Looking back...
‘Through the Eyes of a Teacher’ Given the turbulent nature of education during the last 18 months, The Jerseylife thought it would be thought-provoking to follow the life of someone whose education had suffered the constraints of post WWII and Occupation and yet progressed to become one of Jersey’s most dedicated teachers with a career spanning 39 years. Last time Thelma Heard spoke about her very earliest memories. In this issue, Thelma talks of the next stage in her life… suffered the Occupation were unrestrained,
And so to school
boisterous and some were even bullies. I had a second-hand red coat sent to us by relatives in the
By Thelma Heard
USA, (a few second-hand clothes came to us this way and were welcomed what with rationing and
After our return from the UK, after the War, I
lack of money) which I would hang in the
became a pupil at St Luke’s School. In those days
cloakroom at the foot of a flight of steps. As I was
pupils started school at 6 and left at 15. The interior
going to fetch it one day, I saw one of the boys
of the building was nothing like it is now - there
tearing it apart at the seams. I suppose he was
were draughty classrooms with high
jjealous as I had something
ceilings and a large
nice to wear. n
stove in each room. If you sat by it you
The boys had a playground T
overheated, but if you
sseparate from the girls. It
were further away you
w was one of their ‘games’ to
got very cold.
pull girls over to their area. p The bullies would also T
Every morning milk was
w waylay us as we turned
delivered in metal milk
tthe corner towards the
churns and poured into
sschool gate. I found the
battered old metal mugs.
b best way was never to llook scared as they
I have never been able to drink milk like that since
St.
l Luke’s Schoo
as I can still taste that slimy, slightly warm liquid.
ttended to concentrate on those wh who did. I remember one day, a teacher was absent, so my class joined another and I ended up sitting next to a girl called Mary. We
It was a rough place - so many children having
58 | www.thejerseylife.co.uk
paid little attention to the lesson which was the
