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Mr Samuel Tomlinson and his wife
become Master and Mistress of the National School in 1878, and
they stayed until 1880 when Mr Simpkins came. He was followed by
Mr Meyers in 1882. So far ‘it had been the custom,’ until
1891 when Mr Rogers went to Ash school, ‘to pay 3d per week
for school, and this was abolished only about a week after I
started school.’10 Mrs Fletcher (Mr Meyers’
daughter) said that she could remember ‘The piles of coppers
on the mantelpiece’. (In her letter, Mrs Fletcher says that
her father was educated at St. Saviours’, Southwark. He had
four years training as a pupil teacher before becoming
qualified!) She goes on to describe the curriculum of the
time: |
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‘Writing was taught from Vera Fosters’
copy books, children had to be five minutes on one line to get
each letter perfect, simple arithmetic only; addition,
subtraction and division. Reading aloud. Singing in groups. They
could leave if they passed their exams at the 4th standard –
some bright ones left at the age of eleven’.11
According to Mr Fred Goodwin12 both Mrs Meyers and
Mrs Fletcher (Miss Meyers) taught in the school.
The school seems to have had little trouble for the
10
See letter from Mr. Trend, appendix
5.
11 Letter from Mrs. Fletcher to
Mr. Muller – 18.iv.64.
12 See appendix 6. |