Our School
Holme School was started by the Rev. N.J. Raven in 1848 it was built next to the church at a cost of £200 for 63 children. It is rumoured that there were once stables on the school site, but no written evidence supports this. The "Old National School", as it was called, was for many years a Church School. A School board was formed in 1875; Mr. G. Whitby, of Hunstanton, was Clerk of the Board, and Attendance officer. Attendance varied considerably; it was 51 in 1850, but had fallen to 35 by 1864. In 1940 the arrival of "evacuees" from London resulted in so many children attending the school that it was found necessary to teach half in the morning session and the other half in the afternoon. In 1950 the number on the books was at one time 61, but has fallen to 57 at the present time. Several of our oldest inhabitants can remember the time when the oldest child of each family had to bring tuppence to school each Monday morning, the younger members paying 1d. each for "educational materials." There have been many changes in our school since those days, and, with the foundations of a new Modern Secondary School already being laid at Hunstanton, it appears likely that many more changes will come during the next few years. Now, come to Holme School one day in 1951! Most of the children arrive at 8.50 a.m. Mr. J. Kett, Headmaster since January 1948, arrives by car, bringing Miss Lee (Assistant Teacher at Holme since May 1948 and two pupils, Daphne Warner and John Kett. The three members of the Flatt family, Brenda, Roger and Jill, have the longest walk to school, coming from Drove Cottage, Thornham. Maurice Larter cycles from Ringstead Mill. At 9 o'clock the whistle is blown, the children line up and enter school, 32 aged 8 to 14, to Mr. Kett's room, 23 aged 5 to 8, to Miss Lees. Prefects for the week, KeithWalker, and Eileen Batterbee are on duty at the Boy and Girl's entrances respectively. After hanging coats and hats in the two small "porches", the children take their places, in dual desks. Registers are called and 'dinner numbers' checked, before prayers and religious instruction. The piano is in the "big room", and is used daily to accompany the morning hymn. Keith Walker as prefect, with Robin Batterbee, are this morning responsible for collecting the drinking water from Mrs. Wilkins at Church Row, and for filling the copper. Water from Mr. Renaut's water‑cart is used for the latter purpose. These duties are carried out at any convenient time before l0a.m., and at the same time any big change in the number of dinners required is 'phoned through to the Canteen at Thornham. At 9‑35a.m. arithmetic starts. For the next hour, the pupils in the big room are in five groups; each group, of course, has its fast and slow workers. Today, standard three are doing revision work. Multiplication and Division of money, up to 12x; Standard four are doing long division of money, weights and measures; Standard five are plodding through a "Miscellaneous test"; Standard six are working today with Standard seven measuring the classroom and working out the cost of papering the walls and re-boarding the floor. In Miss Lee's room, after 20 minutes Physical exercises, the younger pupils are working in groups, usually of two or three at "number" in many forms, using counters, learning tables, and 'spending' cardboard. coins. The milk arrives from Brancaster at about 10.15a.m. Peggy Jewell puts a straw in each bottle before it is given out at playtime. At about 10.20a.m. the children get ready for "P,T." and there are a number of pairs of "school plimsolls" for those who have not any of their own. All the boys and most of the girls are arrayed in shorts; and on this particular morning a stiff breeze is blowing across the marshes from the north discourages any standing around before the activities start. Following a few "warming‑up" exercises, the whole class cover an improvised obstacle course, including hurdling, jumping crawling and climbing. After this, Swimming land drill is practiced, for in a Fortnight’s time most of these children will be going by bus to Hunstanton Swimming Bath every Thursday morning until the end of summer term. When swimming lessons started in 1948, there were only 2 swimmers in the school. Since 1949 the average number has been about sixteen. After a fifteen minute's break, lessons are started again at 11am. Miss Lee's pupils, who have a short singing lesson during the senior P.T. period, are now reading, or, in most cases, learning to read, in small groups, assisted by Miss Lee and the "older younger ones". In the other room, all five standards are engaged in writing stories, the older pupils are unassisted; the younger children have been given a few ideas and a few spelling. The best of the stories will be earmarked as possible contributions for the next School Magazine. The first magazine was printed on the hektograph jelly in March, 1950 and 54 copies were sold. Since then, it has been produced each term, and in its present type‑written duplicated form it was found that 100 copies were not enough to meet the demand for the Easter number a few weeks ago. Each term boy and girl editors are chosen, and every pupil in the school is given a chance to write or draw something for the magazine. Most of the stories are finished at 11‑30a.m. but a few heads have ideas which require more time. Standard three and four have a drawing to do from their Geography books when their writing is finished. The older pupils have a chapter on Africa to read, and a map to finish. Dinners arrive in containers from Thornham just before mid‑day. Mrs. Wilkins arrives at 12o'clock, and, assisted today by Eileen Batterbee and Patricia Neeve, serves out 37 dinners. The waiters at the two tables in the big room are Mervyn Proudfoot, Maurice Larter, Robin Batterbee and Ian Dolman, while in Miss Lee's room Brenda Flatt and Jennifer Neeve are the helpers. After the meal (which today consists of Shepherds Pie, followed by "Spotted Dick") is finished at 1.45p.m., John Potter and Mervyn Proudfoot clear away the plates, which are washed up by Mrs. Wilkins, with the containers, in the Girl's Porch. (School Dinners started in January 1948. The charge is now 7d. per meal, with a reduction of a 1d. for the second child in each family and 2d, for any younger members. This is an increase of 2d, all-round in the past two years. (Milk has been free since 1947) It is a fine day, so the cricket bats and stumps are. taken on to the field for half an hour by the older boys. At the back of the school on the playground, which still rejoices in the name of "pasture" (before the sharp winter of 1946/7 it was covered with grass), the younger boys and girls are practising jumping and hurdling. A group of girls are enjoying a game of "hospitals" (a very old favourite) and two or three ball games are .in progress. At 1.10p.m. Keith Walker rings the bell, which warns all the children that there are five minutes in which to "clean up" before the whistle goes. . For the next few minutes the wash basins in the girl and infant's porch and the single basin in the boy's porch are much in demand. The whistle is blown, and afternoon school starts. The wireless purchased in 1942 with the proceeds of wastepaper
collection is in use today, first for a story for the infants, they in the big
room, where a programme on Sticklebacks proves very interesting.
Two aquariums have been in use in school for the past few months, one
for salt-water and the other for fresh-water creatures. A singing
lesson occupies the rest of the afternoon up to playtime at 2.20p.m. The final
ten minutes of this session is devoted to 'requests', and as usual these
include "Drink to me only", "on Wings of song" and the
School Song, which has been sung on many occasions since it was first
introduced by the headmaster three years ago. After
a ten-minute break all the girls except the infants go to Miss Lee for
needlework, and all the boys, and the Infants are in the big room. The
youngest boys and girls are drawing in colour on large sheets of paper. The
older boys have a variety of jobs. Three are engaged on work in their Festival
Scrapbooks, which are to be entered in an interhouse competition at the end of
term; four are busy on the garden, which was acquired by the school only last
year, in a corner of a field opposite the school; two more are preparing
number cards to be worn by runners at the school sports, and the rest are
trying their hand at charcoal sketching. At 3.30p.m, all work is put away and
the school day finished with prayers. One or two Mothers and elder sisters
arrive at the gate to take the youngest children home, but most of them set
off in groups of two or three. So ends an ordinary day at our school. Perhaps in a few years' time it will be considered an
extraordinary day. There are other regular features of school life which must be mentioned. A film projector was purchased in 1949, and educational films from the Central Film Library are shown frequently. We have a Junior Branch of the County Library at the school with 43 members; Yvonne Plume and Beryl Neeve are Librarians. July 1951 will see the fourth annual athletic sports at which the three houses, Borrow, Coke and Nelson, compete for the Sports Cup presented to the school in 1948 by Mr. W. E. Renaut. The Sports Day is also the occasion for the presentation of the Work Cup, given by Mrs. S.C. Reed. Merit Points awarded for good work throughout the year, and exam. marks are taken into consideration for the award of this cup. We compete every year in the Area Sports, and this year we returned from Dersingham triumphant, having won the "Small Schools" Shield, which we hold for a year. In 1949, Beverley Rumbellow competed in the Long Jump in the County Sports at Kings Lynn as a member of the Area team. Recent scholastic successes include two scholarships in 1950, taking David Hart to Lynn Grammar School and Gillian Hills to Lynn High School, and this year Yvonne Plume has been awarded a place in a Three-year course at Money Hall. In 1948, Margaret Smith had the distinction. of being the first girl to spend an extra year at Holme School when the leaving age was raised to 15, but since April 1950 all the 14 year olds have been sent to Hunstanton School for the final 12 months. Every Wednesday all the boys aged 13 and over are taken by taxi to Brancaster school for Handicraft lessons, from 9-30a.m. to 12 noon, and in the afternoon girls of the same age to by bus to Hunstanton for Domestic Science. Before the end of this term we are planning to go to Norwich for the day. Last year we spent a day at the Royal Norfolk Show at Anmer. A record of most of our functions in the form of photographs, programmes, newspaper cuttings, etc. is kept in the School Diary, at present kept by Carolyn Palmer. To complete this account of our school here is a list of the names of the pupils at Holme School this term, and of the present school managers
The
School Managers
Chairman and Correspondent: Mr. R. Sheldrake.
Managers: Mr.G. Middleton. Mrs. S. C. Reed,Mr. T. Hart, Mr. R. Smith.
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Index