As Chater School in Watford celebrates its Centenary year, Nostalgia has featured a number of contributions from former pupils.

Here Mary Korndorffer, née Cooper, offers her own memories of her time at the school.

Mrs Korndorffer, from Guildford, said: “My family has long association with Chater School.

“My father was a pupil and a teacher there, my mother also taught in the infants department, and I was a pupil from 1947 to 1953.

“My father, John Cooper, died in 2007 but left a detailed autobiography, and indeed has been a contributor to the Nostalgia page.”

He wrote: “John Cooper attended Chater Boys’ School from 1926 – 1929. Just before we went to live in the School House at Croxley, I started at Chater School. The ‘chosen few’ were instructed in English, composition and sums at the Head’s desk on the platform in the hall.

Teachers I remember well were ‘Beaky’ Saville, who regularly sent one of the older boys to the hardware shop around the corner to replace a “stick” he had broken, Mr Hurst, whose daughter in later years lived with Miss Gardner in Seaford, and Mr Rushden, who was still active 30 years later.

Of the boys at that time, there was Goddard, Lionel Tomlin, whose son, Ian, I taught when I was at Chater School in the 1950s and Arthur Pullen, who lived in Wiggenhall Road and became a chimney sweep.

“The Boys’ entrance to Chater School was in Southsea Avenue and both the Girls’ and Infants’ were in Harwoods Road. From the 1920s the Headmasters were Mr Larratt, who came when the National School in Church Road was closed, Mr Keeble and Mr Warburton.

Teachers after the war included Messrs Curling, Burden, Ruffett, Watson, Colman, Wallis, Cooper and Arrighi.

“The Girls’ School headteacher in the 1940s was Miss Mason and teachers included Miss Jump and Miss Naxton.

“Infants’ School heads included Miss Mander and Miss Sennitt and teachers Miss Gardner, Mrs James, Miss Bridge, Mrs Cooper and Miss Fletcher.

John Cooper was a teacher at Chater Boys’ School from 1951 – 1956.

“In 1951, I was offered the Deputy Headship at Chater Junior Boys’ School.

“As I walked across the playground of the Boys’ School from Southsea Avenue I had a peculiar feeling: 22 years previously I had done the same walk on my first day at a ‘big boy’s school’.

“Up the stone stairs this time to be greeted at the top by Dick Keeble (headmaster) was very different from the reception in the playground all those years ago.

“One of the boys from my first class was Alan Nicholson who became a teacher and then a headteacher.

“I met him in 1989 when Harvey Road School, Croxley, celebrated its Golden Jubilee with a party.

“When the two Chater Schools were combined in December 1956, to become Chater Junior Mixed School, I left to take a position in Harrow.”

In addition to her father’s memories, Mrs Korndorffer wrote: “We lived in the first house in Princes Avenue from 1946 to 1964, so we were close by Chater School.

“I started in the Infants school in 1947, where Mrs Maddox was my teacher. In the reception classroom was a large sand tray to play in.

“Miss Offord also taught us, and we enjoyed class reading.

“Mid-morning milk was distributed – ‘milk monitors’ opened the cardboard tops to the 1/3 pint bottles and inserted the waxed paper straws.

“When we transferred to the Junior Girls School in the ground floor of the large building across the playground, my first teacher was Mrs Tester.

“Every morning we had a full assembly in the hall with the headmistress, Miss Mason, presiding over a hymn, story and the Lord’s prayer.

“Other teachers were Mrs Higby, Miss Jump and Miss Naxton.

“I still have all my reports from the junior school, which complain regularly about my poor handwriting.

“In needlework classes I made a succession of aprons, all stitched by hand. PE was usually in the playground.

“I recall shinty, a vicious mini-hockey with wooden sticks, but on summer afternoons we carried boxes of equipment to the West Herts playing field in Park Avenue, for rounders and track races.

“Singing lessons were my introduction to a lifetime passion. Miss Jump taught us folksongs and all by the sol-fa method.

She had written out the words on large display sheets. All staff made their own teaching aids in those days.

“My mother, who taught in the infants department, made a series of poster-sized pastel drawings of a family to aid reading lessons.

“In 1952, when King George VI died we stood in our classrooms to keep the two-minutes’ silence.”

Linda Dove, née Dove, has also sent her memories of Chater School.

She wrote: “I remember so much – being disgusted the first day at being made to play in the sandpit (not what school was about); playing on the coal heap, and the marbles craze we pursued in the playground; the boys chasing us lewdly in the outdoor toilets; the desks in rows with the top of the class on one side and the bottom on the other; having milk in the morning and our hair unbraided to test for nits in the afternoon; the educational radio (so boring); Miss Naxton holding a multiplication tables contest in the double sewing period on Wednesday afternoons; assembly in the hall; and on Friday mornings having to memorize a psalm.”