A Primary Teacher's Experiences 1

Although the state schools were in just as much trouble as the private ones over the uncertainties of war, being appointed to Essex Council rather than to an individual school meant that I was continually employed during the war, and just simply shifted from school to school according to changes in circumstances. During my five years with the Authority, I taught in eight different places at least, being caught in the ‘last to come, first to go’ in several cases, and in other cases, moving when the school moved or closed down. For my first term, Autumn 1939, the rule was that no school could open unless there was adequate shelter from air-raids. While it was being decided what to do about the Open Air School, all we did was to meet the Headmistress in a café - I think once a week - to hear if there was any news.
After a few weeks, it had been decided that we would do home teaching, giving each pupil an hour a day and some homework to do. I had bought myself a new bicycle with some of my end-of-term pay-packet, just before war was declared, and so I was given quite a wide-apart group of children, and cycled round fifteen miles a day, visiting five homes. I had an epileptic boy of about twelve, a girl whose father had TB so I had to teach her in a shed in the garden, one with a TB hip who wore a leg iron and ran at a great pace using crutches, a deaf boy and one with a weak heart. I got on well with them all, and was eagerly awaited at each home. It was quite a problem, warding off too many cups of tea. Of course, all one could do was try to keep up progress in the ‘three Rs’, but it was an advantage that the parent was able to co-operate, knowing exactly what we were trying to do and how to help as much as possible.
One problem was the weather, which seems to have been exceptionally wet and windy. I invested in a Macintosh cycle cape, cap and trousers, as one couldn’t keep drying out at each house, one after another. It was also extremely windy at times, and I remember sometimes not being able to cycle against it and having to walk. I think this style of teaching continued for two terms, but then they decided these children would either have to attend ordinary schools or go to residential schools in another area and I was transferred to an Infants School.
The shelters still weren’t ready here and children were taught in street groups. Someone’s front room was used, and children had to be near enough to home to get there in five minutes if the siren went. We had not actually had any air raids so far, but no chances were taken. As far as I recollect, I took each of three groups for about an hour and a half - just doing reading, writing and number work. The children did quite well with concentration on just a few things, and intensive work for a short time, though it was a very limited experience for them. After a month or two of this, the shelters were ready and the school opened. It was an old school in one of the poorer parts of the town, and one or two classrooms had desks in tiers in the old style.
The Head didn’t really approve of those and one was fitted out as a playroom, which each class used in turn. It was a relief in a way to find I was not expected to be much good until I had had more experience and the Head gave me a good deal of advice on how to manage my classes and organise larger numbers - usually in a very kind way. I became very fond of her and admired her gift with young children. She could do anything with them, and they always seemed to want to please her. As I had specialised in Junior teaching at College, I learned how to teach Infants from her. In the summer of 1940, we began to have the siren go at intervals, though the planes mostly passed on towards London.
We had gas mask drill every day, so the youngest could put them on quickly. They thought it quite fun on the whole and were keen to be first to be ready. The few times we spent in the shelters taxed one’s ingenuity somewhat. There were benches either side of a sort of tunnel, so your class was rather spread out. We used to sing all the songs and nursery rhymes we knew, recite tables and play ‘I spy’ and ‘Mrs. Brown went to town’ and I sometimes read stories, if I had managed to grab a book on the way down, or retold the few I knew like the Three Bears or Red Riding Hood. Then, if it went on a long time, children would take turns to recite something, or we would have simple maths problems done orally. I even made up a ‘Siren Song’ for them, and got it printed in ‘Child Education’.
We never had any incidents to frighten the children and we did our best to make it seem just an ordinary routine, so the children took their cue from us and there was no panic. We had everything going nicely at this Infants School when the Germans reached the Dutch coast and there was danger of invasion. Hitherto, our area had been considered reasonably safe, but now, if the enemy got to Britain, this was one of the most likely landing places in spite of the fact that there were high metal barriers all along the sea front. I had caught German measles from some of the pupils and was recovering at home, when I heard on the Sunday afternoon radio that we were all to be evacuated within a few days. I was determined not to be left behind so went back to school at once. I well remember the crowds on the railway station saying goodbye to their relatives, each child carrying a gas mask and one bag or parcel of clothes. Each teacher was responsible for fifteen youngsters, all of whom seemed to think it a great adventure as far as I can remember.

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