This young schoolgirl is Maureen Southam, née Shrimpton, who wrote to Nostalgia with her memories of Chater School.

Mrs Southam, of New Road, Croxley Green, said: “I started Chater School in September 1953 just before my fifth birthday. The first year teacher was a Miss James who would teach us nursery rhymes, ABC and how to count properly. At lunchtime, Mr Bunker the caretaker would put up beds and the baby class as we were known had to lay down after dinner for half an hour and rest. Mr Bunker would also light a fire in the classroom in the winter and place the guard around it for our afternoons of playing with toys, then we would all sit cross-legged around the fire for a story to be read to us before hometime. Miss James was such a lovely, soft speaking, kind teacher.

“In the second year we went into Mrs Allen, a bit stricter but kind. Work got a little harder doing times tables by parrot fashion and really getting stuck into the art of reading and spelling.

“Second year was either Miss Naxton or Miss Gardener, who I remember lived in Mildred Avenue. This was the teacher I had. I can remember getting a sum wrong one day and Miss Gardener had my index finger in her hand pushing it along the abacus to get me to get the right answer.

“At seven, we crossed the playground line, unheard of in the infants, to become a junior. I cannot remember the first year teachers in the junior school unfortunately or the second year, although I must say all the teachers were kind.

“In the third year you either had Miss Jumper, Mrs Cooper or Mr McDonald, whom everyone was frightened of. I had Miss Cooper. She also had a son at the school. Miss Jump was the choir teacher, very strict but fair and you did not sing the wrong note or she would really get cross. However, we had an outstanding choir. I can still remember Helen Dott fainting during one lesson and my best friend Patricia Masters messing around.

“In the fourth year we had all male teachers. Mr Dawes who was stern on the boys, Mr Arieghi and Mr Prior. He was our teacher, a man of about 5ft 6-7ins who taught us netball. He was a very good teacher. I never really came across Mr Arieghi at all, but Mr Dawes, who I have spoken to a lot, was a great teacher. He has been living in Croxley Green, and would watch the boys in their playground as boys and girls never shared the same playground. If he saw fights or any trouble he made sure he got them all and made them suffer. He even had two boys in a circle of onlookers having a fight once.

“In all this I am forgetting the head, Mr Warburton, whom I had the misfortune of being sent to one day.

“Also, Miss Fletcher, who joined Chater infants when my brother was six. He was four-and-a-half years younger. She then went onto York Mead and taught my 39-year-old son at five and our 25-year-old at five, but unfortunately died two years later. She was a diamond.

“Our uniform was grey or green pleated skirts, yellow blouses, yellow and green ties and green jumpers or cardigans.

“These were some of the best years of our lives. Special days were Empire Day and at Easter, looking for the bunny’s footprints.”