10:24am Friday 18th June 2010
By Michael Pickard
Mount Pleasant Lane School, in Bricket Wood, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Here former pupil Jean Walsh, née Gibbs, looks back on her school days.
She said: “I was very interested in the article in the Watford Observer about the 75th anniversary for Mount Pleasant Lane School.
“My brother and I (Jean and Robin Gibbs) started at the school in 1944 and 1945 respectively, and lived across the road at 31 Mount Pleasant Lane.
“Our aunt, Margaret Lunt, was one of the first pupils to attend the school. Originally she went to the school at Old Bricket Wood on Lord Knutsford’s estate, and that school closed as Mount Pleasant Lane opened. She is in one of the photographs that originally hung in the school corridor.
“One of my very earliest memories of going to school was that we didn’t use paper and pencils.
“We each had a tray of fine sand and a meat skewer to use to learn how to write our letters and all we had to do when that was done, was to shake the tray and start again. I think that this only happened with the first years.
“I also remember when the air raid sirens went, we all marched into the air raid shelters with our books and carried on with our lessons as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
One day the raid was longer than usual and when the all-clear came it was well past school finishing time, so we were all gathered into the playground in groups of where we lived – Robin and I were upset because we were left standing on our own – the older pupils were each given a bunch of children who lived near to each other to escort home, and we were just able to cross the road, but we didn’t see it like that.
“Another memory is of Nurse Nichols coming regularly and we lined up outside the staff room door where she checked our hair, teeth and finger nails, ‘Nitty Nora’ we called her, but she was lovely really.
“I would love to be included in any events that the school has, and maybe my memory will unearth some more past happenings.”
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