Bentinck road school.

[LocalBornFurriner 7]

I was at Bentinck Road School from January 1962 to July 1967, and the headmistress when I started was Miss Highfield: at that time there were still "big girls" (secondary school pupils) upstairs, with the infants and juniors on the ground floor.  The uniform was navy blue, and i think the badge was in red.  Mrs Leheup (pronounced "lee-up" by us) took the Reception infants, with Miss Jane Freemantle teaching the next class up and a Miss Sale elsewhere in the Infant department a bit later on.  I think Miss Walton came along later in the Juniors, but when I did my own teaching practice at Bentinck in the autumn of 1978 she was still there, the only remaining member of staff from my time as a pupil. 

 

When I started in the Infants, morning Assembly was in the big double classroom on the Bentinck Road side, near the main entrance, but a few years later that room was divided by building a permanent wall in place of the folding doors, and from then on we used the L-shaped hall facing onto Alfreton Road, the one with the PE apparatus and climbing ropes.  The caretaker was Charlie Webb, who had a little cubby-hole in the basement with an opening into the area behind the railings on the corner of Alfreton Road and Bentinck Road, probably originally where the coal was delivered.  

 

I recall that under Miss Highfield we never sang "Happy Birthday" to anyone in school, but instead a song that went "We wish you many happy returns of the day, we hope you may be healthy and strong all the way".  At some point Miss Highfield retired (I think when the secondary part was closed down and the Juniors moved upstairs), and we had a headmaster, Adrian Bowker, who introduced the green uniform with a Phoenix badge in yellow.  The fourth year Juniors (Year 6 by today's nomenclature) were taught by Allen Taylor who used to write a play for pupils to perform towards the end of the Autumn/Christmas term.  When I was still in the Infants or lower Juniors he also arranged a scene from "The Hobbit" which his class performed to the rest of the school, but because I didn't hear very well, until I read the book myself I thought the main character was called Bimbo Bang!  

 

 

 

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

Interesting post, LBF. Many of these Victorian schools housed the whole spectrum of educational years until the mid 60s or so. I went to nearby Berridge and a similar system operated there. Also interesting to note that both schools are still alive and well.

[Cliff Ton 10,467]

11 hours ago, LocalBornFurriner said:

The caretaker was Charlie Webb, who had a little cubby-hole in the basement with an opening into the area behind the railings on the corner of Alfreton Road and Bentinck Road, probably originally where the coal was delivered.  

 

I think all school caretakers were treated like that in those days.