Unhappy Boarding School Experience 1979 1982 Rookesbury Park School

A Memory of Wickham.

i attended this dreadful school as a boarder when i had just turned 9. The headmistress was Miss McVicar, a remote and outwardly very Christian woman, though this never translated to any kindness or compassion to the pupils. The head matron was a sadistic woman, who would pull our pyjamas down and spank our bottoms if we talked after lights out. Two of my friends were Nigerian and, when all the boarders were gathered sitting on the floor in a common room one weekend, she made them stand up and scolded them for a minor transgression before further humiliating them by saying 'remember you're guests in this country'. If someone wet their bed they were also humiliated. She had favourites, and I suppose life was a bit easier for them. We had to write letters home every weekend and would then file past the headmistress who would scan all our letters before allowing them to be sent. I remember writing that we had had our hair washed with soap - true - and being told not to lie and that i had to rewrite my letter. The only happy memory is playing in the grounds and making dens, and the huge rhododendrons and bluebell wood out of bounds. It is so sad to think of all the girls who had a miserable time, from as young as 8, with no adult figures to console them or give a hug.absolutely dreadful place.