Part 5 The Gentry, Mrs H. Furniss remembers

We know that prior to 1876 there was a 'Dame School' in existence in what was called the Church Rooms as, in the log book of that year of the then new, Church of England ('National') School, reference is made to children being admitted from there This Dame School, most probably a forerunner of today's nursery schools, took children at an early age who were given a rudimentary education by a 'woman of good character'. who was paid a very small salary by a local charity

Parents were naturally disinclined to transfer their infants to an institution that required payment, however small. This is borne out by an HMI report of 1889 which tells us 'children must attend National School and not free infant school.' This despite the fact that the same report states that there was a 'need of a classroom for infants' and again in 1891 warns that 'unless a classroom is provided the infant grant may be withheld.'

What age was then considered as 'infant' we don't know, but we do know not until 1913 were children below the age of 5 excluded.

When the Dame School was no longer used for the teaching of infants it became the Reading Room and its position explains how School lane and School Close acquired their names. This has recently been sold and will be converted in to a private house.

The Church of England (or National) School was opened on February 22nd. 1875 and had 53 children on the roll, all of whom had to pay for schooling. It is logged that a few days after opening, one parent refused to pay, although we are not told of the consequences.

Between October 1918 and March 1920 there were 'several changes of headmaster' and in 1920 HM Inspector's report that the general efficiency of the school has been impaired by numerous changes of headmaster, coupled with numerous changes of staff. Very few weeks had a full staff'.

Part of the 1923 report reads 'The work was not as progressive as it should be but the absence of staff meant that the headmaster had worked under considerable disadvantages. (One teacher was away for half a year and on her return she was often away.)' There is no doubt that, over the years, there was a great problem with staffing in Greens Norton School. In 1907, for instance, there were four classes in one large room -some being taught by monitors, while in 1883 the staff consisted of the headmaster, one pupil teacher and Milly Ratledge (over 18) who was, we suppose, a monitor, - the attendance at the time being 120!

Much depended upon pupil teachers, supply teachers, the vicar and monitors, not to mention the headmaster's wife whose 'services were often required owing to the illness of Miss Ivens' and for 'cookery classes with the top class girls' during the years of the First World War.

And so on and so on until round about 1929 when -possibly because jobs were scarce -teaching at Greens Norton seemed to settle down to a fairly even tenor. It is only fair to say that working conditions in those early years left a lot to be desired.

When one pictures 137 pupils in just two rooms, one can imagine the problems that confronted the staff in 1904. That was the year that the first application was made for a glazed screen to divide classes in the large room, an appeal that was not answered until 1954. Fifty years without the means of keeping one group of vociferous youngsters from another, fifty years of one teacher's voice vying with his/her colleague's, (and dare one mention the mass of paper work produced by fifty years of impassioned pleas from headmasters, HM Inspectors and school governors versus the stubborn refusals of the local education authority). We read that in 1952 a dividing curtain was installed, but at that time there were only 79 on roll.

Over the years the fabric of the school took quite a hammering: the porch and girls' closets were pulled down in 1891 'to make room for a new classroom': a gallery in the infants room was removed; while references to the heating system breaking down abound. Bursts, leaks, floods and repairs were an almost annual event since the 'installation of pipes' in the early 1890s. Nevertheless, improvements slowly appeared as the years went by -a coat of paint here, a floor re-laid there, electric light installed in 1928, washbasins and piped water in 1952 (with paper towels in 1961). (Extract from school log of that year 'We used to have a roller towel on the back of the door -changed from time to time'). But it was becoming clear to everyone that cracks were being papered over -literally in some instances -and that apart from being unable to accommodate the growing numbers of children on roll, the building was falling behind in its requirement as a place of modern primary education.