I Was A Bexley Tech Girl, 1950 54

A Memory of Bexleyheath.

My name at school was Yvonne Reynolds and I was in the JDSX-SDX stream. Thank you everyone for your memories. I'm pleased to see that there some writing who are about my age now [b.1937]. My first year was at Townley Rd., with Miss Moore as form teacher. I agree that she was a brilliant history teacher, and that she was strict, but I never found her unjust, or mean. She despaired of me ever passing a history exam, but I finally did - for my GCE: I always loved history but could never remember dates!
In the JDSX-DSX years Mrs Laurie was my form teacher; I loathed her because she gave me such a hard time, and I never knew why; no other teachers did, but she softened during our final year [1954] and changed her name, and left for Australia, so I guess she must have been going through a divorce which would have been pretty difficult back then. She was very good at her subject [needlework] and I did learn a lot, as I was also doing quite a lot of that at home. My mother expected me to help her by making my own clothes, even though she was very good at sewing herself.
My top favourite teacher was Miss Wright. I loved Domestic Science, and she had a way of understanding where we were as people and growing up [I'm sure I wasn't the only one to feel it]. I did very well at the subject because of her, but she said that there was no future for girls as a chef, and suggested I took up teaching instead. I did eventually when I was 22 but I definitely wasn't cut out to teach adolescent girls, and lasted only one year at teaching college! Others I really liked were Miss [Molly] Soar [Chemistry - another favourite subject], Mrs [Fanny/Frances] Durtnell [Biology] my 3rd equal favourite subject. These 3 teachers were to influence my ongoing love of their subjects right up until now.
Other teachers, yes - Miss Odell, definitely a bit strange, and I didn't like her all that much. Mrs. Reay, who had an artificial leg: it was said she had had a serious leg injury from horse-riding when she was young. She seemed to suffer lot of pain with it, but was a good teacher. She commented once in a report that she would have liked the standard of my English Language to be as good as my English Literature. I used to think it was the other way around! Then there was Miss Winfield and her little dog who used to chase the hockey balls during Games, and who regaled us with tales about French customs and oddments. One I never forgot was that in the Napoleonic times when the dresses were high waisted, and as she would say - low over the bosom - the women would wet them to make them cling and show off what they had. That was quite daring thought to put before 14-15 year old girls back then! Oh yes, and our Maths teacher, Miss Phillips, and an Australian. Very sharp tongued, but very good at Maths. I liked Maths but never thought I was much good at it, but it turned out I was better than I thought, even though I could never remember the formulae that you needed to for exams. She stimulated thought, but didn't suffer fools gladly, and as I came to know later, was very Australian in her manner!
There were others of course but these were the most memorable for me. It was a brilliant school to go to, and when I tell people about it they usually express a measure of envy, and no Australian woman of my generation that I have met [or any other generations] had anything like as good an educational grounding that we Bexley Tech girls had. I did teach Science at one school south of Melbourne in 1969 and was disgusted at how girls and their education was down-grounded back then, and tried to give them some of what I had from the Tech. Australia is very sexist, still.
[ I have lived mostly in Australia since 1967, and also about 16+ years in NZ, which used to be very good in education.]
I have much to thank Dora Caroline Collins for, and how she taught us to believe in ourselves, as she believed in us - as anyone's equal, and the standards she hoped we'd live to. One wet lunchtime she came into the Hall for a general walk around and was a bit chatty, when she decried the advertisements along the Underground, the large, women's underwear, ones - 'who wants to look at Brassieres and Corsets'!
If anyone knows of or remembers Pat Carter, who was in the same stream as me and lived in Dartford, just off East Hill, I would love to hear from her or about her. She would have been born in 1937. She was such a good friend when were at Tech together. We maintained the friendship for a while after leaving school, but our lives went in very different directions. The same applies to Christine Jones, who also lived on that side of Dartford; her father was I believe a bank manager and her brother in a Seminary at the time. Both friends were Catholic, and along with Pam Godin [married name and who does/did live in Latham Rd] another very good friend, all showed me a way of life and friendship I've never forgotten.

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