Uniform - for anyone at school during the 70s
Progressing from short white socks to long ones.
Overcoat-sized blazers that we were supposed to "grow into".
Breton hats that turned into pudding basins after a few weeks' wear. (And being told that Juniors would no longer have to wear them on the day our year became Seniors and didn't have to wear them anymore anyway!)
Purse belts (in which to hide away all the things we weren't supposed to have on us)
Having to tie back hair that touched our collars into mini shaving brush bunches, this being For Our Own Good and to save us from 'Certain Death by Bunsen Burner' and the like.
"Modern" summer dresses, with zips up the front, that were so short it was impossible to
bend over in them without an accidental flash of regulation navy knickers. The different colours of these dresses disappearing after one wash so that blue, green, grey and brown all went the same "greige" colour. (Still enough "hint of a tint" left in Debbie Shore's to result in her getting a vibrant green makeover by a Rimmel beautician though, who'd come to talk to us after our "O" Levels were over)
End of term lectures in assembly on how to instruct our mums to take each item of prospective school clothing out of the shop and into daylight for a better appraisal of its Whyteleafean navy-ness. (Nothing said about how to avoid store detectives, subsequent arrest and "naming & shaming" in the Croydon Advertiser though!)
Being allowed to wear our own clothes in the 6th Form, except for smocks and jeans - the word "jeans" being a technical term meaning any pair of trews with double stitching down the legs.
Trying to make tights last as long as possible by covering holes in blobs of mum's old pink 60s nail varnish and sewing ladders up like Hammer Horror scars. (Editor’s note—human hair seemed to work for us!)
Games
Bed Of Nails-textured coconut matting in PE that stabbed you through the holes in your Aertex blouse during roly-polys. (Only the very keen managed to get the squashy mats with the handles!)
Various "character-forming" sporting injuries during the more dangerous sorts of games in the field.
Eileen Fowler Keep Fit records in the Hut (Lift! Lift!)
Half-hour cricket lessons where it took so long to walk to the field and pad-up that you had to pad-down (?) and come back again after about one over's play.
The misery of lacrosse in cold weather and finding on your return from the field that your purple, sausage-like fingers were no longer able to undo your buttons so that you could get changed for the next lesson. Lacrosse in wet weather consisting of running round the hall en masse while cradling imaginary lax balls with our sticks. Not forgetting the cheesy lax-boots in wire lockers!!
The change-over from culottes to gym skirts making it harder to get away with wearing the wrong colour knickers. Having to keep emergency pairs of Whyteleafean ones in our PE bags.
The 1972 Olympics making it suddenly necessary, in Miss Hurll's view, that even the less elfin among us should adorn our roly-polys with flourishes and arm-waving a la Olga Korbut.
Over-enthusiastic setting steps making the record player jump. Having to re-do our Scottish Dancing errors outside the staff room door before we could go home.
End of term games of "Pirates" and "Elimination Polka", at which it was possible not to get eliminated if you stuck to the following rules:
1 Always wear Whyteleafean navy knickers,
2 Never stand on a white badminton line, under a beam or near the wall bars,
3 Hide behind taller people so as not to be seen, (slight crouching permissible for lanky types)
4 Be in Austen (Miss Edwards’ house) and hope she’ll call out the other three.
5 Pretend it's your day to turn on the showers.

Miss Redfern's Do’s and Don'ts were another example of just how well she prepared us for later life. She took the two new intake forms (Upper Thirds) on Friday afternoons for Do’s and Don'ts. We had a half-size exercise book in which we wrote all those things which you should and should not do – for example, don't eat in the street; do give up your seat on the bus to an adult. There were lots more. It must be remembered that after the 1944 Education Act there were pupils from all backgrounds coming to the school. Miss Redfern knew that the education they received would lead them into sections of society where they would need more than just their academic achievements to succeed and she was obviously determined that we should not be held back by social faux pas. How lucky we were to have a Headmistress like that! The older I get, the more I realise how much we owe her Barbara Smith (Mrs. Adams 1946—1954)


An excerpt from a Do’s and Don’ts Book—the hazards of chairs!

Never , even in fun, pull away a chairs from anyone

Deck chairs need special care, keep your hands near the top of the back to avoid pinching them.

When passing behind anyone’s chair, be careful not to kick the feet on touching the back.

With arm chairs avoid damaging the padded arms by standing on them or the springs of the seat by bouncing up and down.

Keep you feet off the seat of railway carriages

When sitting down or standing up avoid letting your chair slide on the floor and squeaking.

Always be ready to fetch or carry a chair for an older person, and never let them stand while you sit.

Manners

The Plate
Don’t push it away from you when you have finished eating. Leave a clean plate containing only the things you can’t eat ( cherry stones, mustard etc.) Anything not eaten should be tidily placed together. Don’t wipe your plate with your bread or lick it.

The Glass

Do not tilt your glass too far back when you are drinking an only take a small quantity of liquid at a time. Hold your glass firmly about half-way up and drink from the part above your thumb. Put it down quietly and always wipe your mouth after drinking.

The Cup and Saucer

Don't crook or extend your little finger, but tuck it away under the others. Stir your sugar and replace your spoon gently. Don’t blow on your tea to cool it, wait until it cools.

Remedials were foot and ankle exercises supervised by Miss Edwards in the Hall before school for ten to fifteen minutes two mornings a week. Presumably the school doctor and Miss Edwards decided who should attend. We wriggled our toes, circled our ankles, tried to pick up pencils with our toes etc. The idea was to correct foot problems and strengthen our feet. (I attended as I had split the cartilage in one ankle while walking in the hills around Reigate with Mary Bradby and Pauline Brush one Easter holiday and my ankles needed building up.)
Barbara Smith (Mrs. Adams 1946—1954)

A potential tendency for my big toes to slope inwards was spotted by an eagle-eyed doctor/nurse at a school medical (was Miss Edwards also present at that medical?)--'Remedials' was THE remedy. Every Thursday before school, along with a number of other lucky girls, I had to go into the hall, remove my socks and shoes and sit on the floor. After answering the register we had to 'exercise' our feet and toes. The only hope of my ever being able to quit these 'lessons' was by learning to move my big toes sideways. Eventually I learnt to do this but don't remember being allowed to leave going to the classes. However, I have to report that despite the 'Whyteleafe Remedy' it was all to no avail. The predicted bunions developed anyway!
Wednesday remedials were for girls who had back problems--round shoulders etc. Were any unfortunate enough to have to go on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings?
Margaret Blanshard (Mrs. Vincent 1956—1963

I didn’t have to attend, but I remember them well. They were exercises in the gym before school to help correct flat feet and other ailments too. To elaborate further, I vaguely remember that each girl had a medical examination on entering Whyteleafe, attended by Miss Edwards my mother (by invitation) and a third person—maybe a Doctor or Nurse? I remember it was held in a small room (mine was in Kenley) and we had to strip to the waist. Then our spine was felt to see if it was straight, out feet were checked for flat feet, and our posture looked at in general. If at this time it was determined we had flat feet, we were sent to Remedials—I think twice a week.
Dorothy Harvard (Mrs. Short 1945—1951)

I do remember this—exercises to improve posture and breathing. This would have been in 1953 or 1954. We all had to strip to the waist and walk across the hall (the curtains were closed!)in front of Miss Edwards and Miss Merydew to have our posture assessed. I scuttled across as quickly as possible, slouching to try and disguise my embarrassingly flat chest!. I can remember as clearly as if it were yesterday how mortified I felt. I can’t recall how the breathing was assessed but I hade to attend both sessions of Remedials each week. We had to arrive at school half an hour early and there were quite a lot of us in the hall. I think the sessions went on for a school year. Whether it improved our posture or not is debateable, my mothers was always telling me to stand up straight –perhaps a better bra would have helped!
Barbara Packer (Mrs Burtenshaw) 1951—1956

Remedials were not very popular—when have teenage girls ever wanted to get to school early, miss the gossip in the playground and feel ‘different’ from their peers? I hope some of them have thanked Miss Edwards for correcting posture faults in her own time, which has probably saved them years of pain.
Miss Taylor (Mrs French)—staff 1948 – 1956
I certainly do recall these. As a result of my first school medical I was required to arrive at school early every Wednesday morning to attend Miss Edwards' remedial class for dropped shoulders. We would hang from the wall bars in the hall for 10 or 15 minutes before registration. I'm sorry to report that, in spite of Miss Edwards' best efforts, the condition has persisted and my right shoulder still hangs lower than my left. 50 years on I still notice it in every front-on photo of myself.
Michelle Kingsland (Mrs Serpell ) 1956—1963

I attended Whyteleafe from 1948 until 1952.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, but my fondest memories were of lacrosse , Scottish dancing and anatomy and physiology- all taken by the formidable Miss Edwards or "Grit " as she was known to us. These interests led me to train as a P.E teacher.
I taught lacrosse and Scottish dance to my pupils, and in fact still do Scottish dancing and two months ago gave a presentation of lacrosse to a school where my son's partner is Head Mistress..
One memory I have is of our 6th Form on their next to last day of school, stringing up a row of gym knickers on top of the 6th form house. The fire brigade were called to remove them. The next day we were summoned to Miss Redfern one by one and those of us who were prefects had their badges removed.

I was browsing for details of my early life when I came upon your notice about the coming meeting for former pupils of the old Whyteleafe School. Well, here I am, the girl who , with seven others from the local primary school WON A SCHOLARSHIP to Whyteleafe in 1933! This was a very unusual feat because few children were entered for the exam, and the usual leaving age at that time was 14. We had Mrs Evans as our head teacher and it was she who selected us and groomed us for the exam with modest extra studies. She allowed me to select books to read from a small library she kept in her school study, and I remember reading The Last of the Mohicans and Ivanhoe.
My entry to Whyteleafe was an eye opener in many ways and it has served me well. On my arrival a rather bossy girl asked me "Are you a scholarship girl or are you one of us?" and I soon learned that, in life there are those who have, and those who don't have quite so much.
In 1939 aged 17 and the war starting, I joined the War Office. My father had decided that the Civil Service entry exam would suit me better as I was so very hopeless at math but had good language and writing skills.
I passed the exam and proceeded to the Minister's Private Office in the Ministry of Supply in Lord Beaverbrook's time and from there to the Foreign Office where Sir Anthony Eden was Foreign Secretary, not that one saw much of these exalted men but it was good at least to be near the corridors of power and catch a glimpse of them!
At the Foreign Office I learned to become a cypher clerk and was posted to Italy for three years . Italy had surrendered but there was still fighting in the north as the armies moved across Europe for the final blow. I had seen devastation of war in my own country but never so dreadful as Italy.
Home again and then a posting to Singapore where I met and married my husband. His work took us to many countries. To India just after partition and the death of Mahatma Ghandi, to Egypt at the time of King Farouk 's departure, back to Singapore twice and to the tiny island of St Helena in the South Pacific ocean.
My daughter married, and went to live in Canada and so I now find myself living here near her family having emigrated in 2008.
Mine was the time of Miss Atwool the head mistress, Miss Mizzen who gave free reign to my imagination, Miss Pomeroy who taught chemistry, Miss Sturgess (the lady who tried so hard to teach me math!) and the pretty Miss Taylor for gym an games. O those frozen games of lacrosse! I loved the school and its ethos. It taught me how to learn, and how to walk tall as a woman in this world. I am now in my 90th year and still bad at math!!

I was at Whyteleafe Grammar School from 1947 to 1951. One of my daughters has just by accident found the Whyteleafe web site and has e-mailed it on to me!
I really enjoyed my time at school, particularly gym and games with Miss Edwards and Miss Bickle who sadly died during our school holidays.

Miss Champness was one of my mentors and I still have a card she sent me on my entry into the church, and I still sing bits and pieces of the Lady of Shallot taught to my year by Miss Whiteside.

I shall always have Miss Redfern's car number engraved on my heart! JMP 250. My friend Margaret Field and I cycled home together, quite often and unbeknown to us followed by Miss Redfern's car. Once or twice we were called to the study and told to be a 'little more controlled' as we pedalled up that very steep hill. We tried to keep an eye out for JMP 250!

Miss Redfern made such an impression on me with her Do's and Don'ts. To this day my four daughters and several of my grandchildren follow some of her instructions, particularly not to leave the table to go to the toilet during a meal and how to carry a chair correctly so as 'not to damage another, or the chair or even yourself'.

I think my most memorable occasion was the Christmas School Dance on December 18th 1951. Miss Redfern asked us to bring a 'young gentleman' with us. Whilst at the dance I met a different young gentleman other than the one I had brought,following that occasion we met regularly and he has just died after sixty-four years together. So thank you Miss Redfern.