Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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WHEN YOU ' RE WEARING THEM! .Mil wm OS = ?ec Sweafers For many years Prep School boys have been easily recognisable by their red sweaters, but when we started our boys wore the same uniform as the rest of the school, including blazers and ties in the winter. They looked very smart first thing in the morning, but did not remain tidy for long, and it was not a comfortable or practical uniform for young, active children. We felt that far too much time was being spent helping the children to fasten ties after physical exercise: by the time a teacher has knotted twenty ties round wriggling little necks she almost feels like throttling the owner of the twenty-first, so we limited ties to Class 3 on special occasions. The blazer had always struck me as particularly unsuitable for five year olds who inevitably spilled milk down the front and got paint or glue on the sleeves, not to mention mud when they fell down. So we discouraged the wearing of a blazer by the younger children, who were much more comfortable in long-sleeved sweaters. The sweaters were grey and the children looked dull on wintry days, in fact when they filed in three lines from their classrooms into the Hall for Morning Assembly they reminded me of streams of insects crawling out of the woodwork. I hadn ' t thought seriously of making any change until a Monday morning after a wet week-end when John Cox arrived looking very embarrassed and wearing a red sweater because it had not been possible to dry a grey one. During the day as he moved about my classroom I enjoyed the splash of bright colour, so I invited him to continue to wear this sweater and, as red was one of the Saltus colours, asked the Headmaster if we might introduce it as an optional alternative. This was approved and in time we phased out the grey altogether. We occupied our Woodlands Road building for ten years until Saltus amalgamated with Cavendish Hall School, when our building became part of the enlarged Junior School and we moved to Cavendish. With the increased numbers (197 when we first arrived there and accepted any Cavendish children who wished to stay, including fifteen girls) my administrative duties had increased to such an extent that I could no longer combine them with being a full-time Class teacher. For the first time I had my own office and even a part-time Secretary - though rationed to four hours a week - and I was able to start a Remedial Reading programme, fascintating and most rewarding work. More Mischief Small boys delight in trying out new words, especially if they seem to shock people. They will teach newly acquired swear words to their friends with glee, so I have often received complaints from parents that their son has used highly unsuitable language to his grandparents or instructed his little sister in the facts of life, and of course they blame the school. I was once dealing with a complaint of bad language on the school field and asked the culprit who had taught him such words. To my surprise he cited his father, a Member of Parliament, and I told him 1 found it hard to believe that his father would use language like that about the house. No, not in the house, he explained, On the boat! So now I had to find a tactful way to advise the father to try to refrain from the use of unparliamentary language while sailing with his son. With no janitor on the premises during the day it was often necessary to make repairs in order to keep the school functioning and I learned to do minor plumbing and electrical jobs. I kept a collection of tools, oil and other useful items readily available, never knowing when 1 might have to unscrew a jammed lock, or attempt to repair the flush mechanism of a faulty toilet. At Cavendish the gymnastic apparatus folds flat against the walls of the Hall, being bolted to the floor when wheeled out for use. The small sockets were fascinating to the children when sitting on the floor at morning Assembly, and occasionally pencils or crayons were posted into them. One Monday morning, at the end of my usual session with the whole school while the teachers had a brief free period, I noticed a child having difficulty in standing up when his Class was instructed to leave. He had poked his finger into a floor socket and it was stuck! The finger was beginning to swell and the child was growing frightened, doubtless fearing that he might have to have his finger cut off or stay fastened to the floor for ever. I was worried too, envisaging the possibility of having to take up the floor boards. I sent for ice, in the hopes of reducing the swelling, and then fetched my tool kit. A liberal spraying of WD 40 made it possible to twist the finger, and with some manipulation I was able to work it free. A great relief to both of us! My thanks and love to all the boys who, over the years, have made my work so varied - sometimes hair-raising but always lively and enjoyable.

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DONT TIE YOUR SHOES TOGETHER (Preparatory School Reminiscences by Mary Hopkins.) However many rules a school may have, small boys will always think up unusual things to do which teachers never thought to forbid. Many years ago, when there were only two of us in the Prep. School, we started to compile a list of odd instructions: Don ' t pour your soup on John ' s head (take it home in your flask if you don ' t like it.) Don ' t bring moth balls to school and feed them to your friends. Don ' t tie your shoes together when you ' re wearing them. The list was quite extensive and over the years could have been increased considerably with incidents like the boy who threatened to kill another unless he brought him two chocolate biscuits daily. (I only learned of this when one day no biscuits were supplied and some round-eyed children came to me saying, X is going to kill Jimmy, and he means it! ) The Preparatory School opened on 21st September, 1959, when I was appointed to start this new Department for Saltus. We began in an old two-roomed schoolhouse on Mount Hill, Pembroke, with thirty-seven children and one other teacher. We had no secretary and the telephone was in the small lavatory which had to serve as a Staff Room, opening off my classroom. I had to deal with phone calls while watching my class round the door, and callers would often be startled to hear me exclaim, Stop doing that! or Leave him alone! while they were asking educational advice. There were just the two of us there all day with our two classes. In those days it was not thought proper to ask parents to help at school, so we had to do all the supervision between us and with no thought of free periods or other luxuries. L. to R. Kay Foster (now Mrs. Walker), myself (then Mary Ede), Jean Rhodes (now Mrs. Northcott). The only extra help we had came at lunch time. Not in the form of a Matron and team of ' lunch mothers ' , but a prefect from the Senior School was sent over each day to supervise the children at their play. On fine days we ate our lunch outside with the boys, but the prefect would help them to open their flasks so that we could eat without too much disturbance. This duty was heartily loathed by most of the prefects, few of whom had any experience of dealing with large numbers of very small boys. If they were too friendly the boys tended to become unruly: one prefect who pushed a few children over in a jocular manner was set upon by a group and rolled down the hill - when I went to his rescue they explained that he did it to them so they thought they could do it to him. Yet if the prefect were too distant, then the boys found him unapproachable. Once I was requested to fasten a very muddy shoelace while I was eating my sandwich, so I advised the owner to ask the prefect to do it. The child looked in amazement towards Geoff Parker, already well over six feet at age six teen, and said, What, that man? Our numbers soon grew and a third class was opened by partitioning one of the classrooms and appointing an extra teacher, but after years of these cramped conditions we moved to our own new building on Woodlands Road, it now forms the West wing of the Junior School. Luxuries included indoor sanitation, a proper Staffroom and a small Assembly Hall (now the Junior School Library.) 4 i

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The Prep. Department-Then and now.