Stoke St Gregory History Pages
In 1952 the Headmaster, John L Burrows, moved on to Winscombe and was followed by Mr Edgar Benjamin Alderson, who had previously worked in a (rather different) Secondary Modern School in Bromsgrove.
During Mr Alderson's first year, a trainee teacher produced a report on what she had found out about the village whilst she had been at the school. Jane Tarr reported that there were 114 boys and girls attending the school, aged 5-15. We’re not sure how the local education authority interpreted the 1944 Education Act, but secondary education seemed out of grasp for many of Stoke’s children. There are still people living here who remember the attitude ‘What’s the point of learning lessons? You’re only going to work on a farm all your life!’ Here are tables of to where the previous school students had progressed:
These photos were taken by the student teacher in the school playground. You know who you are . . .
More serious stuff at the other side of the building
Of course it was boys gardening and girls sewing. A reflection of the previous generation, but perhaps not of the next?
There's so much more than this that we can put together about Stoke School in 1952 (or thereabouts . . .) Let's hear from you gregorystoke@aol.com