Page 6 - Front cover sm school.pub

All the electricians had finished their work. essentials as books chairs pens and In the cloak rooms seats and boot racks had numerous other important necessities. been fitted. All the windows have been cleaned, and, as All the gymnasium apparatus which it was the first time, they were cleaned with consisted of thirty two wall bars, two methylate spirits in order to remove any balance beams, ten ropes, light balance stray pieces of dirt of paint. forms, one box, one vaulting horse, two sets The name of the school had been erected of jumping posts, a window ladder and over the main entrance in brass letters a few various mats and mattresses, had been days before the opening ceremony, which installed. was performed on April 8th 1940, by the In the cookery centre a range had been Marquis of Salsbury and the Bishop of St installed, also some big sinks and the flat Albans. St. Mary’s Senior School now takes was complete. its place as an important link in the Benches with draws had been fitted into the educational system of England. wood and metal work rooms. All the floors, While the majority of this diary was written except the central hall, had been polished. as class work by the various pupils from the Tables, chairs, desks, lockers and cupboards National School, the latter part was had arrived from the E.S.A.. Outside the obviously written by one of the teachers, labourers were working on the playground probably by Mr Merritt himself as it for the first time for eight weeks. appears that it was he who took the pupils Loads of bricks had arrived for the road on the visits to the new school as it was base. Iron railings were being fixed along being built. the drive and front entrance. As something of a post script to the Diary of Progress, another piece of class work The Final Weeks was also accomplished and kept with the diary. After the completion of the interior of the It appears that at least one of the classes school, attention was drawn to the gravel went on a visit to the Ayot Brickworks, drive which was rapidly being laid and even though the site does not appear to have rolled so that now buses can come right up supplied the school building project . to the school, lessening the chances of This is one of the few cases where school accidents while crossing the busy road. work becomes useful to the local historian, New iron gates with brick posts have been because apart from these few notes, there is constructed at the entrances to the school. A no other record of the actual working of the cycle shed had been erected to Ayot Brick Works. accommodate the numerous cycles So for the sake of history, home work belonging to children from outlying revisited: districts. On Wednesday May 26th we paid a visit to The playground was finished about a week the Ayot brick works which are about one after the school was occupied and trees are and a quarter miles from school. to be planted by the steps leading onto it but When we arrived at the brickworks we saw these have not arrived yet. a man carting clay into a shed where he The plots around the school which were tipped the clay into a hole where two rollers originally to have been lawns, have been were revolving. These rollers broke up the cultivated because of the war. lumps and mixed the clay with the sand. The teachers have had their names fixed on The clay had been soaked before hand so their classroom doors and blinds and A.R.P. that it would mix properly. curtains have been installed in the Later we entered a shed where the bricks classrooms and staffrooms. were being moulded, placed on trucks and Blue velveteen curtains and footlights have taken away to be dried in the sun. When the been fixed to the stage. The next step was bricks had been dried sufficiently they were the stocking of the school with such packed in a kiln ready to be baked. 16