The Woodland, Colliers Wood.

I went to Mrs Healeys school near the cricket green Mitcham in 1946 until I think 1949 . We lived at 60 streatham road Mitcham Pat Loftus and Jackie Timms were in my class. I remember it well
The milk used to be put by the fire in the classroom to thaw out
For break time. We wore a navy blue uniform I think my name was. Arlene Tegetmeier can anyone remember the school get in touch
Q

Hello,
I went to the same school as you, but later - between about 1962 - 1968. It was called Clarendon Preparatory School and was EXTREMELY strict. The headmistress at the time was Mrs. Barker, but I think she was formerly Mrs. Healey. I'm afraid most of us suffered badly at the hands of the teachers and their Dickensian teaching methods!
Actually I have just set up a Facebook group for the school. It's called "Clarendon School Mitcham Park MEMORIES". You are very welcome to join and especially to post any photos if you have them! Maybe you don't use Facebook, so I will put some of the memories below. I look forward to hearing from you. Best wishes Caroline Withers
The comments and stories about Clarendon Preparatory School were taken from the "Friends Reunited" website before its closure: ________________________________________
1951 - Miss Warden - Senior teacher Added by David Thorpe
A lady of Indian extraction with a withered hand. Achieved the impossible and got me through my 11+ exams.

Enthralled us from time to time with stories from her life in India. Taught me my 16 times table - for which I thank her every time I have to convert miles to kilometres.

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1962 - school photos - steve loosely Added by Janice Pearson
How your photos brought back memories of the school productions. I remember being "auditioned" and singing "Bobby's Girl" by Susan Maughan I believe, a top ten hit of the time and being told I would be singing "I could have danced all night " as this was more suitable.The venue was a Church Hall on the Cricket Green. We used to hold the annual sports day on the green too and i can still remember throwing up during the sack race and being told to continue. On another sports occasion someone, Moira Singfield I think, threw the bat down in rounders and it hit me straight on the nose. I still have the lump on the bone, they didn't believe in taking you for xrays or checks in those days. It is true that then teachers were able to abuse you and it was thought to be good discipline. I am not sure that ruling by fear is the correct way to discipline but i suppose 1957-62 was a long time ago.

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1962 - General Added by John Blower
I've read the comments with interest, and mounting dread as many have brought back memories I would rather have buried deep in my psyche.

Clarendon was a product of its time, an educational period in which an unhealthy preoccupation with the 11+ dominated. This in itself was symptomatic of a blatantly two-tier, inequitable system: if you passed the 11+, you had a crack at a decent education. If you didn't, you were pretty much condemned to a second-rate school career.

Clarendon fed on parents' fear of their child not passing this glorified IQ test.

As a result, they were quite prepared to overlook a host of inadequacies - the fabric of the building, the playground (such as it was), the cavalier use of corporal punishment, the verbal abuse, the barely edible school dinners - in exchange for "a guaranteed pass".

I don't believe that knowledge of the school's inadadequacies or its methods was unknown outside the cadre of contemporary parents.

Mrs Barker pressured parents into silent complicity by waving the threat of 11+ failure over their heads.

She was extremely good at this...

Ask yourself: who paid the fees?

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1963 - Pass Lists Added by Brian Wood
Having seen some of the names on this site it evoked immediate memories of standing outside Mrs. Barker's study waiting for the cane and seeing the names of pupils who I had never known - Stephen Goble, Ann Winter, Margaret Funnell.... and wondering if my name would ever go on there. Mrs. Barker thought it highly unlikely, but I made it!

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1964 - School Dinners /Discipline Added by Gillian Peck
My memory of school dinners is taht we used to have mincemeat and carrots on Monday, Shepherds Pie Tuesday, Sausage & Mash Wednesday, Mincemeat on Thursday and Shepherds Pie Friday - every week.

I remember Stephen Oldham putting all his dinner in the bin one day and the bin being paraded around the classrooms until someone admitted to it.

My sister and I were lucky, we got out of the school before age 11 - but when our parents advised the school we were leaving, we were both called to the headmistress's office and asked why we were going. My sister had only been at the school a short time and said it was because we didn't like the school or the teachers and because they were all horrid. Needles to say, our lives were made more miserable for the last few weeks of term.

Is my memory playing tricks or did we really get the cane if we got less than 50% in any test once we got to Miss Warden's class?

Left and went to a wonderful school - St Davids.

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1966 - School lunches Added by Alison Blower
Uggh! I still have nightmares about having to eat everything. Ravina Perry used to pop the sausages in her uniform pocket. I used to bribe Richard Wight to eat my lunch for me. Mince on Mondays and shepherd's pie on Tuesdays - the smell was absolutely nauseating.

The only redeeming aspect of Clarendon is that I can spell like a demon and can still do simple arithmetic faster than a calculator.

Btw, I remember you Linda Philpott.

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1967 - uniform etc. Added by Debra Hyde
Clarendon had more items of school uniform than any other school in the history of the world! About 4 different hats, boaters, felt hats, berets..God help you if you were caught outside without your gloves on! I got the cane from the head - she was a bit of a cow, but I can't remember her name - for something I hadn't done (honest!) and my mum took me out of school shortly after..I remember there was a teacher in the class above with a walking stick. She used to teach french, I think, and shout all the time. I was so scared of her, although I never made it 'upstairs'..Who remembers the awful playground?? It was the size of a postage stamp and covered in black cinder-type stuff. I used to get SO filthy. The best thing I got from Clarendon was decent handwriting - they were very hot on handwriting/elecution(posh accent beaten out of me at state primary)and singing!Am I alone in thinking Clarendon was a WEIRD school??

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1967 - additional memories Added by Debra Hyde
I remember the school lunches very well - miniscule portions of anything that was remotely edible, and lashings of anything that resembled swill!! I had an allergy to cheese as a kid (it made me puke) and when we had macaroni cheese one day (BIG portion) the dinner lady made me sit and eat it. Even after I was ill, she calmly took the plate away and gave me a fresh one! (Nice, huh?)
I also remember a poor little kid in our class called Edmund(??) he had specs held together with a band-aid and constantly wet himself - through fear probably! The teacher was an absolute cow to him. I don't remember the name of a single teacher at this school - I think that is what someone else has described as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome...

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1969 - UNIFORM & SCHOOL DINNERS Added by Linda Philpott
This is the first time I have been on this sight and have laughed a lot at the comments because I thought that at the time I was the only person that was going through the torture of attending Clarendon. I too was sick after being made to eat cheese, my mother took Mrs Barker to task over that,only to be told that I only had to say!Ha, fat chance!
I was made to scrub the toilets to clear up other people's sick at times too. How is it that the school was allowed to operate using such outragous systems?
When I mention to people that I wore white gloves and a panama they stare in disbelief - hope to hear from others who remember me and boys - don't forget to touch your cap!!!!

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1969 - School lunches Added by Martin Searle
Have to agree with Sue there. The most disgusting food in the history of the universe. I can still conjure up the smells now...

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1969 - The ink blot Added by Jane Belden
I did manage to last at Clarendon, despite being sick with fright every morning, with or without my obligatory boiled egg. I suppose I was fortunate in a way as I escaped the 11 Plus and was propelled straight to Middle School at age 11 where I stayed for two years.

Anyway, does anyone remember the occasion when Miss Warden (or was she Mrs Grey by then) lost her temper with someone at the front of the class and smashed a bottle of ink on the desk. She was obviously hoping to drench the offending pupil but managed to spray ink over the whole classrom, including the paintings on the wall - my Dad used to do mine because I couldn't draw - and over several pupils. I can remember being at the back painstakingly writing with my dreaded fountain pen when this huge blob appeared on the page as though by magic.

I also remember the revolting smell of the dinners although I think I used to go home for lunch sometimes - blessed release.

I also remember the warm milk in the third pint bottles. Yuk

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1970 - General comments Added by Sue Boatfield
I agree with all the comments about past recollections of life at Clarendon, the teachers, the uniforms, the sooty playground etc etc EXCEPT for Neil Fry's comment on "Great school lunches". There must have been a new cook after I left. In my day the lunches were disgusting. Mince with peas, mince with carrots, mince with baked beans, mince with mash - mince 4 days out of 5. It was a real treat to get a susage roll on Fridays! After Clarendon, I couldn't face mince for over 20 years, can just about cope with it now.

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1972 - Headmistress Added by Neil Fry
"Caps and straw boaters",
"heavy scent of Lavender toilet water hanging around Mrs Barker's office and disinfectant everywhere else "
"great school lunches!"
"Reciting poetry on a Friday afternoon in front of the french windows"
Games on the common in Cranmer Road
Dancing with Samantha (?) in the school concert!

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19691975 - Miss Warden Added by Susan Anton
Miss Warden has given me the skill to add up quickly, spell correctly and a love of poetry.Sadly that is all.I spent my days at Clarendon trying to be as invisible as possible,just to get by.For a shy child it was a living nightmare.
The one teacher I do remember was I think a Mrs Evans.She was only there for short time when I was about seven or eight. She was very kind. Anyone else remember her?

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1948 - Miss Madge - Kindergarten teacher Added by David Thorpe
Mrs Barker's (previously Healy) daughter. She always reminded me of Richmal Crompton's Ethel in the William books.

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1950 - Miss Foster - mid-years teacher Added by David Thorpe
My recollection is of a very pleasant a capable teacher who I liked a lot. I think she taught mainly in the form below Miss Warden's.

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1950 - Miss Bentley - Cook & general dogsbody Added by David Thorpe
This long suffering lady had the unenviable task of preparing our daily lunches - in a dark and dingy kitchen which always to me seemed cold and damp.

If my memory serves me correctly, she also had cleaning duties and was frequently the target of Mrs Barker's (Healy) stentorian tones!

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1951 - Mrs Barker (headmistress) Added by David Thorpe
She was Mrs Healy when I joined the school, but remarried after the death of her first husband.

A formidable woman who brooked no dissent, she probably was a failed actress. She certainly wore the make-up and viewed the school as her stage - and scared the hell out of me!!

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1962 - mrs barker Added by Peter Webb
I agree she always had a ruler waiting on the otherside of her study door with my name on it. Happy days

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1962 - teachers Added by Janice Pearson
the messages that have been deleted may have been hurtful but how did it feel to be the child on the end of the treatment metered out. It cannot be libellous if true surely. The memories are memories whether the teachers liked them or not and probably most are no longer with us now for the pupils in my age group.

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1963 - Miss Madge/Mrs Smith Added by Sue Boatfield
When I started at Clarendon in 1962 or 63, Mrs Smith (daughter of Mrs Barker) was the kindgergarten teacher. she was still there when I left in 1970, and I heard a rumour that she took on the running of the school for a while after Mrs Barker retired (or died).

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1963 - Miss Warden Added by Brian Wood
A great lady and character. I returned to Clarendon a couple of times in the early years after I left and she was always delighted to see me. I also visited her at her home in Norbury in the late 60s and she greeted me like a long lost son. I bitterly regret that I never saw her again. Her life then was solely her "children". She told me that the reason for her crooked body was that she had been hit by a bus as a child in her home town, but those disabilities seemed to inspire her. I don't believe that she ever meant to hurt any of her pupils (perhaps unlike some of the other teachers) and I felt her ruler on many occasions. She just wanted each one of us to be the best.

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1965 - Miss Warden Added by Jacky Theobald
Miss Warden was a brilliant teacher, her methods bizarre but highly effective. I kept in touch with her until her death in 1999, I regret not knowing of her death until some months after, the thought of her not having anyone at her funeral saddens me still. I took my daughter (aged about 4 at the time)to visit her at her home in Norbury,she was delighted to see us, taught my daughter some tables, and followed her progress through school. God bless her

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1969 - Mrs Gould Added by Linda Philpott
Miserable, didn't like me and taught knitting among the 3r's!

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1969 - Mrs Smith Added by Linda Philpott
Mostly remember seeing the back of her bending over to reveal her stockings and slip whilst she was stacking the yellow painted metal tables (not a pretty sight as she was a largish woman)and then quickly turning round and saying "now who's talking?"
She used to make us get bowls of water to wash in at going home time.

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1969 - MIss Warden Added by Linda Philpott
Feared by all her pupils, yet she was intimidated by Mrs Barker coming to visit the class.

Re: teachers and pupils

BRIAN WOOD’s comments Sue, I remember going from Mrs. Harvey's kindergarten class next door to Mrs. Berry' s class. I don't think she stayed at the school very long and I think like Miss Warden she was of sub-continent origin. Otherwise I can't remember much about her. I remember we then went upstairs to Mrs. Lucraft who was a very nice lady, but again I think she left shortly after we went into Miss Warden's class. I remember Virginia Harmsworth very well. She was a year younger than us and lived up the road from me. She had the great pleasure of singing a duet with me "Happy Talk" at our final school concert in 1963! I'm sure she would not have forgotten it! It was the first and only time I've been allowed to sing in public. Where was St. Barnabus Hall? I do remember its name, but I can't visualise it. I thought the last concert at least was in the relatively new Methodist hall at the Cricket Green. I remember Susan & Ann Cole (not very well) - Susan I think was a year older and Ann a year younger than us. I certainly remember Charlie Weightman - a big lad a year younger than us. One of my close friends at the time was Paul Arnold who along with his elder brother Peter lived quite close to me. I did see Paul who was a year younger than me several times after his family moved to Wallington, but that was a very long time ago. The memories keep flooding back!

teachers at Clarendon
Amanda
Guilford
says I remember Mrs Smith Kindergarten and Transition Downstairs front classroom, Mrs Cox who took what would now be year 2 downstairs back classroom with french doors: Mrs Gould who taught year 3/4 upstairs back classroom very airless. Miss Warden wof whom I was petrified until I got into her class after which I loved her with a vengeance. If Miss Warden lived until 1999 she couldn't have been as old as I thought she was!!!

miss warden
Linda
Phillpott
says Does anyone know if Miss Warden is still alive? She used to live in Norbury. I thank her for teaching me mental arithmetic and all those "quick ways" with numbers but she was scary! Other memories: Sixpences given as rewards, Murrey Mints, her slippers,her wig(from about 1968!) Cranes & Crows (teams we had and earnt stars for) and looking words up in dictionaries in the fastest time. Does anyone remember when she got fed up with Jeffery Rolls knocking his bottle of blue ink on the floor for the umpeenth time and she picked it up and slammed it on the desk with such force it smashed and splattered half the classes nice white shirts? Ashley Ball who was blond looked as though he had received a blue rinse!

Miss Warden
Jacky
Theobold
says Miss Warden died in 1999 having lived in Norbury ever since she came to England. I visited her there with my baby daughter in 1988. We kept in touch with Christmas cards and a couple of letters each year. Contrary to earlier comments, I thought she was a lovely lady and was certainly the best teacher I ever had.

Miss Warden
Brian
Wood
Says I am sorry to hear of Miss Warden's death. I only found this site this weekend and was hoping to hear she was still going strong. I entirely agree that she was a wonderful teacher and a great lady. I am sure I only passed the 11+ because I was so terrified of what she would have said or done to me if I hadn't. She was without doubt the best teacher that ever had the misfortune to teach me over the years and seeing today's society it is a pity that they broke the mould when she was made. Although many people have criticised Clarendon for its Dickensian cruelty, in my opinion it encouraged personal standards of behaviour & respect that are sadly lacking today. Miss W had a great influence on my character for which I will be eternally grateful. She loved everyone of her children - it was a pity perhaps we didn't realise it at the time.

Re: Miss Warden
John
Blower
says Just as a matter of interest, how old was she when she died? And where, exactly, was she from? My sister, Alison, and I have oft debated Miss Warden's methods. They seemed to "work", in the sense that one learned almost in spite of oneself. I can't help thinking, however, that children with different learning styles - not than anyone knew about such things then - were probably short-changed. Many who were labelled "stupid" or "unintelligent" doubtless went on to intellectual and/or professional distinction. Somehow, I don't think Miss Warden's teacher-training (if there was any) was very child-centered.

John Blower
Peter
Webb
Says Hi John. have just seen your name on the clarendon list. It's the first one i've reconised. after all it's been 40 years. do you remember Peter Arnold, we both used to live near Mitcham station. My family owned the sweet shop and Peter Arnold family was the hardwear store. I think your mate was john Yates. It would be great to meet up in 2002 if we could find the others from Miss 'steel rule' Warden. At least she beat some sense into most of us. Mail us. regards peter webb

Fearful memories!

Reading all these memories must be why I needed to take up counselling as a profession! When I think of what we all went through! I can only remember of the fear of trying to get myself to school each day, singing to myself as I went along, counting the fence posts to take my mind of where I was taking myself. The times I got hit by that awful ruler with the bit of metal on it by Miss Warden, which she removed from my brother's possession. Clarendon was an experience that doesn't come back with many fond memories unfortunately and has left me with quite a few bad ones. What a price I paid for getting my name on a board that now means nothing and probably doesnt exist anymore!
Margaret Dedman (née Funnell) replied 12th Mar 2003

Memories of The Clarendon

I must say that after reading some of these messages I feel quite privileged to be counted as one of the elite who "survived" the Clarendon. Perhaps we should form an exclusive club and have our own website . . .

School dinners seem to feature quite heavily in peoples memories of The Clarendon, but Im surprised that no ones yet mentioned the custard! Yes I too remember well the mince we were forced to eat every day, except on Wednesdays when it was sausages. But the custard . . . It was prepared by Cook, a massive woman, who worked in a dark and dingy kitchen. Shed cook it up in a huge aluminium cauldron and then leave it to cool for a while so that a thick skin formed all over the top, and then, rather than discarding the skin, shed stir it all in so that terrible lumps formed that were poured over the prunes that always went with it. Ill eat most things now, but if its got skin on it, theres no way Ill touch it thanks to that dreadful and daily experience!

I can remember being in the first class downstairs next to Mrs Barkers office. I cant remember the teachers name, but I liked her and it was there that I learned my multiplication tables, up to the twelve times, all thanks to the daily chanting that sadly doesnt seem to happen much these days. In the next class I remember coming to school late one day and missing the beginning of the lesson in which we were taught how to tell the time. I soon picked it up though and was really pleased with myself that I could tell the time by the time I went home. I seem to remember that the teacher divided the clock up into sections and each part was given the name of a member of the Royal Family, for some reason. I can also remember having a clockwork machine gun for my birthday and, on bringing it to school on one occasion, I accidentally pulled the trigger in class! It made a terrible racket and was immediately confiscated, but fortunately it didnt get reported to the dreaded Mrs Barker.

When I moved to one of the upstairs classrooms, I was so glad that I didnt have Miss Wharton (I thought that was her name, but from reading some of these other messages it seems that she was actually Miss Warden) because she was very strict, looked a bit foreign and taught French all of which terrified the life out of me. Instead we had Miss Leucroft (again, Ive got no idea how to spell her name so Ive written my phonetic memory of her name here instead). She was my favourite teacher and I was always really scared whenever she was away in case we had to have Mrs Barker and that fearful ruler of hers!

The playground was just like someones back garden except that nothing grew there. It was just bare, dry and dusty earth as far as I remember, with an ivy covered shelter thing at the far end. Didn't we always play some sort of chariot game?

I remember being in a Christmas show held in the St. Barnabas church hall, I think. I was a page boy and all I had to do was to step forward at the right moment, go down on one knee, and put a crown on the king's head. I remember that the king was a fairly large boy called Moore. Two of the girls were dressed up as silver bells, the Big Bell and the Little Bell, but I've got no idea what the show was about.

And the pupils . . . I can remember a few names of children who I was friendly with two brothers called Arnold, Peter and Paul I think, a boy called Zeal who always made booby traps to get his father when he came home from work and Michael Still, a naughty boy because he was always getting the ruler, but my friend nevertheless. Then there was Ian Machen who lived just round the corner from me and Alan Simpson who's birthday party I remember going to. I can remember one of the girls, it might have been Christine Cooper, telling a story in Miss Leucrofts class about a time when her grandmother was eating a toffee and had to take it out of her mouth to answer the phone, and when she did so, she pulled her false teeth out too since the toffee was stuck to them. We all thought that was a really funny story! But my very best friend of all was Moira Singfield because, even at the ripe old age of seven, I was quite sweet on her and wherever we went, we were always holding hands. So, Moira, if youre out there somewhere, Id love to hear from you again.

Eventually, when I was eight, I left the school and went to The John Fisher School in Purley, and sadly I totally lost contact with everyone I ever knew at the Clarendon.
Pete Savan replied 29th Mar 2003

miss warden etc
apart from the memorable Miss Warden does anyone remember Mrs Lucraft or Mrs Donaldson ?
Ian Pearson started discussion 13th Sep 2001 in Clarendon Preparatory School

Re: miss warden etc

i do but then i'm your sister! What was mrs.barker the head teacher's daughter called? i remember her.
Janice Nash (née Pearson) replied 15th Sep 2001

Re: miss warden etc/Mrs Lucraft

Mrs L - lovely lady.

What more can I say? I wonder whatever happened to her? And did she have a first name?
John Blower replied 24th Jan 2002

I remember both of them with fondness, especially Mrs Donaldson, as it was she who convinced my parents that it was a good Idea for me to take the entrance exam for KCS Wimbledon where the experiences of Mrs Barker's (and her daughter's) teaching practices, those nauseating lunches and the charms of the playground gave me a good grounding in the invaluable effectiveness of an education gained through a combination of fear, humiliation, and gastronomic brutality. I also remember you, Ian, and Paul Harrington as contemporaries.
Keith Rosen replied 28th Sep 2014

P.S. Further to my previous message - My email address is chucka100@hotmail.com in case you would like to email.
Regards
Caroline

Omg this has brought back so many memories. I even remember many of you! I can still remember the smell of Jeyes fluid in the dining room. Sniff it and the memory comes back! What a weird place in retrospect. Once Mrs Barker drove past our house while I was cleaning my dad’s car. She was hugely impressed and I was always in her good books. Very sad about Mrs Warden. But the school was run on fear of academic failure. George Orwell I think went to a similar school, although in many ways C was unique....and not in a good way entirely. Thank you everyone for sharing. Lawrence Morris

I was there, must have been early to mid 1950s. Remember the Healey couple, mother and daughter. Daughter had a son, Harvey, horrible little boy. Of course he lorded it over the rest of us. Remember Mrs. Gibson, lovely lady, oh yes and those times tables every day. I remember daughter Healey coming into the classroom one day and saying something nasty to Mrs. Gibson. The latter waived her fist at the daughter as she left the classroom. Will love her forevermore for that. Got wacked twice, or was in three times. I remember some identical twins in my class, Langly was their name. Was asked to leave the school before my 11 plus, best thing ever happened to me.