From the School , 70 Years Ago - 1956
Careers Mary Newman (Lower Vl)
On 23rd June, Miss Kentish Barnes, a member of the Headmistresses Employment Committ, gave a very interesting lecture on careers to the middle and upper fifths, and their parents. She began by dividing careers into 5 groups: professional; commercial; social; scientific and those for people with artistic abilities. She then briefly outlined the type of work done in each group, with its advantages and disadvantages, and the prospects of obtaining a post after training had been completed.
Miss Barnes emphasised, more than anything else, the need for a good educational background, and said that it was best for everyone who could ro stay at school until they were 18, and then do the required training for their own particular career. Although girls can enter the Civil Service, research laboratories, and other works, when they have reached School Certificate standard, they do not have the same chance of obtaining a higher, and more responsible position, as those who have had a more advanced education. At the end of her lecture, Miss Barnes answered several questions on careers such a journalism, music, and agriculture.
Can anyone remember, or comment on, the careers advice they were given at school? In the mid-1960s, the advice I was given was abysmal: university came first; then teacher training and nursing, "if you had to"! Other options were rarely addressed!
Grey Friars Notes - Autumn Term, 1956
On October 1st, we held a harvest festival. The hall was decorated by Miss Overy, Miss Grat, and Miss Oliver. Many gifts of flowers and fruit were brought. The flowers were sent to the Military Hospital*, some fruit, to the Stanway Girls' Home**, and other fruit and vegetables to the Essex County Hospital. On October 23rd, Mrs Nicholson gave us a very interesting talk on China. The Christmas parties took place, as usual, at the end of term. Thanks to the hard work of Miss Gray, and some of the upper lVs, the hall was once again beautifully decorated. The decorations were afterwards sent to St Mary's Home for Small Children, at Gt Maplestead***, where they were much appreciated. At the Preparatory party, each child had a present made by the upper lVs. On December 13th, the Preparatory had a gift service. They brought toys for the children's home at Stanway. Afterwards, Lower lV D performed the nativity play "the Babe of Bethlehem" to them. On December 19th, Lower lV D performed the pkay to the rest of Grey Friars. It was produced by Miss Owers, and beautifully acted, and we enjoyed it very much. On December 16th, Miss Roper gave the upper lVs a talk on the visit she and Miss Gray had made to Skokholm Island, birdwatching. She showed us interesting pictures of the birds and flowers there. At the end of term, the form with the best record was Upper lV D.
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* Colchester Military Hospital (right) was one of several army hospitals in England. It closed in 1977, and was later demolished, with the ground used for a huge housing estate.
** In 1955, "Stanway Girls' Home" was actually Collier House, a children's home tun by Dr Barnardo's, opened in
1945, for boys. Ten years later, it became a girls' home, and later, siblings were looked after together. It closed in 1981, and the site if now part of St Mary's School.
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*** Originally the Gt Maplestead House of Mercy (left) provided a home and support for "fallen women", such as unmarried pregnant girls. The home was run until 1943 by the sisters of the Clewer Community, when the Waifs and Strays Society (later the Church of England Children's Society) took it over, and re-opened it in 1944, taking in young girls and babies, and training nursery nirses. In 1953, the home accommodated only infants and children up to 5. It closed, in 1957.