Hi, my name is John Hutton and I was one of the first children to attend this school. As I was a good reader I was chosen to sit on the stage with a book with other children who were representing other activities that they were good at. This was for the opening event which was attended by Cyril Fletcher, a famous celeb of the day. We did have a song that us naughty boys would sing based on ( The animals went in two by two hoorah) etc and when we got to four by four we would sing ( and fat mister Dennis got stuck in the door). Very naughty but we all laughed. Would love to get a copy of any photos of the opening event as I have never seen any. We lived in a rented house at 121 High Street but many years ago went back to find that an office block had taken its place. We lived opposite the fire station and it was just above there that all the local kids were allowed to play in a designated area where we given timber, saws, hammers, nails,and other unsuitable tools to build what ever dangerous structures we could – even digging down to form dens, never be allowed today. My dad worked in the Westminster Bank in the High Street and told us that he had regularly served the infamous acid bath murderer Haig.

i think the lady second left at the back was called Gowings or similar. She was there with Mrs Parr when i was there 1971-75. Headmaster at the time was Mr Eynon,caretaker was Mr McGowan,Mr Hall was also a teacher (i knocked him out playing rounders !!)

Miss parr was the best teacher I ever had.
She used to sit me at the front so that I couldn’t mess about at the back of the class.
The results were I was always top or nearly top of the class.

Yes second from the left is Mrs Gowings. Other teachers during the 60s when I was there included Mrs Bowly, Miss Evans and Mr Jo Ovenden the music teacher who used to compose songs and carols for us to sing. Believe he left to become a priest.