St. Kenelm's C.E. Primary School, Romsley
Centenary Celebrations
1915 – 2015
Memories of Mrs Jean Cockin - Parent - 1976 onwards
Kathryn my daughter attended Playschool, firstly in the Church Hall on Bromsgrove Road and then inside St. Kenelm's School in the downstairs 'classroom next to Reception.
She started her main stream education as a rising 5 in Mrs. Hutchinson's class (part of the present Reception classroom) .
I believe 42 children started that September day in 1976.
To help Mrs. Hutchinson as parents we were asked if we had any time available to help her by reading to a few children in the book area of the class room to enable her to try and teach some of the children.
My first time in that classroom opened my eyes as to how difficult it was to cope and teach these 42 small children. My appreciation of her greatly increased as I saw how she managed. Many of the children would not sit down and they were very noisy. I would leave, after just helping for an hour, with a headache and I had only been sitting reading. Eventually Pat Evans was employed as an extra teacher to help Mrs Hutchinson with the more advanced children.
Those 42 children were called another 'baby boom', a result of the miner's strikes. It was believed that many cuts in the electricity supply caused couples to find alternative entertainment to the television!
All through Kathryn's education at every parent's evening all her tutors, at first, middle and senior schools made the same comment – "They were the noisiest year they had ever had."
I believed them.