Whitefriars School

A Memory of Wealdstone.

I loved the area but sadly didn't think much of the school , Alderman Lee ran it when I was there and Miss Broadhurst was the girls headteacher. The school was run on traditionalist lines more in keeping with the post war years and very badly needed modernization and updating , for example all girls were taught needlework and Cookery and all boys metal work and woodwork , though that was beginning to change a little bit when I was there as one boy in my form wanted to study Cookery and caused a stir , Pun on Cookery !
The school evidently wasn't meant for me and after six months I left under the form of 1A of under Miss Voigt who actually was a great teacher who taught RE art and english and really was one of the best teachers there .
How well I remembered the Cabin on Graham road and the small cafeteria behind it where our teachers would go for an early breakfast before school .Does any one remember the old fashioned sweet shop further down the High street just outside the closed Odeon cinema which had been closed for a time before we moved to Weald stone in 1968 ? I certainly remember the shop near to Lady smith road as it sold so many lovely sweets from Spanish tobacco to shoelaces and sugar mice and was run by to elderly sisters who would not be out of place as usherettes in the Cinema next door ,one suspects that they actually were the Usherettes who remained after the Cinema closed .
In September 1970 I changed School to a modern girls Grammar school in Brondesbury London and never looked back , mum had sent us to Weald stone because of financial constraints meant she saved money on fares to the Grammar school several rail stops away but really Weald stone is a school which is for children who are going into more commercial careers rather than academic or Corporate routes . I think what annoyed me most about Weald stone was the insistence on petty points of school rules , skirts must be exactly three inches above the knee , no more or less , in the autumn I wore a midi skirt to keep my knees and calves warm and was told not to wear it again, the wearing of make up even in the fifth year was prohibited and even pink nail polish and rings , there was more form than substance in that school , and frankly innovative or entrepreneurial skills were considered superfluous I never found there to be an abundance of intellectual thought and the lessons as they were taught there never expected it or required it , it was sad to say ,a very humdrum school .

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