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PART III
From the memories of Nora Hillman. This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 19 December 1996
She attended the old Church of England School in School Lane on the site now occupied by part of the Steyning Grammar School. When the late Nora Hillman went there it was a small school by to-day's standards, with the number of pupils of all ages numbering just over 200. These are more of the fascinating facets coming to light in Nora's continuing memoirs of bygone Steyning.
'The infants were housed in a separate small building behind the main school. The youngest children being under the care of Miss Tolley who had taught the parents, aunts, uncles and occasionally grandparents of most of the children. She only had one arm and a stump with which she was inclined to rap an errant pupil on the head.'
'The babies and the six and seven year olds were in separate rooms. The older children were schooled in two or even three classes in just one room. Of course, we were expected to sit still, and not to talk unless answering a question. On the whole we were well grounded in the three R's and were told that if we could read well, the world was open to us. We also had sessions of history, mainly social history and geography.'
'We certainly should have been well grounded in what we called Scripture in those days for we had an hour of it each day between nine and ten: either reading verses of scripture round a class, hymn singing or learning the Church of England catechism.'
'We began and ended each day with a hymn and prayers, and grace was sung before we closed for dinner and thanks given when we returned. There were no school meals; most of us went home for the mid-day meal.'
'The 'Field Children' from the outlying farm cottages had to eat their sandwiches in the playground or, in inclement weather, in a classroom round one of the coke stoves with which the school was heated. I remember Mrs. Kibblewhite producing old slippers for some of them when they arrived at school with wet feet.'
'We had no organised sports, just drill or singing games in the playground, with occasionally a session of country dancing.'
'We girls had sewing, knitting or reading for the first hour of each afternoon. The boys occasionally seemed to do gardening at this time. We did not have cooking lessons, these had been stopped during the war when supplies were scarce and did not start again while I was at school. We also had sessions of writing compositions, drawing, mostly in crayon on brown paper, clay modelling and singing.'
'On Friday afternoons we were sometimes read to. I can remember 'Three Men in a Boat' and some of the 'Uncle Remus' stories. On a few occasions we had a nature ramble to look at wild flowers.'
'In the hot dry summer of 1921 I recall a picnic and races held on the shooting range - it was a range then and had been for as long as I could remember - but the public were only excluded when firing was actually in progress.'
In part IV read about what the children got up to on the way home from school, and what they did every Sunday.
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