Dunkirk School

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Photographs
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Memories

Karen Standage - once a Claude Street resident
I attended Dunkirk Primary School between 1972 and 1979.  The site of the nursery used to be the school field where we held sports days.  Later we would have to trundle under the subway and up the steps to the fenced-in field on the other side of Clifton Boulevard.  In the days before we were kicked off it to make way for the nursery, I remember sitting on the grass making daisy chains in the summer and in the infants we had once had our class photo taken outside on the field.  I also recall skipping across the grass with tambourines in our hands under the direction of Mrs Foxley.  Apart from Mrs Foxley, who was lovely, also teaching in the infant department were Mrs Howitt (old) and Mrs McCourtney (strict) - although we actually kept the same teacher throughout our time in the infants.  During the annual Nativity play Mrs Foxley used to play her autoharp while Mary sang: “Joseph, dearest, Joseph, mine”. The angel costumes would be decorated with the remainders of the tin foil from cut-out milk bottle tops, with the gold top remainders always reserved for Gabriel.  Assemblies would have Mrs Grant in her tweed skirt, twin set and Dr Scholls playing the piano, while our red-faced headmaster, Mr Evans, would lead the hymns, with us all craning up to the corner above the dining room door to read the words from the GIGANTIC hymn sheets which he would lower and raise by a rope.  One year in assembly Ian Shelton was dressed up as a rabbit while we all sang: “Mr Rabbit, Mr Rabbit, your ears are mighty long”.

After the field was commandeered for the nursery we were relegated to the ‘concrete jungle’ and I can also recall being trapped on it in a hula-hoop by Mr Parr and then dragged across the playground while he shouted "He bah, he bah, hondelay!"  The boys would link arms in a line and call "Anybody for Ar-my?".  It’s strange what sticks in the memory!

The junior school teachers while I was there included the following teachers: Mrs Nelkin, a very strict red-headed ‘gypsy’ (that’s how she referred to herself) who left to be replaced by Mrs Roach, who was rather a timid sort of woman. There was Mrs Grant, mentioned above, who also took us all for Scottish dancing. For one year there was a Nigerian teacher called Mrs Dunkwu who was very jolly and got very enthusiastic about the Silver Jubilee - her classroom was the tiny room next to the PE store cupboard and was very cramped. The deputy head teacher was Mr Atkinson who took over Mrs Roach’s class; his big thing was to play his Swinging Safari LP during assembly - The Lion Sleeps Tonight, etc! Then there was Mr Parr, a Welshman, with his obsession with the poet W H Davies - he used to check down our tops to make sure we weren't wearing our vests under our T-shirts in PE - not something I can imagine happening nowadays! And finally the laid-back Mr Benson (who is featured on your football team photo); he had a very dry sense of humour and helped put on a sketch show one year in which Mark Ulliott and Steven Harlow (who are also in this photo) did some Two Ronnies newsflash jokes.

Some strange quirks of the school included the "treat" of being allowed to walk with a partner to the postbox on the corner of Lace Street and Beeston Road to post the letters for Mrs Ashmore. Or we might be taken out of our lessons to wash up the staff cups in the staffroom! I remember doing this with Angela Buck (who lived in the house next door to the school) and leaving washing-up liquid in the bottom of the teapot.  How rebellious can you get?

Julia Pearl - Perth, Western Australia
The block of photos above showing the new school building under construction features pupils in the top juniors in 1967. I was in this class although I can't spot myself in any of the photographs.  The shots must have been taken in the Spring/early Summer of 1967 as we would all have left for secondary school after the Summer holidays.

The plans for the site were presented to my class in the previous September by our teacher, Neil Atkins, and we all subsequently went wildflower picking on the site prior to the workmen moving in. We had to plot where the flowers had been found on the plans. There was a competition to see who could collect the most wildflowers either on the site or around the traps.  I got off to a good start but Catherine Moore eventually beat my total and won a Collector's Guide to Wildflowers. I can still remember many of the flower names and bought a copy of the book for myself at a later date.

Our class never did go to the 'new school' after it opened but it all seemed very exciting that the old building would be vacated and this modern building would be the new look of Dunkirk Primary School. We all expected the old site would be cleared but the building still survives to this day housing the Dunkirk and Old Lenton Community Centre.

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