Eleanor Cornish 1931

Remembering St Michaels CofE School Sandhurst

Eleanor Cornish 1935

I started school after Easter in 1931. My older sisters, Edna and Winnie, were already pupils, so I was happy to join them.

The Infant teacher, Miss EH Burch was a very kind but firm lady and we all loved her.

We used small blackboards and white chalk for some time, then we moved on to pencils and paper before we moved on at 7 years old to the big school.

The Infant school was a separate building. There was a big room, with some small tables and chairs in one half and 4 rows of desks – all facing the teacher in the other half.
Before leaving school at dinnertime we would stand at our desks and sing:

“Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you God for everything”

Children who lived a distance from the school, some as far as the Wellington Arms, would bring their sandwiches to eat in the classroom, but those who lived nearer would go home, where their mothers would have dinner ready for them. We had 1½ hours in those days, then afternoon school ended at 3.30pm for the infants and 3.45 for the older ones (ages 7 – 14 yrs).


There were 3 classrooms in the main school, Standard 1  and 2 with Miss Kingston, Standard 3 & 4 with Miss Cullum and Standard 5, 6 and 7 with Mr Oldham. (This would have been about 1934).

Mr Oldham was nearing retirement age, and I do not remember much about him. (of course, he was headmaster when my Dad was a boy, a rather naughty boy, who said “SHANT” when asked to hold out his hand to be caned. Caused quite a bit of trouble at the time, early 1900, but there were faults on both sides. Dad was removed to the Methodist School, but fortunately for my sisters and me, we weren't stopped from attending the school. After all it was about 25 years later.

Mr Randle succeeded Mr Oldham, a young married man from Wales, full of new ideas but handy with the cane!! He kept it across the top of his desk, a very good deterrent to the majority of us.

I remember he was always smartly dressed, dark jacket, waistcoat, pin stripe trousers, black shoes and grey spats over his black shoes! His favourite saying after someone took a long while to understand a questions was  “Ah, the penny’s dropped!”

He was very keen on singing, and he encourages us to sing. My friend and I dreaded being asked to sing alone!

Mr Randle introduced certificates for “Good Attendance and Satisfactory Progress”. I have enclosed a copy of mine for you to see.

Eleanor Cornish's Certificate - 1937

Thanks to Mr Randle the school bought its first Film Projector. The money was raised partly from the concert we put on at the Working Men’s Club in Wellington Road.

Each class acted, danced or sang. The older ones performed “the Mikado” during which Mr Randle gave a lovely performance of “Willow-Tit Willow”.

Films shown on the new projector were mostly from the Ministry of Information, be sometimes we would be shown a little comedy one.

There was weekly rivalry between classes for “Best Attendance”. The girls embroidered  a banner saying “this class made best attendance last week”. Blue and gold letters on a white background. It was presented at Monday Morning assembly and the winners had an extra 15 minutes at Playtime on the following Friday.

Mr Randle also organised a weekly Whist Drive at the school to raise money for Parcels to send to  ‘OUR’ soldiers sailors and airmen. The children chose which old pupil should be next to receive a parcel which would contain sweets, cigarettes and a pair of mittens, or balaclava helmet. These were knitted by the girls.

He also organised a Youth Club where the oldest pupils and others enjoyed one evening a week with table tennis, darts, singing, a drama group, etc., which was quite a pleasant way  to spend a few hours of a wartime evening.

Eleanor Ambrose (nee Cornish)