Early School Reports 1930s

These belonged to a lady who passed away a few years ago. Due to the dates on them I thought they may be of interest to put on the site.

Editor’s note:  Before publishing the reports, not wanting to cause any upset or embarrassment to her family, I made enquiries and then being satisfied that she doesn’t have any living family, I decided to go ahead.

I did manage to discover that the family had lived at ‘Beechfield’ High Road North, Laindon.   Also her sister Doreen Woodhouse had been an attendant to the Laindon Carnival Queen in 1933.

Evelyn had been born in Ilford 1921, she never married and died in Forest Glade Nursing Home, Langdon Hills around 2012.

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  • School reports where so much easier to understand years ago. They are so complicated now.

    By Helen Painter (09/07/2017)
  • Yes, our brother Den earned £1 a week at his first job.  He asked the farmer if he could have a chicken and was told if he could catch one, he could have it.  He managed to catch a white leghorn hen with bandy legs, which he gave to me for my birthday.  I was thrilled when she started laying eggs.

    By Anne Burton (08/07/2017)
  • From the class figures I am wondering which room was used for Evelyn’s form during her first year 1930-31. Looking at my own report, in my first year with Mr Rosen (Upper 1B) 1958-59 we had 36 pupils in the class. How ever they crammed 66 pupils into one room is amazing, the room we were in that first year was one of three reserved for first years only, facing out over the girls playground.

    I remember when Joe Borowski came later in the first term to join our class and wondering where this huge guy was going to sit but somehow we all squeezed in. It was a relief in the second year to join a class of 34 in the wooden building with Mr Rees, with whom I stayed until July 1963. Looking at Evelyn’s reports she seems to have missed some of the exams, maybe she was nervous about them, or she may have been unwell that winter, a shame because she seems to have been a good neat worker otherwise. A fascinating insight into early LHR days from my parents era.

    By Richard Haines (07/07/2017)
  • Laindon High Road School originally catered for primary and senior pupils aged 5 to 14. Evelyn was born in Ilford in 1921 and had attended Cleveland Road Junior School, Ilford for a few years before her family moved to Laindon.   At the time of the first report, she was 9 years old and still a junior.    

    Markham’s Chase Primary School opened in 1933, for children aged 5 to 11.  So it seems that Evelyn would have just missed going to the newly built school as a junior but carried on at LHR until 1935 when she turned 14.

    In 1939 the government considered raising the school leaving age to 15 but this was delayed because of the war and came into force in 1947.  (My late older brother once told me that he left Laindon High Road School on his 14th birthday, 22 July 1944 and started work on Buckenham’s farm the very next day).  In 1972 the school leaving age was raised to 16.  

    The current rules are that a pupil can leave aged 16 but must then do one of the following until they are 18: stay in education, for example at a college, start an apprenticeship or traineeship.

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (07/07/2017)
  • When I was in the infants at Markham’s Chase School, there were 47 pupils in my class and I thought that was a lot.  So, I was amazed to read there were 66 pupils in Miss Varker’s class in 1930!  That’s double the size of today’s classes.

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (06/07/2017)
  • Like Nina, I was amazed to see that there were 66 pupils in the class. I seem to recall there being 44 pupils in my class at Laindon Park primary and I thought that was a lot. Teachers however managed to maintain order and instil a high level of education in spite of these high numbers. This was a different time when teachers had and exercised a degree of authority and as a result of this were treated (mostly) with respect and admiration.

    In 1932 the class number had dropped by 9, why I wonder, as that seems a lot to have lost in such a short time. The subjects listed on these report cards were all the basics needed to be able to face the world when reaching adulthood, nothing fancy or too specialised. What a very simple yet pleasant time to be a schoolboy/girl. 

    By Donald Joy (06/07/2017)

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