This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 16th November 2000

'When I left Bishop Otter College in 1951 my father's health was declining rapidly, so I decided that I wanted to teach in my home area,' wrote Mrs June Stone (nee Broadbridge). 'My name was accepted onto the East Sussex list and I was called for interview at St Nicolas C. of E. Junior School, Portslade, where I had been a pupil from 1938 - 42. (St Nicolas in this instance is spelt without an H, which is unusual.)

It was with some trepidation that I accepted a post there, as Miss Price, one of my old teachers, was still on the staff. My worries were unfounded as I settled very happily in the school and Miss Price remained a good friend until her death in 1984 at the age of 89. I had no idea, on my first day as a teacher, that I would spend my entire career there. I had no ambitions to be a head or deputy head. My husband, whom I met at the school, was a deputy and later a head, locally, and I was very happy at the school. Therefore I saw no point in moving and I was awarded various posts of responsibility, culminating in what was then known as a Scale 3 post.

When I arrived at the school the building was immediately recognisable as the one I had left in 1942. The toilets were still outside, the few washbasins had cold water only, and the rooms had not been re-decorated for many years. Electricity had just arrived at the school and the staff-room and one classroom boasted electric lights. The other seven classrooms, mine included, were lit by gas. For those classes, electricity was connected during the Christmas holidays 1951 and we returned in January 1952 to find the building ablaze with light.

The corridors were dark and narrow and five of the classrooms were separated from the adjoining ones by sliding shutters. Three rooms, with the shutters opened, were used for assembly, as there was no hall. The air raid shelters were still round the edge of the playground, but now and for several years until their demolition, were used to store P.E. equipment.

The building was very overcrowded and classes were large. Early in my career I had several classes of over 40 pupils. The largest I ever had was 47, 20 girls and 27 boys aged 9 and 10. The building was the 'new' school opened in 1872 and built through the generosity of Miss Hannah Brackenbury who lived in Sellaby House, Portslade and who paid for its construction.

Portslade was very different in 1951. Work was just beginning on the building of some of the new estates, but children who lived at the far end of Mile Oak Road, or in the cottages near the isolation hospital, or even farther on, at New Barn Farm, were still really country children. There were no facilities for providing school lunches, so the children had to go home. Afternoon school did not begin until 1.30 p.m., to allow children time for their journeys, and school closed at 4.10 p.m. On a dull winter day they were often leaving school in semi darkness. There was a bus to Mile Oak, but most children walked to and from school, the majority without a parent.

As St Nicolas is a church school, there was, and still is today, a weekly school service in nearby St. Nicolas Church. A few months after I began teaching we had been to one of these services, and the curate had told the children that it was a special day as it was the birthday of the vicar, Revd. R. F. G. Adams. It was February 6th 1952 and the real significance of the day became clear shortly after morning break, when the head teacher, Mr. D.J.Fernouth, went round to each class to tell the children of the death of King George V1. On the day of the King's funeral the vicar conducted a special school service in St Nicolas Church. Children who belonged to youth organisations wore their uniforms.

1953 brought the excitement of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Space at school was so limited that the headmistress of Portslade Secondary Modern School for Girls allowed us to use her school hall and field for our celebrations. On June 3rd, the day after the coronation, there was a sports day on the field in which everyone took part. Each child received a small badge with a picture of the queen. While teachers and children were occupied on the sports field, some parents were busy indoors preparing a slap-up tea. By each child's place was a coronation souvenir, a pale blue glass beaker bearing the royal coat of arms. Later, there were school visits to the cinema to see the films of the coronation and of the ascent of Everest.

In the summer of 1953 the first of many students from my old college, Bishop Otter, was placed in my class for teaching practice. Her name was Gwen Hall, from Hambledon. She moved to Canada over forty years ago, married and settled there and although we have not met since then, we are still in touch.
During my early years of teaching, P.E. lessons were taken in the playground, and for games the children had to walk down to Victoria Recreation Ground, carrying all of the equipment. With no indoor facilities for P.E. poor weather meant that children had to go without these lessons.

And poor weather there often was! In the late 1950's and of course in 1963, severe winter weather forced the school to close. The outside toilets, the water supply and the tank in the roof were frozen solid. Children used to come to school to collect work to do at home, often trudging through deep snow. On one occasion, when the thaw came, water from the tank in the roof flooded my classroom and the one next door to it.

Rehearsals for concerts and nativity plays took place in the classrooms. For the concerts the headmaster of Portslade Secondary Modern School for Boys allowed us the use of his hall, and nativity plays took place in the church. From 1960 to 1980 I was responsible for writing and producing nativity plays for performance in the church. The demise of the stage lighting in the church in 1980 meant that no more productions took place there.

Overcrowding was becoming an increasing problem, but relief was at hand. After years of negotiations and planning, a new school was to be built on land in Locks Hill, next door to the original school. In June 1963, Dr. John Guillum Scott, Secretary of the Church Assembly, laid the foundation stone of the new building. The Vicar of St. Nicolas Church, Revd. V. Hellaby, conducted a short service and the blessing as given by the Bishop of Lewes, Rt. Revd. J. Morrell.

One year later, in June 1964, the first stage of the new building -- hall, dining room, kitchen, head teacher's room and a cloakroom -- was ready for use. Now there was a hall for assemblies, concerts and facilities for indoor P.E. lessons. Miss Margaret Holden, the newly appointed school cook, and her staff, cooked the first school lunch: goulash with vegetables, followed by cherry shortcake.

Early in 1966, machinery appeared on the site beside the new hall. As we walked up for lunch, or lessons in the hall, we could observe progress as the rest of the school was built. In July 1967 work was complete and the new building was opened. Revd. V. Hellaby again conducted a short service and Rt. Revd. J. Morrell gave the blessing.

All the furniture for the new school was new, so there was no heavy equipment to move. Thus, we moved ourselves, with lines of children passing to and fro through the gate from the old school, carrying books and other items of classroom equipment.

Now we had a school field as well as two playground areas. Games could now take place there, as could the annual sports which for years had been held in Easthill Park.

School life continued in the bright new building, with many new activities. I had introduced country dancing to school, and in the old building I had to use a wind-up gramophone in the playground. After 1964, I could use the hall, with tapes or a record player. Sports clubs flourished on the field, and we had our own netball courts and football pitches to which we could invite teams from other schools. For twenty years I was Netball Secretary for all the junior schools in Hove and Portslade, and the annual tournaments were sometimes held at St. Nicolas.

One innovation of the late 1960's was the introduction of the teaching of French in junior schools. This proved to be less daunting than I expected, as the scheme used in East Sussex, En Avant, had lessons set out in a teacher's manual, and there were pictures and tape recording to supplement the book. Having taken French in Higher School Certificate, I found the teaching quite enjoyable.

There had always been school visits, and these involved visits to local places of interest, with once a year, a day trip to London or other place of national importance. On one trip to London in the 1950's we were lucky enough to see the queen. When my husband was on the staff, he introduced a longer trip, an eight-day visit to Belgium for the ten and eleven year olds. When he left, I carried on with these trips, and for 25 years, my early summer half term holiday was always spent in Belgium and Holland with the children. I calculate that almost 1,000 children took part in these trips over the years.

I retired in 1994, having worked with four different head teachers, and four vicars. As the years passed it was not unusual for me to find myself teaching the children of former pupils, and in my last class there were two children whose grandmothers I taught in the early 1950s.'

This article was first published on 16th November 2000.