.
As each Church festival arrived the whole school was involved in services in the church. Christmas with nativity plays and carol services took place in December; Ash Wednesday caused a special service to be held with children and staff going to the altar rails to have ash smeared on their foreheads making the sign of the cross. This was to be left there for the remainder of the day. One little girl was so enthralled with her cross that she was still wearing it the following day.
Ascension Day was eagerly awaited as, following the church service at 9 a.m., the School was given the remainder of the day as a holiday.
During these years the ancient custom of having a "Boy Bishop" was revived and one of the older boys was chosen and installed at an appropriate church service. Surprisingly, the pagan custom of choosing a May Queen was also revived and a May Festival, complete with maypole dancing in the local park by the railway station took place in the presence of the school, parents and friends.
There was a Boys' Brigade and the new young master, also ex-RAF, was given the task of taking the boys from the school for drill sessions on a Friday afternoon; for this the Headmaster took that master's class for the last half of an hour while the drilling took place in the Church Parish Room for the next hour, a task much resented by the new young teacher but then many duties outside school hours were expected and demanded of teachers. Football, netball, rounders and cricket usually meant staff giving up Saturday mornings and other after school time to supervise these activities.
The head was keen to involve parents in the school and held monthly social evenings in the two Infsnt classrooms when staff were expected to give up their Saturday evenings to support him. Once again the young master was involved and had to show films , in another room, to entertain children who had to accompany their parents.
Another throw back to earlier days was gardening. The oldest boys were taken to the large vicarage garden one afternoon where there were small allotments/plots cultivated to provide the boys with the basics of vegetable growing. It was not very successful but the boys took great delight in secretly eating the ripe fruit of a large mulberry tree that grew there.
When tests for the Grammar School selection took place only the children of the eleventh year attended school, the remainder having a holiday. During the morning break the locak baker, Mrs. Harris,one of the School managers, brought in a tray of freshly baked currant buns for the children to have with their school milk.
The School had no provision for school dinners so at midday the Secretary, the Duty Teacher and a crocidile of children walked along the High Street to The Board School where meals were provided. This duty had to be undertaken daily regardless of the weather. The more fortunate members of staff usually repaired to the cafe next to the school for their lunch or to the bakery, also next door, where they were welcome to watch the newly installed Television set showing the Test cricket.
Sixty years on, the reward of all this work is that many of those children remember that young teacher, now ninety years old, and keep contact with him from all round the world.

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