| Vivien Window (nee Panter) At KHS 1952 to 1958 It was 1956 or 1957 and I was in 5P, our form rooms were in Hillside, as the school was packed out. Miss Woodrow decided to enforce two of our school rules, which we had blithely ignored for years. One was we MUST wear our school hats from leaving the school until entering our homes, we were never to be seen outside without it. The other was:- No eating in the street. (I must admit that after all these years I can't bring myself to guzzle my fish and chips in the open air!!) However we girls ate sweets and any goodie we could lay our hands on with never a thought to our school uniform. Miss Woodrow announced at Prayers that from henceforth, any girl seen eating in the street or devoid of school hat, would be punished with all the severity our school had to offer A SATURDAY MORNING DETENTION!!!! Shock Horror This detention had only recently been introduced. We got given Nuisance Marks, for minor sins like running on the stairs, and I think it was an accumulation of 3 of them that led to an ordinary detention (after school) Few of our goody goody form ever had one. You could, if you were very bad indeed get given a detention outright., but it was a rare event. I cannot imagine why the Saturday Morning detention was brought in. Perhaps darling Miss Woodrow felt she was losing her grip? Anyway, we thought no more about the rules and continued throwing off the hat the minute we got out of Bowling Green Rd and stuffing crisps or sweets as we walked home. Inevitably we were reported Miss Woodrow knew the girls were 5th formers and appeared in our classroom to ask us each of us, in turn, whether we had eaten in uniform or not worn our hat. Believe it or not 28 out of 32 girls owned up and were given a Saturday Morning Detention!! I said we were goody goodies She didn't do as well in 5Q or in 5R, I can tell you, they were smarter than us. I can clearly remember saying 'Yes Miss Woodrow, I was eating a sweet', but then rather hopefully added 'But I had my school hat on'! I can still see the twinkle in her eyes as she sternly said 'I rather think that makes it worse' So, that Saturday, we all went back to school to meet our friends and write an essay. My Mother was furious as I could not go to my Saturday job and she had to give me pocket money that week but we couldn't complain if we'd wanted to. Saturday jobs were also banned! My granddaughter finds it hard to believe this story but it is absolutely true. How times have changed! |