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As a result of the complaints received (see
end of previous chapter), Miss Wright was asked to resign on 8th
January 1940. This she refuses to do, and her dismissal follows
on 26th January. The villagers rise in protest and at a stormy
meeting a motion is passed calling on the K.E.C. to reinstate
Miss Wright as Headmistress, which is not accepted by the K.E.C.
so Miss Wright finally left at the end of the Easter term 1940,
but not before the National Press had reported the proceedings
in ‘Kent’s Forgotten Village’1 which included a
strike by the children. Miss Hodges returned to the school as
acting Head, but it was sometime before she could get the school
settled down again. One interesting fact that emerges from this
is a remark written |
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by Miss Wright concerning a class taken by
Miss Pemberton in Ash Manor.2 There is no other
mention of the class, and no information could be obtained. In
view of the fact that Miss Pemberton was one of the teachers who
came down from London with the evacuated children, it is
possible that an overflow class was housed in the Manor. As a
direct result of her dismissal the ‘Hut’, at that time both
built and owned by Miss Wright, was withdrawn from the use of
the school and the village hall hired in its place.
1 Daily Sketch, 29th
March 1940.
2 Minutes of the Meetings of the School
Managers, 20th
Feb. 1940. |