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Nowadays, we tend to accept nursery schools as part of everyday life. However, it wasn't so back in the early 20th century. In those days, most kids waited for the relevant Education Act to force then into St Alphege or Westmeads Infants school at the age of 5! However, by the 1950s, parents were becoming more enlightened and a handful of private nurseries had sprung up around town. Perhaps the best remembered was that run by Miss Lamb in Church Street. This establishment was located in a lovely old house opposite All Saints Church and alongside the The Monument public house. Its official name appears to have been Meadowcroft School. Whilst the school itself has long since disappeared, the location remains an attractive setting to this day.....
Of course, in the mid-twentieth century, it had even more of a "village" feel to it. An alleyway (guarded by stiles) led between the school and the pub to a field owned by the nearby Samper's farm and dairy. All this instilled indelible memories of the establishment and its environment. Miss Lamb is herself remembered with great fondness and affection by so many of local people ...
The term scrumping still survives, Bill. Sadly, few people seem to use the lovely word "kindergarten" anymore. Nowadays, people tend to refer to "pre-school nursery". The school house was also Miss Lamb's home as Julian Haxby describes.....
... and it seems that it wasn't just the drawing room that was over-run by little people. Jackie Evans picks up the story....
In that final year, Jackie was studying Advanced Law at the big table... which is why she has her hand over the small print. Joking aside, Miss Lamb's school was a professionally run establishment with a planned academic curriculum. This meant that it was more than just a place for working parents to place their children during business hours. Jackie's school report for the Autumn Term of 1951 provides an insight into the wide range of assessed activities....
As Jackie pointed out in one of her emails, all this was achieved "without national curriculum levels and SATs". Everything was "aimed at preparing the pupil for junior school rather than league tables". Jackie was at the school from Autumn 1950 to July 1953 when she moved on to the Endowed junior school. This suggests that, in the early 1950s at least, Meadowcroft School extended beyond kindergarten stage and provided a private alternative to the mainstream infant schools of Westmeads and St. Alphege. This may have changed in subsequent years as I seem to recall some of Miss Lamb's pupils transferring to Westmeads Infants in the mid-1950s. The pre-school education at Meadowcroft actually put those pupils well ahead of the rest of us in terms of academic progress. What did it all cost? Well, evidence comes from another of Jackie's seven school reports. Her document for the Spring term of 1952 contained the following note....
Ahh.. what memories!
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