CARDIFF SCHOOLS
& THE AGE OF
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
THE LOG BOOKS:
A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY (Word Version)
Keith Strange
First
and foremost I must thank the headteachers who allowed me access to their
school records (though I would, ever so politely, draw their attention to my
postscript).
The
staffs of the Local Studies Department of Cardiff County Library and of the
Glamorgan Record Office deserve my particular gratitude for their expertise,
patience and support.
I
would also like to place on record my thanks to Dan Chidgey, archivist for the
Catholic Archdiocese, for tracking down the Heathfield House, St. David’s and
St. Illtyd’s records, and to Sister Mary Bernardine of the Sisters of
Providence of the Institute of Charity and Brother Damien of the De La Salle
Brothers for allowing me to work on this material. The debt I owe Dennis Morgan
will become apparent as the reader turns the pages.
Finally,
my thanks are also due to the staff of Keymaster
Locksmiths, Penylan Road, Cardiff who managed in several cases to open Log
Books which had been locked for years and to cut the keys which opened even
more.
To
one and all, sincere thanks.
Masquerading
as a senior lecturer in the Cardiff School of Education I have been privileged
to be allowed access to the Log Books and, where they still exist, the
Admissions Registers and Punishment Books of 95 City of Cardiff schools and 23
Glamorgan ones. I have also drawn on the Education Committee Minutes of both
authorities, especially Cardiff, and various other primary sources, but the
great bulk of the material presented here has been culled from the Log Books.
Since
the advent of State education in 1870 all publicly funded schools had been
required to keep a Log, normally stoutly-bound and with its own lock and key,
in which ‘The Principal Teacher must make at least
once a week an entry which will specify ordinary progress, and other facts
concerning the School or its Teachers - such as the dates of withdrawls,
commencements of duty, cautions, illness etc. - which may be require to be
referred to at a future time, or may otherwise deserve to be recorded’.[1]
The keeping of these logs varied enormously from head to head and
from school to school. So whilst some logs contained some detail others devoted
page after page, year after year (and in some cases decade after decade) to
minimalistic entries along the lines of ‘Miss So and So was absent today’ or
‘Mr. So and So resumed duties today’ and common to all was a preoccupation with
pupil attendances which, in an age when salaries and capitation were at stake,
is understandable even though it didn’t subsequently lend itself to exciting
reading. Nor did the practice of recording the title of each and every Circular
sent out by the Education Office which was another common phenomenon. Heads
have told me that it was a demand of the Authority but I have read enough Logs
to know that by no means all schools did this even though a great many did.[2]
I
have waded through literally hundreds of years of ‘Miss So and So was absent
today’ and ‘Received Circular…’ and, believe me, the experience is hardly an
edifying one; but in this wading I have also
come across much which is of interest and this book is a product of such
encounters. If, individually, many
logs were laconic and mundane, collectively
– as I hope what follows will show - they can provide a unique and fascinating
insight into schooling and the wider world.
The reader will
need to appreciate that the school system in place in Cardiff and elsewhere
during the war years was quite different to our present one. Basically there
were two types of state schools, Elementary and High. The great majority of
children only attended elementary schools, which consisted of mixed infant
departments and single sex upper schools, in which they remained until their
fourteenth birthday. A minority of pupils, having passed an
entrance
examination, went to single sex High Schools at the age of eleven where they
studied for five years for their Central Welsh Board School Certificate
Examinations and only a very few went on to the sixth form and sat Higher
Certificate Exams.[3] Thus in
January 1943 there was somewhere in the region of 125 elementary schools in the
City of Cardiff with a total of 30,070 pupils and ten High Schools with just
3,816 pupils.[4]
Within the
elementary sector there were some variations, with mixed sex junior and senior
departments in some schools for example and, in June 1939, Glamorgan County
opened a brand new non-selective Senior Mixed School, what would later become
known as a Secondary Modern, in
Whitchurch. [At this time the schools at Whitchurch together with those at
Llanederyn, Llysfaen, Radyr, St. Fagan’s and Tongwynlais did not come under the
aegis of Cardiff but as they are all now a part, or recognised as suburbs of
the City I have included material from them.]
In an attempt to
enable the reader to identify individual schools and at the same time reduce
the verbiage, I have shortened the names of some of them, used their present
day titles in other instances or even renamed them completely – this latter
course of action being inevitable when confronted by the logs of no fewer than
six schools named St. Mary’s. Thus
Roath Park is reduced to Roath, to distinguish between Llandaff Church in Wales
and Llandaff Council, Highfields, the one becomes Llandaff City and the other
Highfields, and St. Mary’s Church in Wales Mixed, Clarence Road, is
rechristened ‘Clarence Mixed’. Should this strategy cause any offence, I
apologise profusely.
Finally,
I have drawn on the work of a predecessor of mine at
UWIC, Dennis Morgan, in an attempt to provide a Cardiff perspective and
incorporated a sparse commentary about the war so as to help place events in
the City into the wider, global perspective.
Albany Road Boys’ *
Albany Road Girls’ *
Albany Road Infants’ *
Allensbank Boys’
Allensbank Girls’
Allensbank Infants’
Baden Powell Infants’
Birchgrove Infants’
Birchgrove Mixed
Canton C W Girls’ *
Canton C W Infants’ *
Cathays High for Boys
Court Road Boys’ [5]
Court Road Girls’
Court Road Infants’
Crofts Street C W Infants’ [6]
Crwys Road Infants’ *
Crwys Road Mixed *
Dulwich House Hospital School *
Eleanor Street Mixed & Infants’ [7]
Ely Infants’ [8]
Gladstone Boys’
Gladstone Girls’ [9]
Gladstone Infants’
Grangetown Boys’
Grangetown Girls’
Grangetown Continuation School
Grangetown C W Infants’ [10]
Grangetown C W Mixed
Greenhill Open Air School
Hawthorn Infants’
Hawthorn Mixed
Heathfield House RC High [11]
Herbert Thompson Boys’
Herbert Thompson Girls’
Herbert Thompson Infants’
Hywel Dda Infants’
Hywel Dda Junior Mixed
Jackson Hall Oral School for the Deaf *
Kitchener Road Mixed & Infants’ *
Lansdowne Road Boys’
Lansdowne Road Girls’ *
Lansdowne Road Infants’
Llandaff City C W Mixed
Llandaff, Highfields, Mixed & Infants’ *
Llanishen C W Mixed & Infants’ *
Maindy Infants’ *
Maindy Junior Mixed [12]
Marlborough Road Infants’
Metal
Street C W Boys’ *
Metal
Street C W Girls’ *
Metal
Street C W Infants’ *
Moorland
Road Boys’
Moorland
Road Girls’
Moorland
Road Infants’
Ninian Park Infants’
Radnor
Road Boys’ *
Radnor
Road Girls’ *
Radnor
Road Infants’ *
Roath Park Boys’
Roath Park Girls’
Roath Park Infants’
St. Alban’s RC Infants’
St. Alban’s RC Mixed
St. Cuthbert’s RC Mixed & Infants’
St. David’s RC Infants’ *
St. Francis’ RC Infants’
St. Francis’ RC Mixed
St. Joseph’s RC Infants’
St. Mary’s C W Junior Mixed, Bute Terrace *
St. Mary’s C W Senior Mixed, Bute Terrace *
St. Mary’s C W Infants’, Clarence Road *
St. Mary’s C W Mixed, Clarence Road *
St. Mary’s RC Infants’, Canton
St. Mary’s RC Juniors’, Canton
St. Monica’s C W Infants’
St. Monica’s C W Mixed
St. Patrick’s RC Infants’ *
St. Patrick’s RC Mixed *
St. Peter’s RC Girls’
Severn Road Manual Centre *
Severn Road Girls’
Stacey Road Boys’ *
Stacey Road Infants’ *
Tredegarville C W Boys’
Viriamu Jones Boys’ *
Wartime Nurseries [13]
Windsor-Clive Boys’ *
Llanederyn C W Mixed & Infants’ *
Llysfaen Mixed & Infants’
Radyr
Mixed & Infants’
St. Fagan’s C W Mixed & Infants’ *
Tongwynlais Junior Mixed & Infants’ *
Whitchurch Boys’ *
Whitchurch Girls’ *
Whitchurch Senior Mixed *
Aberdare Town Girls’ & Junior Mixed, Cynon Valley *
Abernant Mixed & Infants’, Cynon Valley *
Aman Infants’, Cynon Valley *
Blaenycwm
Mixed, Rhondda *
Cwmbach Junior Mixed, Cynon Valley *
Pentre Girls’, Rhondda *
Pentre Mixed, Rhondda *
Ynyslwyd Central Mixed, Cynon Valley *
Cardiff High for Boys *
Cardiff High for Girls *
Ely Mixed
Grangetown Infants’
St. Illtyd’s College [15]
[* Denotes material held at the Glamorgan Record Office]
Common abbreviations used in the
footnotes:
CCL Cardiff
County Library
1938
In March, Adolf Hitler’s troops take
control of Austria against the wishes of the Austrian Government and the terms
of the Treaty of Versailles. In the late summer Hitler demands the Sudetenland
in Czechoslovakia…[16]
1st September
At Hawthorn Infants’ two seven year old
boys are not promoted to the Mixed School. One has `retarded mental development
due to severe operations and mastoid absesses’ and the other `slow mental
development and a weak constitution’. At Lansdowne Boys’ sixteen pupils are not
promoted. One is described as ‘defective’, two as ‘mentally retarded’ and six
as ‘backward’.
5th September
The Head of Birchgrove Mixed `Admitted
Lionel Clarke, a very delicate boy suffering with heart trouble. He always has
blue lips and, when cold, very blue. He is brought to school in a chair. He is
eight and a half years old and has never been to school before. It is the worst
heart case I have ever experienced’.
6th September
At Severn Road the Headmistress records
`Educational films will be shown Tuesday afternoon 1st week,
Wednesday 2nd week, Thursday 3rd week every month, to
girls half session and to boys the other half, beginning today, to the great
delight and benefit of the scholars’.
15th September
`Miss Thornley MA, gave a Temperance
Lecture to Forms 3 & 4…Prizes for the best essays in each form will be
given and Certificates for the next best six in order of merit’ records the
Head of Birchgrove Mixed.
22nd September
Thomas Adler, from Czechoslovakia, is
admitted to Roath Boys’.[17]
At St. Patrick’s Mixed `Four children
(two boys & two girls) visited HMS
Viscount and were entertained to tea
by the ship’s company’. Four girls from Grangetown also take part in the visit
as well as three boys and three girls from Eleanor Street.
26th September
Mr. Moses Samuel, a teacher at Herbert
Thompson Boys’, ‘is absent with leave – Jewish Holiday’.
28th September
Cardiff’s Head Teachers are
summoned by the Director of Education to attend a meeting at 12 noon about Air
Raid Precautions at the Technical College, Cathays Park. The Head of
Viriamu Jones Boys’ records `Result – All Headteachers have to devize their own
schemes of getting the children to their homes after air-raid warnings. A staff
meeting will be held this afternoon to discuss ways and means’.
At Tredegarville they hold their first
air raid practice in the afternoon.
29th September
The Head of Stacey Boys’
notes a Circular about ‘Air Raid Precautions’. Pupils are to be ‘grouped for
dispersal‘ if the alert is sounded and so schools should practice ‘falling in
the proper groups’. The Headmistress of Radnor Girls’ elaborates: `girls are to
be in the playground in `Street Groups’ in one and a half minutes. Arrangement
made with mothers of girls in Fairwater to be housed with friends nearby in an
emergency’.
At Birchgrove `The scholars of the
Upper School were made Wardens of the Lower School, each being responsible in
most cases for one pupil. Those who lived near each other were paired. At ten
to twelve the main bell was pulled four times and the school evacuated in one
and a quarter minutes. Only two Wardens failed to do duty. The practice was
carried out in case War was declared and Air Raids started. I consider the
experiment a very successful one. The eighty-four pupils outside the ten
minutes limit were paired with smaller children outside the same limit’.[18]
Moorland Girls’ holds its first
evacuation drill as they do at Herbert Thompson where ‘It was successfully
carried out and all the children were clear of the school premises in under one
and a half minutes’.[19]
Infant schools are closed so that gas masks can be distributed to all local people. At Birchgrove, Roath and St. Patrick’s this takes two days, at Albany, Allensbank, Court Road, Maindy, Radnor and Stacey it takes three and at Baden Powell, Clarence Road, Hywel Dda, Lansdowne and Splott it takes four.
In an attempt to resolve the situation an
International Conference is held in Munich in Germany at the end of September.
Despite the strong opposition of the Czech Government, Britain and France agree
to Hitler’s demands for the Sudetenland in return for a promise of peace. Prime
Minister Chamberlain returns and tells the British people he has secured `Peace
for Our Time’.[20]
In Cardiff, the Lord Mayor orders that the flags of all the nations which took part at Munich should be flown from the City Hall so, briefly, the Swastika flies over the city. A huge outcry eventually sees it being lowered.[21]
30th September
The Head of Roath Girls’
admits that the timetable has been disrupted this week by ARP practices.
Miss Margaret Morrish, a
teacher at Court Girls’ ‘terminated her duties, in view of her approaching
marriage’.
4th October
The Head of Stacey Infants’ reports
`School re-opened after being closed for air raid precautions, only 100 out of
204 children present’. At Maindy Infants’ only fifty-six children turn up and
at the Infants’ in Lansdowne Road 134 children out of 237 attend. At Llanishen,
however, `The infants room is still occupied by ARP’.
The Head of St. Paul’s sends the
following to all parents:
‘Dear Sir / Madam,
Air Raid Precautions
Whilst the immediate danger of War has
been averted, the events of the past week make it essential for the general
public to be ready at short notice to meet any emergency.
I send herewith a copy of the plans
which were made last week for the evacuation of the children from this school
in the event of Air Raids.
If, in the future, war appears
imminent, whilst details of the plan may be modified, the general principles
will remain the same.
Thanking you for your co-operation,
Yours faithfully,
F.H. Parkin,
Headmaster’.
[Enclosed is a detailed scheme whereby
the children of both Mixed and Infants’ are divided into six groups, each to
assemble at a specified place and be escorted to different ‘dispersal points’
such as St. Paul’s Church, the Parish Hall and the corner of Ferry Road.]
‘Important
1. Parents are
urgently requested to refrain from rushing to the School. Children should be
met at the dismissal points given above.
2. Impress upon
your child the route to be taken from the point of dismissal to the home. In
this way children will be sure of meeting their parents.
3. See that your
child brings his/her gas mask to school at every session.
4. Impress upon
your child:-
(a) The necessity
for taking great care of the gas-mask.
(b) The need for
control and order in carrying out the plan of evacuation.
5. In the event
of an air raid occuring on the way to, or when leaving school the child should
be instructed to run home with all speed.
6. In the process
of evacuation, coats, hats, or any personal belongings must remain in the
school’.
10th October
At Herbert Thompson Boys’ ‘It was reported to me this morning that William Cunningham, of 63 Red House Road, was yesterday admitted to the Sanitorium suffering from infantile paralysis…His brothers are excluded from school pending instructions from the Medical Officer of Health’.
14th October
Moorland Girls’ is closed in the afternoon for an `Attendance Holiday’. [Since 1907 half-day holidays for good attendance have been awarded to Cardiff’s schools. To qualify Boys’ and Girls’ or Mixed schools have to have a monthly attendance averaging 95% or over whilst Infant schools have to make 90% or over.[22]]
18th October
The Headmistress of St. Peter’s is `Notified of two cases of poliomyelitis in the school’.
28th October
At Hawthorn Infants’ `Jean Gardner, a pupil in Class 2, died today from Tubercular Meningitis’.
2nd November
Cardiff’s schools receive a Circular about Air Raid Precautions. The Head of Viriamu Jones sets out its contents in some detail:
`Extract from Joint Advisory Committee
proceedings - `Services of Schools Staffs – In the opinion of this Committee,
the first duty of the teachers is to be with the children, and that any offer
of voluntary service should be available only when the children are in safety.
Service is voluntary on all staffs, but it is suggested that the voluntary
service offered by staffs should be based on each and every school as a unit of
the Air Raid Precautions organisation...’
`In connection with the above, the Chief Constable has been given permission to approach members of the teaching staffs under the Authority with a view to securing their enrolment as volunteers in the various schemes of ARP work’.
3rd November
Stacey Boys’ notes a
Circular about ‘The Use and Care of Gas Masks’.
4th November
Another Circular concerns the
`Admittance of Infants under four years of age’. No child under four is to be
admitted without permission from the Director of Education.[23]
7th November
`Representatives of the Chief Constable
interviewed teachers regarding ARP classes’ records the Head of Radnor Girls’.
The next day a policeman does the same at St. David’s Infants’.
10th November
The Junior pupils at Howell’s hold a
`Peace Party’ and `six Basque girls came’.[24]
11th November
Armistice Day. At Grangetown Girls’
`School was assembled in the corridor for the Two Minutes Silence. The children
heard the Broadcast Cerermony and took part in the singing’. In his address to
the children of Hywel Dda Mixed, the Headteacher stresses the need for Peace
‘together with the League of Nations’.
15th November
Two police officers visit St. Paul’s.
‘With the exception of Mr. R.B. Wright and Mr. W.L. Jenkins who had previously
taken a course of ARP and Miss C. Benwell who is at present taking a ‘First
Aid’ course all members of the staff including myself have agreed to take the
prescribed course for teachers in schools’.
16th November
Miss Brogden visits Whitchurch Girls’
‘and saw three classes being drilled. She suggested that they should perform
their exercises with lightness, attention to posture and wear rubber shoes
always when in the yard – teachers included’.
22nd November
News is received at Hywel Dda Mixed
that John Scandrett, a pupil in Standard 1a, has died of diptheria.[25]
28th November
Temperatures are low at Ninian Infants’
because there’s no coal. In the afternoon `the time table was suspended for a
time and the children allowed to exercise vigorously in the Hall’.
7th December
Mr. Dan Jones gives his third talk of
the term at Birchgrove Mixed. Having lectured on `The Extent of the Universe’
and `The Planets’ he now turns his attention to `Reasons to prove the Earth is
round’.
20th December
‘Miss Hattingh left today
as she is sailing for South Africa on the 22nd for a year’s
exchange’ records the Head of Roath Infants’.
At Allensbank
Infants’ `Owing to the intensely cold weather, and the inadequate method of
heating the school, the attendance has dropped to 51%. A strong letter of
complaint, giving temperatures in various rooms, was sent to the Director’.
21st December
‘Glenys Hughes went to the Infirmary to
present the School Purse containing £2. 7. 0. to the Lady Mayoress’ records the
Head of Hawthorn Mixed. The pupils of Hywel Dda Mixed donate £2. 2. 6. [Opened
in 1883, since 1903 schools have been encouraged to raise money for what
became, in 1923, Cardiff Royal Infirmary.[26]]
22nd December
At St. Joseph’s Infants’ the Christmas
party has been postponed until after the holidays because so many of the pupils
are away ill. Those children who were in school, however, ‘enjoyed the
‘breaking up’ day with a concert, sweets and a crib provided by the staff’. The
children of St. Paul’s Mixed are ‘presented with a bag of fruit and sweets’,
those at Tongwynlais with `oranges and sweets’.
1939
9th January
Two evacuees, one from
Skegness and the other from Surrey are admitted to Roath Boys’.[27]
The Headmistress of Lansdowne
Infants’ records that ‘Attendance is fair. Two cases of diptheria and one of
scarlet fever reported’. At Court Infants’ the Head
reports on an epidemic of whooping cough.
At Tongwynlais,
where there had been 130 children in September 1938, the number on the books is
now 119 and the Head explains that `Owing to the demolition of several cottages
in this area as a result of a slum clearance order a few families were removed
to Whitchurch where Council Houses were erected for them. We have lost at least
twenty children in this way during the last two years’.
13th January
`Owing to an outbreak of Measles, the
average attendance for this week has fallen to 59.25%. This information has
been sent to the Director of Education and the Medical Officer of Health’
records the Head of Hawthorn Infants’. [The Head is hoping that the School
Medical Officer will issue an `exemption certificate’ which will enable this
particular week’s attendance to be discounted when the annual attendance
calculations are made for capitation purposes.]
20th January
The Headmistress of Ninian Infants’
receives a letter from the Director asking for the details of an accident to
Shirley Gage. Some six weeks before, Shirley had pulled a bench over on her
hand and cut it badly and now `the parents had written to him making a claim
for Doctor’s expenses’.[28]
25th. January
At Roath Boys’ ‘Having drawn the
attention of the Schools’ Medical Officer to the fact that the two cases of
diptheria were of boys in the same class, a Medical Officer called here this
afternoon to discuss the matter’.
Because it is snowing heavily only 54%
of the children at St. Mary’s Infants’ in Canton turn up for school in the
morning. At Ninian Infants’ attendance is 58%, at Hywel Dda Infants’ it is 68%.
St. Joseph’s Infants’ receives a copy
of their Inspection Report from HMI. Inspected last November ‘The number on
books is ninety-seven. Thirty-three are under five, and some of these are
between three and four. The number in the latter group increases considerably during
the school year, and during the summer term of this year a separate class of
three year old pupils was formed…’
27th January
The percussion band from Maindy Mixed
`this afternoon gave a demonstration before the students of the School Music
Refresher Course at the University College’.
31st January
`Miss L. Schmutz resigns today after forty years service in this school’ records the Head of Splott Infants’.
3rd February
At St. Alban’s Mixed the ‘Head Teacher is attending a course in Air Raid Precautions on Mondays and Wednesday evenings at the Law Courts’.
7th February
Two classes from Radnor Girls’ visit
the Temple of Peace in Cathays Park and the Head notes `These girls were the
first group of Cardiff Schoolgirls to visit and used the arranged service for
which they had learnt three special hymns which we hope to use at Assembly
occasionally. A most instructive and impressive visit’.
13th February
A visit to the Western Mail by a class from Radnor Girls’ `is postponed owing to
the political Irish situation’.
14th February
Hawthorn Infants’ receives ‘a letter
from the Director concerning the Exhibition of International Children’s Art at
the Howard Gardens School’.
21st February
The Head of Tredegarville Boys’, where
there are 134 pupils, sends in a ‘Requisition for 105 pairs of ‘Gym’ Shoes for
Necessitous Scholars’.[29]
Three girls from Radyr leave ‘for the
Winter Residential School at Rhoose this afternoon’. So too do two girls from
Tongwynlais.
3rd March
At Lansdowne Infants’ ‘Attendance has
been continually low since the middle of January. Lack of heating in school
during January and February caused a high percentage of influenza and colds.
Two cases of pneumonia reported… About forty children are suffering from
measles’.
6th March
A party of twenty boys from Hawthorn
Mixed visit ‘the Dowlais Works of Messrs Guest, Keen and Nettlefords Ltd’. Two
days later a group of ten girls ‘visited the Laundry in Llandaff North’.
16th March
Despite his promises at Munich, Hitler
orders the German Army to seize the whole of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France
do nothing other than complain and Hitler now sets his sights on Poland…[30]
27th March
Cardiff’s schools receive a Circular
regarding teachers who are members of the Territorial Forces. They are to be
granted a fortnight’s leave, with pay, in addition to the normal Easter holiday
so as to enable them to train.[31]
4th April
Cardiff Education’s Secondary Schools Committee recommends `that arrangements be made for Moritz Wagschal and Siegfried Wagschal, Jewish refugee children, to be admitted to Canton High School for Boys…and that …in view of the special circumstances of these cases, the Committee decided to excuse payment of the school fees’.[32]
7th April
Eight pupils accompanied by two of the
Sisters from Heathfield House set off ‘on the Schoolgirls’ Pilgrimage to
Lourdes’.
17th April
The Head of Radnor Infants’ records `Muriel Richards aged eight was admitted today. She is a refugee from Prague’.
19th April
The inaugural meeting of Cardiff Rural District Council’s Government Evacuation Scheme Committee is held at Park House, 20 Park Place, Cardiff. Chaired by Mr. F.C. Hale, Chairman of the Council, the Committee hears that, across Britain, `the survey which has been carried out shows that there has been a remarkable response from the householders of the country to the appeals for voluntary assistance in the reception of those to be evacuated from the crowded areas of the large cities’.
The Committee considers and adopts a
report submitted by Mr. A.J. Colley, its Chief Survey Officer, in which he
states `that the total number of persons for whom accommodation could be
provided at private residences is 9,684, and for the Special Schemes 2,616…I
propose at this stage, in view of the fact that no decision has been reached
regarding the erection of dormitories at the various Golf Clubs in our area,
and pending acceptance of the proposals for fitting up various special
buildings for accommodating school-children and others, to deal with the
allocation of the 6,000…by disregarding the number of persons which it is
estimated could be accommodated by the adoption of the Special Schemes, except
that of the Rhoose Social Camp, which, of course, could be brought into use
immediately an emergency arises.
By excluding the Special Scheme
figures, and those of relatives, you get a total of 6,690, which includes 3,153
in respect of Whitchurch, a district for which representations have been
made…to classify as a Neutral Zone…
The actual allocation of the number of persons to each parish is not an easy matter…as the facilities for continuing the education of the children who are evacuated to our area has to be taken into account…It is believed that difficulties may be overcome by adopting the dual use of certain schools, under which the accommodation would be used by the local scholars and teachers in the mornings and by the Birmingham scholars and teachers in the afternoons…’[33]
2nd May
The Head of St. Alban’s Infants’
records `Head Teacher and Staff completed the full Anti-Gas Course for all ARP
Services’.
9th May
The School Dentist examines the teeth
of 209 children at St. David’s Infants’.
16th May
Gladstone Boys’ admits twelve year old
Fritz Wittman, a refugee from Austria.[34]
During the afternoon Mr. Lines, an
Eleanor Street teacher, canes ‘two girls in Standard 4…for continued
disobedience’. As one ‘continued to sulk, she was put with Standard 1 for a
time. At playtime she ran home and, as a result [her parents] came on to the
school premises, used obscene language and had to be restrained from attacking
Mr. Lines. Eventually Mr. Lines was struck in the face by [the mother] who,
with her husband, then departed with threats of future attacks’.
17th May
The girls of Howell’s hold an `ARP
practice’.[35]
19th May
At St. Patrick’s Mixed the `seniors
visit the French Flotilla of Destroyers’ at Cardiff docks.
Birmingham’s Chief Education Officer
writes to the Director of Education for Glamorgan confirming that, in the event
of war, `it is proposed to evacuate the Mentally Defective Children – numbering
about 800 – to the camps at Ogmore, Rhoose and Gileston, and…it is not intended
to send any other persons to your County in the event of evacuation’.[36]
22nd May
100 pupils from Maindy Mixed `visited
the Plaza Cinema at the invitation of
the Empire Tea Expansion Bureau to view the film `Life in India and Ceylon’’. 200 pupils from Birchgrove Mixed also
attend `on the instruction of the Director of Education’.
Miss Winifred Hunt, a Hawthorn Infants’ teacher, is `granted leave of absence to