|
great delight I found several other toys in
that museum identical to toys which I had had as a child and
indeed still have. The outcome of that visit was particularly
interesting. The children themselves suggested that we hold our
own toy exhibition. They thought people in the village might
have their old dolls, toy soldiers and such like things put away
and we could have an exhibition in the hall and charge to go in
and send the money to a charity. We did this and people in the
village provided us with a handsome collection of old books,
toys, dolls, dolls prams – such an array. We were able to
send, in the region of twelve to fifteen pounds, to Oxfam. A
satisfying thing to do especially as it was suggested by the
children themselves.
A great day in the life of the eleven year old
leaver group was the leavers outing. In the early days this
usually meant a trip to London, or some other nearby place of
interest, but suddenly British Rail put on cheap day excursions
to Boulogne and we took advantage of this and took a party
across |
|
the Channel. That really was a Red Letter
Day. We did a lot of preparation for it, learning about French
money, learning about the French food and various other things
they would come across during the day. We even learnt a few
words of French in case of need.
The following year the excursions were extended and
we were able to take advantage of this offer with a visit to
Bruges, which we explored during the morning and a coach trip
into Holland in the afternoon. Of course this involved overnight
travel and we took the night boat across the Channel and again
coming back. We had saved two of our occasional days holidays
for the purpose, to give the children a chance to recover on the
day after. Needless to say it was the staff who needed the day
to recover; the children were as lively as crickets. This visit
to Bruges became an annual event and we included any relatives
of the children who cared to |