Moulsham Junior School, Chelmsford Past Pupils' Newsletter
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Moulsham Junior School, Chelmsford Past Pupils’ Newsletter Autumn 2019 Vol 21 No 2 In this issue page Editorial: Greetings to you all once again 2 From Head Teacher Mrs Marie Staley 3 Connecting with the local community 4 Open Afternoon 2019 5 Pictures from the Open Afternoon 6 Peter Turrall, 1939 7 David Reade, 1947-51, memories of Moulsham Juniors 7 Brian Wilder, 1946, news from Australia 9 Headmaster Tom Sturgeon’s retirement in 1982 11 1963 reflections by Mr Sturgeon 12 1969 Summer term ay Moulsham Junior Girls’ School 13 Les Kemp, Deputy Headteachers 1995-2006 14 Kathleen Boot (Nash): Books remembered from Moulsham Juniors 17 News in brief 18 Obituaries: Suzanne Kettle (Bulbeck), Alan Twitchett, Derek Weston 19 School website 20 Data protection legislation 20 1 Greetings once again to you all It was a great pleasure to meet up with all those of you who were able to come to the 2019 Open Afternoon in June. We have already fixed a date for next year’s reunion at the school: It will be from 1-4pm on the afternoon of Saturday 6th June 2020. Do please put the date in your diary, and we shall look forward to seeing as many past pupils as possible on that occasion. We have a particularly interesting report from the current Headteacher on page 3 of this issue of the Newsletter, focussing on present day engagement with the local community. Many of us former pupils will remember examples of participating in this in our own time at the school, perhaps as part of a choir or dance group performing at the annual St John’s Hospital fete, or taking part in the school Carol Service at one of the local churches; inviting parents and friends to school plays, concerts or pageants to celebrate special occasions; entertaining groups of elderly people to tea at the school; supporting local or national charities for those less fortunate than ourselves; or having talks on road safety from relevant officials. If you recall these or any other opportunities to connect with the local community, we would be delighted to hear about your experience of them. We have included photos of some such occasions in earlier days on page 4 of this digital version of the Newsletter. Also in this Newsletter, thank you to Brian Wilder and David Reade for writing to us from their present homes abroad, and to Peter Turrall in Chelmsford who lists a number of former classmates he would like to hear from. If you have a similar list of friends you have lost touch with, we can if you wish include that list in a future issue. Many thanks to former Headteacher Les Kemp (1995-2006), who has supported us so enthusiastically since we started the Newsletter 20 years ago in 1999, and has written us an interesting article on page 12 of this issue about the supporting role of Deputy Headteachers in his time at the school. As usual, do please keep sending your news, photos and articles for the Newsletter to Mrs Kathleen Boot at 1A Vicarage Road, Chelmsford CM2 9PG, or by email to [email protected] (please note change of email address). We look forward very much to hearing from you. Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a pleasant and healthy New Year 2020, Date for your diary Kathleen Boot (Nash) The 2020 Open Afternoon for past Moulsham Junior Girls’ School 1951-55 pupils will be on Saturday 6th June at the school, 1-4pm Important : change of email address Kathleen has recently switched to a gmail address for her emails, as the previous Tiscali address is likely to be discontinued in the near future. She would be grateful if you could please replace it in any records you may have with, her new address, which is [email protected] Many thanks 2 From the Headteacher Mrs Marie Staley Pressure to ‘perform’ remains as high as ever on schools – SATs targets, league tables and OFSTED inspections to name but a few. However, education is so much more than this. As a flourishing school our focus is also on community engagement and this was highlighted recently when FOMS (Friends of Moulsham School – our parents association) organised our second hugely successful fireworks event with happy families filling our field. There was an incredible atmosphere and the community really united: we also raised a considerable amount of money which we intend to use towards developing our ‘garden’ area. The local Scouts arrived on the following day and did a fantastic job clearing the field of debris! I wonder if this invokes memories of similar events when you Mrs Marie Staley, attended Moulsham Junior School? Headteacher I n addition to holding events which raise money for our school, we are also passionate about offering support to others. Our school councillors choose a charity each year and this becomes the focus for us to support. This year, our nominated charity is the ‘World Wildlife Fund.’ Our children feel really strongly about the importance of caring for our planet. We have written to Sir David Attenborough and are hopeful that he will support us in our fundraising event later in the year. As a staff we also nominate a charity to support each year and raise money in various ways, for example by holding raffles at Christmas and Easter. The chosen charity this year is CHESS, a local charity close to all our hearts, which seeks to relieve homelessness and related hardship among single adults. September saw boxes of mouth-watering cakes arriving at school for the annual Macmillan coffee morning. Thoughts of waistlines flew out of the window as we all indulged in coffee and cake and together we raised a fantastic £187.34. Earlier this term we held a food collection to mark Harvest Festival. Thanks to the generosity of our families we collected food which was donated to Chelmsford Food Bank and will help many local families in crisis over the coming months. In all of these ways we encourage a sense of community and the importance of working together to support others and for the benefit of all. 3 Moulsham Junior School: Contacts with the local community in earlier years Left: 1955, Junior Girls’ choir at St John’s Hospital Fete. Front row from left: Pam Harper, Lucille Franklin, Kathleen Brown, Pat Bartlett, Sylvia Drinkwater, Aileen Squires, Jennifer Bohannon, ? Wendy Philp, ?Jean Staples, Vivien Biglin. Advice in the 1961 Junior Boys’ School Magazine from teacher Mr Harold Picken, who taught at the school from 1938-1976: ‘I believe that service to others is essential to real happiness. Let your aim all the time to be not merely the attainment of things for yourself, but of power to do good to other people, for the community. Little good turns of courtesy and Above: 1943-44: The ambulance which kindness, being helpful and giving without children of Moulsham School presented to expecting reward are but a few ways in which you the Red Cross during the war. It cost £400 can play your valuable part, at home and at school, and was paid for in farthing collections (4 in serving the community.’ farthings = 1 penny, 240 pence = £1) 1975: Newspaper report of Moulsham Junior School pupils raising £1,085 from a sponsored walk, in aid of the Chelmsford Old People’s Holiday Scheme 4 th Open Afternoon, 8 June 2019 As ever, we were delighted to welcome both new and familiar faces at this year’s Open Afternoon for past pupils of Moulsham Juniors. Many thanks to all our volunteers, those who helped on the welcome desk, others serving refreshments in the North (former Boys’ School) Hall , and still more who came beforehand to help set up and afterwards tidy up the displays of photos and other items of historic interest in the South (former Girls’ School) Hall. Visitors who had not been to the school in recent years may have been surprised to see that the former Boys’ School Hall has been extended to double its original size, with a kitchen, a school library and a couple of extra classrooms added to the side and rear. Apart from this fairly recent extension, and a number of additional classrooms built over the years as the number of classes expanded, the buildings are still recognisable to those of us who were pupils in the first few decades after the school first opened in 1938. Following various articles on school dinners in recent Newsletters, those of you attending the Open Afternoon were able to sample one of the dishes remembered from some of our schooldays, namely spam fritters. These were cooked during the afternoon by Mrs Pauline Edwards (photo right), wife of past pupil Martyn, and some of us were quite surprised just how delicious they were. Special thanks to Pauline Below are the names of those past pupils who signed in at the Open Afternoon – apologies for any mis-reading of signatures. Apologies for absence were received from Peter Turrall, Brian Emmett, Joan Wade, Julie Renvoize, Ray Hatherley, and Howard Norman. 1938/39 Michael Smith 1960s 2000s Alan Hammond David Tarbun Stewart Court Aletia French John Reed Tony Parrish Malcolm Robinson 1950s Charles R Reed Staff and other Bill Baxter helpers 1940s Barbara Blomfield 1970s Gerald Canfield Martin ?Dobson Carol Albon Mr Les Kemp John Carter Hilary Dye Ainsley Coffield Mrs Pauline Edwards Shirley Cooper Jean Everett Angela Prior Mrs Sue FitzJohn John Court David ?Hatch Mary Lewis Mrs Iris Watts Roger Dennis Janet Leavy Karen Morgan Gill Edwards Christine Lucking Chris Parrish Martyn Edwards Jenny Mouser David Turner Barry French Kathleen Nash Francis Greatrex Mick Polley 1980s Beryl Janes Christine Pudney Faye Smith Brian Jiggins Keith Rawlingson Katrina Saunders Adrian Smith Chris Warner Bob Willis 5 More photos from the Open Afternoon Among the faces to which we can put names are: Mrs Iris Watts, Sue FitzJohn, Hilary Balm (Dye) with Chris Warner; Malcolm Robinson; John Reed; Alan Hammond; Janet Winter (Leavy) 6 From Peter Turrall, 1939 pupil: Where are you now? Often people ask me if I have seen a certain person.