School

Roger Cave came to live in Highfields in 1940, the year he was born.
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they were very strict, and you could quite easily get the cane, you could be hit on the hand with it. The Headmaster then was very strict, and you didn't really get many disciplinary problems because of that. I think most parents excepted it as well really so yes, there was a lot of discipline there.

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they used to have boxing. We used to use St Hilda's Church which was over the road. They used to have a boxing competition which I don't think would be allowed these days, it would be classed as dangerous.

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Helen Edwards interviewing Sandy Coleman for Highfields Remembered.
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I went to Medway Street School, I started in the infants at the age of 4. The things that stick in my mind most is that every afternoon we used to have to lay on these sort of foldup beds and have a sleep every afternoon. I used to lay there and my mind would to turn over and over, I used to pretend to be asleep. It was a complete and utter waste of time to me! We used to have cod liver oil which I hated!

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I went to Dale School which is on Melbourne Road, which was a mixed school, but the boys and the girls didn't mix. They had their own playground, we had ours. The thing was we could actually see them and there was like an arched door where the two sets of staircases, their staircase and our staircase came down...and we used to mouth through the glass of these doors, but that's as near as we were allowed.

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I've got happy memories of Dale it was a really good school for me, because that's where I learnt to cook. I learnt to do my dressmaking there, things that have stayed with me the whole of my life.

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each pupil had to take their satchel into the assembly. As you sat there, she'd take this short service, and then she'd say, "Right, 3A, stand up with your math's book open at your last piece of work." The whole class would stand up, rifle through their satchels, they'd open the book and they'd be panicking because there was ink blobs or perhaps a teacher had written something in red, and then Miss Bennett would come and she'd come down the back of this row of girls, and she'd look over their shoulder and then all you'd get is a push in the back. That meant you had to and stand by her desk at the front of the hall.

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In my last year I was made prefect, which to me was the best thing out of my whole school life. That I'd actually made it to be prefect. I'd got a deportment girdle! In those days you were encouraged to sit upright. I felt that my 4 years at Dale were 4 good years, and they definitely brought out the best in me

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Mr Boleslaw Dobski came to Highfields in 1947/48.
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Cultural activities, yes. Well the school. Well we started the first school around 1950 or 1952.

We got children together to learn the Polish language, the Polish culture. We introduced them to national dancing and theatre. We had a very prosperous theatre and choir and so we started growing as a community. But always we stuck together. Now all the younger generation is spreading into the English community, including myself. I don't go a Polish church anymore. I go to St Thomas Moore because it is nearer, you see.

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So the school started. From the beginning it was in the Dominicans, when we had parents and children. When we had 50, 60 children, we used the local school in Highfields next to our church. With one school there wouldn't have been enough room. There were some of us who had little political differencesbetween one faction and another. You see from the beginning we were all together, but once we had grown let's say, a little bit wiser, or God knows what, then we started quarrelling about politics. Some people accepted the situation in Poland, the communists. But there was another faction, like myself, we didn't agree to it. I have never been to Poland. We have grown into two factions politically and that way we split the school finally. Unfortunate I say, but there you are. That's what happened. And at that time we used to have up to 150 children in Saturday school.

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Dr Stuart Fraser lived in Highfields from 1946 the year he was born.
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when I came to being 5 or 6 I was sent to a private school along the London Road and this then alienated me from the children and the people in the area because I was then being educated outside the area and I would of course have had a grey suit, school colours, a cap and a black Mac to look all very smart.

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The striking thing then that I remember about Highfields was that I used to have to walk, I was delivered to school, I was dropped off-he had a Ford Popular car, but I always had to walk home, so he obviously used to drop me off before morning surgery but I used to have to walk home then and this is from Albert Road, which is from the Clarendon Park way and I would walk from the age of 5, I would walk back from Melbourne Street. There was only one major road crossing and that was the Evington Road, St James Road into Evington Road into St Stephens Road and I was told that later on that my mother had another friend who was the wife of a dentist or another doctor and she had instructions to look out of her upstairs window to watch for me crossing the road. That was the nearest I was looked out for in this journey. When I think about it now, it is quite a trek for a 5 year old or a 6 year old child to make unaccompanied and I did it for several years.

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I would come off the London Road down St James Road which is all very pleasant and then I would have to run the gauntlet of Medway Street School and the problems were that if there was a school crocodile out and if they saw me I would get stuffed into the hedge! So I always had to avoid a school crocodile or I would get duffed up and then when I got further down, across the St Peters Road, there wouldn't be so many school children then but if there a gang of them around I would have to run and leg it

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bonfire night. I mentioned that all the side streets of Melbourne Road were made of granite sets. What used to happen on bonfire night was that each street would have at least one bonfire if not two, and of course you could quite happily have a bonfire because it wouldn't damage the road because it was granite sets. And a bonfire was marvellous because you drive down Melbourne Road and every side street would have a bonfire in the middle of it and there would be rockets and fireworks in the street and it was a marvellous time. I can remember a rocket going a bit wrong and taking off up Hartington Road once because the bonfires going to five ways was quite a good spot, that's opposite the Melbourne Cinema because you had five roads up there and you could see lots of bonfires and that's a time that I vividly remember, was the bonfire night.

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Mrs Hazel Jacques came to Highfields in 1942.
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can you tell me about how the days were spent? Did you actually go out of the home to School, you went to local school?

Yes, we went to Bridge Road Girls' School and Moat Road School. First of all, we got up in the morning and we had to do a job, for example, dust the bedroom floor or get the coal in, or, get the breakfast ready. Then we went to school and at dinner time we had to do all the washing up before we left and it used to be a two hour dinner time then because it was double summer-time and or an hour and a half, it was a long dinner time anyway and then after school we'd have more jobs to do in the evening like getting the potatoes done and ready for the next day, all the potato peelings were taken down to the pig-swill bins which were all collected from East Park Road. We were not allowed to go out after school.

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Miss Alma Knight was born in Highfields in 1923.
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I know a lot of parents were very caring round here, they would collect the children and take them home. Mothers used to wait for you when you came out because you were at school a bit later then. I think it was about 4pm or 4.15pm, something like that. In the dark winter evenings they all used to meet outside and have a little chat,

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I passed the Scholarship but for some reason, we didn't have the confidence the children have today. My mother took me to look at Wyggeston Grammar School, or it might have been Newarke or Alderman Newton. The nearest one was Collegiate School, but you know, my mother and father said as I had won a scholarship I could go if I wanted to. But it was still quite expensive, you had to buy your books and your uniform. Some of my friends were going to Moat Road, which was intermediate. So if you'd won a scholarship you went into the top form and you learnt French and more advanced biology and science. But you left at 14. I absolutely loved schooldays,

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you weren't as restricted as if you were at a grammar school. You were supposed to wear a navy tunic and red jumper for winter, white blouses for autumn and spring, and this is very interesting because we did a lot of sewing in those days, you learnt how to look after a sewing machine and that! You made your own summer uniform. We were divided into four different houses like Bradgate, GraceDieu Swithland and Ulverscroft, and we all had handbroidered emblems and flowers. It was really beautiful, that was the Art teacher's idea. But of course, our mums used to help us a bit getting them done in time, but it was really very nice. There was a very nice arrangement, it was very discreet, and, possibly at that time, which was the middle Thirties, there were a few girls whose fathers didn't have much work. The headmistress and head teacher would arrange an exchange scheme where if you grew out of your tunic, you could take them to the Domestic Science teacher who would just give them a little clean and press if they needed it. Although in those days children were very clean.

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Mr Aidan Maguire came to Highfields in 1962.
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We had a teacher there called Mr Foot. I remember him because he had a bird and I was quite good at art. I am still not too bad, but I used to do a lot of drawings. I was quite popular at school I think. There were lots of other people there – West Indian people and Asian people. I remember one of my mates, his name was Rashid, he was a Pakistani kid and one of my best friends.

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I also remember we never went to assembly and neither did maybe 15 other children because we were Catholics. There used to be kid there who was of Polish decent. We used to have what was called a catholic class and he used to take us for prayers in the morning.

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it was mixed. The kids who actually went to the catholic classes would probably be of Irish background or Polish. If I remember, the Benjamins were a West Indian family, they also went to the catholic classes.

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You don't realise it until you get a bit older but that to move from one environment to another was like being thrown into a crazy world. There were so many people around, you know, different people as I said. People I had never seen around before, black people and kids in classes with turbans on. It was quite a change to have all them in one year.

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everyone was frightened of Mr Penfold who was the deputy Head. I remember he caught me and Rashid and a couple of other lads playing around where we used to go. He pulled us up by the ears and give us a clip round the ear, we were only about 6 or 7, I don't think he really meant it he just scared us really.

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It was an interesting school to go to because although the majority (70%) were white, most of them would have been the first generation from another country; Poland, Ukraine, Ireland, West Indies and of course the large Goanese community. As you know, there was always a large Asian population there but the Goanese always classed themselves as Portuguese for some reason. We always knew them as the Portuguese people, it wasn't until later that I found that Goa was a Portuguese colony in India but everyone just called them the Portuguese and they all spoke really good English.

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when the summer came they used to have summer schools at the old Moat Boy's school. They were great, everybody went to that.

What is a summer school?

We used to have organised things, sports, there would be cooking for the girls. There was football and you could go in there and do painting and things like that and it was quite good.

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They had the sports round on Spinney Hill Park or Ethel Road, the playing fields on Ethel Road. There were little medals and things for the winners, it was quite good. Everyone enjoyed the summer school round here because people were together.

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I actually remember going there I remember going to where the adventure playground is when we were about five or six, our class did a nature thing in a meadow. I remember one of the kids seeing a grass snake!

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Marjorie Marston was born in Highfields in 1942.
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I remember when I first started to school I caught whooping cough so I ended up with bronchitis and double pneumonia. I didn't go back to school again for another year but I used to love school. I went to St Peter's Junior School, St Peter's Infants first then Junior. I made a lot of friends there and we had a really happy time.

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At school at Christmas we used to have fancy dress parties which I remember quite well. I remember going one year as Little Bo Peep with all the crinolines and everything. We didn't have a lot of money, obviously we didn't have television then, we used to listen to the radio a lot, listen to records, it sounds ancient doesn't it? But it was that far back. We just made a lot of our own entertainment , we played cards, played darts. My father used to like playing darts, we generally had quite a happy childhood I think.

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In our domestic science classes, we used to clean a flat in the grounds which one of the teachers used to occupy, so she had all her cleaning done for her quite regularly, every week. It taught us how to clean and how to polish and all sorts of things but it was quite enjoyable. We did French, the basics but enough.

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Not a lot of people went to university after school unless you had some money, you know money helps a lot to go there, so mostly you left school at 16 and went out and found a job and it was a lot easier than it is today.

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Mrs Margaret Porter came to Highfields in 1923.
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I also have very happy memories of going to Medway Street school where I learnt to do the Military Two-Step at the Christmas parties. We all wore our best frocks and had to take some party food which was eaten in the class-rooms.

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We walked to school and I can remember once meeting a flock of sheep being driven along Saxby Street (probably from the cattle-market) and hiding behind a tree.

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some of the lady teachers were a bit tougher, especially Miss Date, who was liable to give you a slap across the knuckles with a ruler. There was also Miss Hopley, who wore her hair parted in the middle and firmly fastened back each side with a hair grip. Both of these teachers wore tunics like the children, and I think, black stockings.

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Brett Pruce was born in Highfields in 1955.
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I actually went to the nursery school opposite Highfields Infants' School.

How old would you have been then?

Two or three I would have thought, because I started at Highfields Infants' School when I was five, then I moved from there to St Peter's Junior School in Gopsall Street. From there I was really supposed to go to Moat Boys' School, but my mum thought it was beginning to get a bit of a reputation. My brother had been there, so my mum insisted that I go to Crown Hills which was a hell of a trek you know. I mean the buses came once a week, but there wasn't a bus that went all the way to Crown Hills at the time, so I used to have to get a bus to the Evington Cinema and then walk from there. In the end my mam saved up enough money and bought me a bike. I went there and back on the bike every day.

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I remember Highfields Infants' school. At the junior, the nursery school I mean, I wore glasses at the time. I was very anti-glasses, I used to bury them in the sandpit all the while.

I bet your mum loved that!

Well, it wasn't so much my mum, it was the teachers. I used to have to dig the sandpit out because I used to alter the place where I buried them every time. I've got quite vivid memories of Highfields Infants' School. It wasn't very regimented but they used to make us lie down on a canvas or a canvas camp bed in the afternoon for a sleep.

Is that in the Junior School?

No, that's in the Infants' School. I'm not sure what it is now. I don't know whether it's a temple or what. It's on the corner of Saxby Street and Sparkenhoe Street . The nursery school was dead opposite, a pre-fabricated type of building.

How old were you then, when you were lying down in the afternoon?

I would have been four, five or six. From there I'm trying to think where I would have gone to. . . yeah, it would have been to St Peters. We didn't do that there obviously. There was no grass, just two concrete playgrounds. I have very good memories of that, a lovely school. We had a West Indian headmaster, a Mr Robinson if I remember rightly, which was a rarity if you like in those days. But a super little school, two floors. The upper floor was a big hall which used to be segregated off into classrooms by a concertina door which was, you know what I mean, about twenty five feet high so there was a feeling of space if you like.

Did they open out for school concerts ?

Oh yeah. You sometimes had to do PE inside if the weather was really atrocious.

Was there a dinner hall as well, or was that separate?

Yes it was. The dinner hall was downstairs, but it was a similar sort of thing. It had concertina doors, and then there was little classrooms off it.

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Did you stay at school for the dinners?

No. I went home for dinner. I did for a spell when I went to Crownhills, but I never got on with it, so I ended up push-biking to and from home, four times a day.

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So was the playground a bit rough at times when you were very small?

Not so much at Gopsall Street. We had our scrapes. Don't get me wrong, we had our own little gangs if you like to call them, but we tended to be a bit territorial.

Were they the same people that you played with in the street?

Yeah, I think it was good that we all went to school together as well, but I think we had the lads in Stoughton Street and then you had Evington Street and Oxenden Street lads, and you know, every now and again you'd play football against each other, and the bulk of the time you got on well. But every now and again you got rid of your frustrations and there was a bit of a punch up, but nothing serious, nothing of the violence you get today. It was a bit of a twenty-second punch up and then that was it. You'd all be mates and playing football again.

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And, you know, we had a boys' and a girls' playground you see at St Peters, so of course, it was never the twain shall meet anyway. I mean, you were under pain of death if you were caught in a girls' playground and vice-versa. So, you were probably encouraged not to play together.

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Was Crownhills a boys' school at that time?

Yes, it was a boys' school, but I think it was two years before I went there that they changed it into a co-ed. So there were lots of girls at our school. There were quite a few of us who went there and because their parents had the same sort of view of Moat Boys' and Moat Girls' School at the time, I suppose you can say things were deteriorating.

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at secondary school because obviously when I was at secondary school, we were the minority at Crown Hills, the Highfields lads, probably only half a dozen of us, probably less than that in our class. There used to be four or five of us who would walk to school, or ride to school or go on the bus to school from where we were. But of course everybody else from there were coming from Goodwood and Evington, and Coleman Road. And it opened up new friends to you, you know, I've got pictures in there when we all went to Wembley from School. I could tell you where they all lived, there's nobody from Highfields there. There's one, Phil Chapman. He lived on Donington Street. But yeah, it was a tight knit community I have to admit. That creates its own problems. At times, you can be too tight knit, can't you? Everybody knows everybody else's business.

Was there much gossip?

Oh I think so, yeah. You would hear the expression "Over the garden fence". Well obviously we didn't have garden fences, we had six foot high walls in the back garden. So it was always on the front doorstep. The big gaggle of ladies. I'm not saying it was just ladies. Perhaps if a guy was fiddling with his car or a motorbike there'd be, you know, you'd have a gossip or whatever.

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Councillor Farook Subedar came to live in Highfields in 1972.
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Now what about the Madressas for the children of the supplementary Schools?

Oh yes. Now we had a struggle. As I said we had two small Mosques to contend with a large number of children to be taught in supplementary schools. So slowly and gradually, we negotiated with local schools to give their premises to be available in the evenings for supplementary schools in the early years. If you come around in Highfields in the evenings you will find most of the schools are allocated for some kind of supplementary school.

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Asian ladies hardly used to go out to work. Nowadays, they are fighting for their position which is a very healthy sign and I think we should encourage them. They're educated, they go out to the universities, they've been out to different institutions and they are establishing themselves. I'm happy for them.

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Mary Thornley came to live in Highfields in 1912.
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Can you go back to Melbourne Road School, can you remember your first day there?

Well vaguely, I remember my early days there and one or two of the teachers that I got to know quite well. I think the Headmistress of the Junior School was a Miss Valentine, a real Victorian lady, she wore proper Victorian clothes, high necked blouses and things.

Was she strict?

Well she didn't actually teach me so I don't know, but there was a Miss Shires as well who taught me and I got to like her very much, she was very kind, she used to come and have tea with us sometimes at home.

Oh, so you knew her very well then?

Yes, I got to know her quite well yes.

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Of course the war came you see when I was six and we had half days because Medway Street School shared the other half of the day with our school.

Why?

Well I don't know why, maybe because of staff shortages.

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Did you wear a school uniform?

Yes, navy blue gym slips, beige cream blouses and blue and green striped tie collars. School bands on the hats were the same colours as the ties. I think it was a black hat in the winter but it was a Panama in the summer.

Was it a felt hat in the winter?

Yes the black one was yes. I do remember we used to go to the Victoria Park Tennis courts for our tennis lessons and if we had our blazers on, we had to wear gloves and if we didn't have our blazers on we had to carry our gloves. We walked in a crocodile line to Victoria Park. The courts are still there I think, not the ones near the pavilion but the ones a bit further a long nearer the University.

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What age were you when you left there?

About fourteen, I didn't stay at school after fourteen.

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Mr Eric Tolton was born in Highfields in 1916.
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Can you remember your first day at school?

Yes, I ran home from Melbourne Road School and the Infants gate was in Berners Street you see, because I had never mixed with other children and there was a lot of rough lads there. I was scared stiff and when it came to playtime, the teachers used to sit on a small bench along one of the walls and Id just go and stand around and be near to them. There was one teacher who would tell me to go and play with the other children. But I would run home. I did that twice. They started locking the gate after that. But mother was the sort to put on her coat and get me straight back to school!

Were the classes big, can you remember?

They didnt strike me as massively big, might have been thirty. A lot of the time we sat on mats on the floors and then round the wall. There must have been a long bench like thing and part-hinged over, and when it was sleeping time you put your head down.
There was a period of time when you were supposed to sit quiet, say nothing and do nothing.

How old were you when you went to school?

Five.

So it would have been 1921?

Yes, yes thats right.

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Is it possible for you to remember a school day, like from getting there in the morning?

Well, I dont know. I never did very well at the early school because a lot of the work was using you hands like, colouring papers, making models and knitting and that sort of thing. Im no good at all that and I didnt like school to be quite honest. I was fortunate enough to pass the scholarship, it was only second class. My mother had to pay but I went to the City Boys school and from the first year I was top of the class so once I could do mathematics, history, geography that sort of thing I was alright, but not hand work!

So you didnt really enjoy being in primary school?

No, I didnt.

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Did you find it was strict, did you like games?

Oh it was strict yes, thats right because you had to march to your classroom. You didnt wander in like they do nowadays. You had to form up and march and I turned round on the stairs because the teacher caught me. I got the cane for that! Then there was a girl, I can remember her name, Madelaine Lewis. The girls sat one side and the boys the other, and what did she do? She did something and I copied her, course the teacher caught me. Why did you do that? I said, Madelaine Lewis did it! The teacher said, If Madeline Lewis put her hand in the fire would you? Of course I was ever such a cheeky lad so I said Yes. I had to stand in the corner for that!

Did you stay for school dinners, do you remember?

No, I went home.

Do you remember doing PE or PT at school?

I dont remember doing it at school, we might have done you know arms out and back, jumping with your feet apart. The first gymnasium was when I went the City Boys school at eleven, thats where they had a proper gymnasium, rope climbing, wall bars and that sort of thing yeah. I think there was something but I dont know whether you call it PT, or just exercising your arms and legs a bit.

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You and your children where you all living on Hartington Road?

Yes, yes they were all born there.

They went to school locally?

Yes, started off at Charnwood Street except the last one but the others all started off at Charnwood Street, then the boy went to the City Boys school, my daughter went to the Collegiate, my other son went to Alderman Newtons and the last girl didnt make the grade. She never started at Charnwood Street, there was a little school attached to St Saviours Church on St Saviours Road.

Right then, can we talk about the school that your youngest daughter went to on St Saviours school?

Yes, well, my wife decided she didnt want her to go to Charnwood Street because she was ever such a little dot and it seemed such a big overwhelming place, so she went to St Saviours and I dont know how she got her in, who she had to see, but she went there. Course she moved from there to Crown Hills, well that would be when she was eleven I should imagine.

Was St Saviours school a private school?

No, we didnt have to pay anything.

Was it attached to the Church then, or a Church School do you know?

I dont think so, I never heard her talking about the Vicar or anything like that going to the school mind you children dont tell you things.

It was a small school you say.

Oh it was only a very small school, yes.

How small?

Oh only about two classrooms.

Im just wondering whether she moved to Crown Hills before she was eleven cause with only two classes they wouldnt stretch from ages 6 to 11 would they? Perhaps there were more than two it was only a very small school though.

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Mrs Muriel Wilmot came to live in Highfields in 1927.
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I remember I have always been one for good quality. Once, mother bought me a cheap tunic from Woolworths and I wanted to see the pleats go in and out but they didn't. I used to go by a big bicycle shop to look in the window at my reflection to see if the pleats went in and out they didn't. So I went back and complained to mother and she said I am awfully sorry but you can't have that type. I said I wanted one of those square necked blouses like Catherine Trip had, that's my friend. She had a velvet top and tunic and mother said that they were in a different situation, and you have to have what you get and be grateful. So that was that.

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So you left school when you were 14?

14. We went for a holiday at Blackpool. We always did, every year. Leicester had the first two weeks in August as holiday, it was a regular thing, nobody had any other holiday but the first two weeks in August.

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Mrs Dorothy Woodford was born in Highfields in 1921.
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Soon after, I passed the Scholarship as it was called, and was accepted as a pupil at the Wyggeston Grammar School. This auspicious event coincided with my father's promotion at work. I can clearly recall my mother, unable to contain her delight telling us children, "Don't broadcast the fact, but your father's a £5 a week man now!" This put us above the threshold to claim for any help with school uniform, though I'm sure my parents would have been too proud to ask anyway! Somehow by scrimping and saving I went off to Wyggeston with all the necessary kit.

Although in retrospect I regret not making better use of my opportunity, I'm grateful for the all round education I received. We were proud of our school and our uniform, which far from causing class distinction did much, in my opinion, to iron out the obviously very different backgrounds of the pupils.

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English was considered the most important subject, we were taught the correct way of writing letters, job applications, replying to invitations, etc. From subsequent experience of communications I have received in my business career, this does not seem to have quite the same priority today.

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November 5th. Every year my father would bring home a small selection of fireworks – Catherine Wheels (duly pinned on the line prop), Roman Candles, Jumping Jacks and the like. After the display in our small back garden, we would then do the rounds of all the side streets in the neighbourhood where bonfires would be alight in the middle of the street. I suppose it must have been a bit risky, but I don't recall any fire getting out of hand.

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Mrs Joan Hands came to live in Highfields in 1940.
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The infant school for the Derwent Street area was about a quarter of a mile along the main road. It was called Melbourne Road School; it had both mixed infants’ and senior departments, segregated into Boys and Girls at the secondary stage. My mother took me there for the first week or two, thereafter I was expected to go alone or with a group of friends from my street. We were not mollycoddled in those days and had no fear of strangers or crossing roads – all part of the ‘streetwise’ background I grew up in.

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