THREE DOZEN YEARS

CHAPTER FIVE - AFTER THE WAR

An upheaval such as the country had undergone between 1939 and 1945 is bound to leave its marks on every aspect of the life of the community. In favourable circumstances it would have taken time to erase these marks, and the demands of a tense international situation have prolonged the inevitable period of unsettlement. To many people we are still living in a "post-war world". The schools bear their scars, and the main troubles of secondary schools were, perhaps, the lack of consecutive primary school education in their intake and the shortage of books. In a large number of cases the foundations were not stable enough to support a sound secondary education, while the tools to help make up the deficiency were not available. Even today the shortage of books is felt.

The chief feature of the post-war educational world has been the Education Act of 1944, which raised the school leaving age to 15 and laid down the principle of "Secondary Education for all." For the first time the Central Schools attained the status of "Secondary," although, since their inception, they had provided a type of education now regarded as secondary and the Act of 1944 caused no marked change of curriculum. The Act of 1944 has had one important effect upon Downhills. With the raising of the school leaving age there has been a change of public opinion towards education, and this, with the regulation that the new General Certificate of Education cannot be taken until the age of 16, has increased the tendency for children to stay at school for a fifth year. Before the war there was no fifth form, but one has now been firmly established, and at the beginning of the current year (1954) it numbered over 40. This development has had a marked influence upon the tone and standard of the School, and the standing of the fifth form at Downhills is comparable with that of the sixth form of a Grammar School.

In 1947 the School was reorganised into twelve forms with none having more than 30 on roll, in accordance with a Ministry of Education Order. But this did not last long. In recent years there has been an increase in the amount of commercial work and in the level of attainment reached in this department.

In 1949 a H.O.R.S.A. building (huts on raising school age) was erected in the playground. This is now the Geography room and is always referred to as "The Hut." Hot water was installed in the children's cloakrooms in 1953.

Since the War a number of new features have made their appearance in the School life, some of them of great significance.

In 1951 a Parent-Teacher Association was formed and the first meeting held on 15 March. Its aim is to bring parents into closer touch with the School so that they may discuss both general and particular educational problems with the teachers. The Association is represented on the Central Council of Tottenham Schools' Parent-Teacher Associations, which is fortunate enough to have a nominee serving as a co-opted member of the Education Committee. The Downhills Association has three aims.

1. To bring parents into closer relationship with the School.
2. By arranging conferences with the staff to promote the welfare of the pupils, and
3. To organise meetings for the discussion of educational and kindred topics.

The programme and policy of the Association is in the hands of an Executive Committee on which is one parent representative of each year in the School and a representative of parents whose children have left. The Chairman of the Association is the Headmaster. In the four years of its existence lectures have been held on a variety of educational topics, a Social Evening has been held annually at Christmas time and several jumble sales have taken place from the proceeds of which the Association has presented to the School a printing press, a backcloth for the stage and football stockings for the team. The success of the Association has been due to the keenness of the members, the hard work of the Committee and the interest shown by the staff. Through contacts with the parents much has been learned by the teachers about the children, which has, in many cases, enabled them to solve problems and hitherto unexplained difficulties which they had encountered. But a great deal remains to be done. Those parents whose children would benefit most by the facilities offered by the Association and whom the teachers would most like to see do not come to the meetings. It is a problem which faces all schools; how to overcome it has not been worked out with any degree of success.

The Old Scholars Association was revived after the war on a modest scale. Its career was brought to an untimely end by a fog which obliterated a lavish dance upon which most of the Association's funds had been spent, and the calamity discouraged further activity for a time. But in 1951 an old scholar was appointed to the teaching staff and the Association was restarted. Old Students' dances have been held twice a year and, on 1 October, 1954, a dinner was held at which over 100 old scholars who entered the School before 1945 were present. The present intention is to form two sections, one for old scholars over 21 and another for the younger ones. The Association made a generous contribution to the printing press referred to in the previous paragraph. It is gratifying that so many old students, particularly the older ones, continue to take a practical interest m the School, and one of the most impressive occasions was a meeting of the Parent-Teacher Association at which six old scholars formed a panel and answered questions submitted by parents.

In 1949 a French Assistant was allocated to the School. French Assistants are teachers who come to England to increase their qualifications as teachers of English in French Schools. Their work on French oral instruction is invaluable and they provide the children with a window on to the world. Small celebrations are held on French National days and every Wednesday the School Assembly is conducted in French. French Assistants are rationed to approximately three years out of four.

London University Institute of Education sends students to the School for teaching practice. They come from all parts of the world; we have had students from America, West Africa and China, among other places, and what they gain from us is matched by the breath of the outside world that they bring in.

Foreign travel has become an annual event. At Easter, 1951, a party of pupils went to Faverges in the French Alps. In the following year a party went to Kandersteg in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland. This was found to be such a popular centre and our relations with the hotel proprietor, Herr Reichen, were so cordial that further visits were made in 1953 and 1955. At Whitsun, 1954, a party went to Saalbach on the borders of the Austrian Tyrol. These holidays are strenuous. Most of the time is spent in walking expeditions, with one visit to a large shopping centre, where a variety of presents are bought. There must be a number of homes in Tottenham which are the proud possessors of musical boxes and cuckoo clocks. On the average these parties have numbered about thirty. On the last three occasions a film recording the visit has been made and shown at the School.

Dramatic productions have been put on regularly in recent years. In 1953 and 1954 ballad operas were presented, which "The Times Educational Supplement" hailed as pioneer works worthy of emulation. Of "Shipmates Ashore," the 1954 production, this Journal wrote:-

"... No one, not even in Italy, has made a serious attempt to write an opera that could be performed by schoolchildren alone.

"What does exist is either too hard or too sophisticated or too bad, or all three. Yet the time was never riper in England for such an attempt, with an opera-going public that is nowadays drawn from all walks of life, and with television's teeming, unseen watchers being even now introduced to the old form in a new guise.

"At least one school is not prepared to wait for the attention of serious composers. Last year Miss V. R. Davis presented a short piece of her own writing and composition, based on ballads, at Downhills Central School, Tottenham, where she is music mistress. This year she has repeated the experiment. Seven ballads and a traditional dance went into the making of her ingenious 'Shipmates Ashore,' and if the story is flimsy through being bent to the requirements of the ballads chosen, the work as a whole has great life, and it was obviously thoroughly enjoyed by all, on and off the stage, at the last of its three performances on 29 May.

"The young cast (in which the Boatswain was particularly accomplished) all knew their parts well and sang and acted with scarcely a trace of nervousness.... We know that the best of all ballad operas, 'The Beggar's Opera,' made Gay rich and Rich gay: might not such revivals of a forgotten form as Miss Davis's enrich and rejoice schools all over the country."

Also, in 1954, a programme of three historical plays was presented. The standard of acting, speaking and production was high, having regard to the inadequacy of the stage and the acoustics of the hall.

In the realm of sport the School has done particularly well since 1950. The Tottenham School Sports Championship was won by the boys for three years in succession, and the girls won the Sports Championship for the first time. Successes have also been achieved at the Swimming Gala and in football, net-ball and rounders.

The responsibilities placed upon the shoulders of the children as part of their training have been increased. Since 1950 the prefects have conducted the annual Harvest Festival Service, and the end of term concerts have been organised by the seniors. As part of their commercial training the seniors spend a week in the School Office, where they take telephone calls, learn office procedure and run messages, while jobs such as collecting dinner money, arranging attendance at medical examinations, etc., are given to children wherever possible.

The post-war years have seen an increase in the use of visual aids. The cine and the film strip projectors are in constant use. A Sound Mirror recording machine was purchased with the grant given to the School at the time of the Coronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and is particularly valuable in the teaching of English and French pronunciation. The B.B.C. Broadcasts to Schools are listened to regularly.

School visits have been paid to the Houses of Parliament, the Imperial Institute, and places as far afield as Stratford-on-Avon and Canterbury.

The School is affiliated to the Council for Education in World Citizenship and parties have attended meetings on International affairs arranged by this body. Literature is regularly received on International and United Nations affairs.

This history will conclude with a short account of the organisation of the School in 1955. Children selected for the School are expected to stay for a four-year course; they may stay an additional year. In September, 1954, the number on roll was 433, the number of classes was 14, three in each of the first four years and two in the fifth year. The number of pupils in the fifth year was 45. The staff numbered 20, including the Headmaster.

The curriculum includes the usual subjects in the first three years, i.e., English, mathematics, French, history, geography, music, and religious instruction on the academic side, and science, house-craft, needlework, woodwork, art, and physical education on the practical side. In the third year the girls take shorthand and typing, the boys book-keeping, which entails a reduction in the time spent on practical subjects. In the fourth year technical drawing is introduced for some of the boys. In the fourth year there is some latitude in the timetable - some subjects may be dropped and extra time spent on others. Periods of private study are allowed, in which the children carry out on their own, but under supervision, work which has been set. This is an important part of the training in tackling a job and in only a few cases has it been abused. After the third year it is not practicable, owing to exigencies of time and accommodation, to do all the practical subjects that were taken in the first two years. Usually each class takes two of the practical subjects.

In the fifth year the pupils work to individual timetables. Some stay to sit for the ordinary level of the General Certificate of Education in any number of subjects up to eight; others stay to intensify their commercial training and to take the Royal Society of Arts examinations. Until recently these R.S.A. examinations were taken in the fourth year, but this has been stopped by Ministry of Education order. The staff are unanimous in thinking this order to be a mistake. The examinations served as a useful indication to those who would be likely to profit by a fifth year and, for the many who leave at the end of the fourth year, as evidence for a prospective employer, of the standard reached.

There is no streaming by forms. The forms are named after the letter of the room they occupy. The children are streamed for individual subjects. One may be in the "A" stream for mathematics, the "B" stream for English, and the "C" stream for French. In this way instruction is given to every child in each subject according to his ability. It makes the timetable more complicated but is considered to be worth the trouble.

The School has not returned to its pre-war condition; it never will. The war, for good or ill, swept away things that will never return. The keenness shown by the children toward their studies probably falls below pre-war standard, as does the care they take of their books and equipment. Standards of dress, too, are probably lower and this may be symptomatic of the age. On the other hand, the education is broader, the children are better equipped to deal with the problems of the world and have a greater understanding of that world than those before 1939. The relationship between teacher and pupil is even better than before the war. The children have their complaints, as do the staff, but these are soon forgotten. It is a happy community.