BFES-SCEA-Association

Updated 5th December 2018 - report from Nolan Clamp's funeral
updated membership form uploaded

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Welcome to the BFES-SCEA-Association

The one Association for all who currently work, or have worked, with Service Children's Education abroad.

Are you currently working as a teacher or a locally employed member of staff, have you recently left, or will you soon be leaving SCE? Have you worked for any of SCE's predecessors, such as SCS, SCEA or BFES? If so then you are eligible to join.
This is an opportunity to keep up with friends, present and former colleagues. It will allow you to keep up with what is going on in SCE around the world. There are also opportunities for you to enjoy professional and social functions. Please consider seriously joining the BFES-SCE Association! A copy of the quarterly newsletter is sent to every SCE school.

By joining the BFES-SCE Association you will be entitled and enabled to:

Maintain and revive friendships
Attend annual re-unions, local and national
Have access to the growing archive stored at the London University's Institute of Education.
Receive the termly Newsletter of the Association, and contribute to it.

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NOLAN CLAMP

Nolan Clamp died on 6th December. Nolan was a past-president of our association and Chief Executive of both British Forces Education Service (BFES) and Service Children's Schools (SCS). He served a total of 25 years in these roles (BFES 1976-1981 & SCS 1982-1991).

Nolan's funeral took place on 30th November in Beccles, Suffolk. The BFES-SCEA Association was represented by Mike and Fran Bennett. Mike writes:

Fran and I attended the funeral. It was a heartwarming occasion despite the sad circumstance. The sun shone and Mr C’s family were so welcoming, greeting us all outside the Crematorium in such a way that we did not feel like mourners, rather celebrators of a well lived life - which is, of course what everyone wanted.

The service lasted for an hour with a slide show of photos on wall mounted screens, and nostalgic tributes revealing much I did not know, but also emphasising that which we already knew; his dignity and dedication to his family, and those others he cared for, the children and staff of BFES.

Jeff Harris, another of our members. lived in the area and kept in touch with Nolan and also attended the funeral.

A fuller obituary and appreciation is being prepared for the newsletter.

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BFES/SCE Association

ANNNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Of the above association was held
on
Saturday October 6th 2018
at
The Queen’s Hotel, Leeds

and many off you came, enjoying an efficient and friendly AGM and an excellent lunch afterwards. Thanks go especially to Sue Adams for the organisation and liaison with Queens Hotel. Your web-master hopes to add some photos before long!

At the meeting the existing committee was re-elected. In addition, Gareth Morgan was co-opted onto the committee.

Latest News - see also 'Noticeboard'

(drop down under 'Home')

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We have been notified of the death of Nolan Clamp. Nolan was a past-president of our association and former director of SCS-NW. The funeral is in Beccles, Suffolk, on 30th November 2018. Your web-master lacks further details at the moment, but I can pass any enquiries onto colleagues with more information.
(Mike Chislett - mwchis@gmail.com & 07484 121199)

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Newsletter 40 has been added - see right side of drop-down menu.click on link in welcome bar above

It is not yet 'behind' the members' password, because the file is too large for my clockwork Internet to upload; hence it is reached via a link for now. Newsletters normally begin behind the members' password and become 'public' for non-members when the subsequent newsletter is uploaded.

News of our recent Germany reunion in June 2018 is on the 'events' page

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Good homes wanted before they become firewood!

Your webmaster was able to liberate the plaques and boards below from the 'portacabins' at Upavon, late in 2015. They are too large for our archives and good homes are sought. Offers please to the web-master. Delivery almost anywhere in UK may be possible.

stop press - the 'Alex Harvey opening of SCE in 1997' has been adopted - thank you Tom N-M

Here below is #1 of an occasional series ... 'Spot the school' !

Answers on email to webmaster, please (via link at bottom of this page ... scroll down)

For a bonus.... what decade?

We have a winner!

Tom Jordan writes ....
The school is Haig School, Gutersloh. I was therein the 80s. I think this may be 1990s?

It is indeed Haig School, but a few years later - this picture was 2003, I think. The car mirror is my 2000 purple Skoda Octavia (still running in 2018, several registrations later & recently spotted with Spanish plates in Fuengirola).

Haig's head from mid 90s until late 2003 was Brian Ashton. Mike Chislett took the school on for most of 2003/4 and then Tony Berwick was appointed from UK (Milton Keynes). Tony oversaw a major overhaul to the building, which included a new office and reception area where the blue sign and fir tree are in the photo.

Your web-site editor thanks Tom and wonders what a suitable prize might be? Perhaps one of the fine boards on the left? Meanwhile, on right is another school .... any takers?

Here above is #2 of the occasional series ... 'Spot the school' !

Answers on email to webmaster, please (via link at bottom of this page ... scroll down)

For a bonus.... what decade?

Below: A picture found & enlarged!

INSPECTION AND ADVISORY SERVICE: EARLY 1990S: CHURCH HOUSE, LUBBECKE

Front Row: (left to right)
Maureen Elliot; Stuart Gill (Adviser); Peter Gaskell (Chief Adviser); Chris Ingham (Senior I/A); Tom Nielsen-Marsh (Staff Dev Officer)

Middle Row: (right to left)
Chris Webster (Secondary I/A); Jan Coates (Ad T); Cyndy Lancaster (I/A Early Years); Paddy Powell; Brenda Titley (cook); ???; Christine Caulfield (Ad T); Cheryl Williams (Ad T); ???; ???.

Back Row: (left to right)
???; Paul Rogers (Staff Dev Officer); Ian Forrest (Senior I/A); Richard Vaughn (Ad T); Jan Fisher (St Dev Off); Andrew Gavin (Ad T); Marian Jones (Ad T); Diana Batt (I/A Early Years); Oswin Hall (I/A Primary); David Harfield (I/A Secondary); Stuart Dyke (Staff Dev Officer).

The original reel-to-reel version of this promotional film, showing the life and work of teachers and administrators with the British Families’ Education Service, is housed at the National Film Archive. A DVD version is held at the IOE but copies may be obtained from the Association’s Archivist at a cost of £5. All proceeds go the BFES/SCE Association’s funds. Below is a short 2 minute collection of clips from the original 20 minute reel to reel film.

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How to add to the BFES Archives .....

when schools close, history is lost unless documentary material is collected, boxed and given to us! We (or at least, Walter - our archivist - sift and catalogue, then transport the priceless records to the Institute of Education, in London. Once safely there, any future historian and ex-teacher, pupils, parent) can gain access, subject to data protection rules. Here are some examples from Blankenhagen's closure in 2016. Blankenhagen Primary School, had previously been named Andrew Humphrey School. When RAF Gutersloh became Princess Royal Barracks, the school changed name; Griffin School at RAF Wildenrath took on the title of 'Andrew Humphrey'.

Staff Photograph 1978

Staff Photograph 2016

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POSTED!

This sculpture was created by the children of Ark primary School (JHQ), in 2013 and has been on permanent display at the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire, since 2016. Since November 2017 it has sported an explanatory sign and a 'QR' code' linking to a simple web-page.

Your new webmaster is trying to figure out how to create a hot-link. Meanwhile, here is the URL: https://postedark.wordpress.com/

See our 'noticeboard' page for details of planned dedication on 8th April, 2018

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Much of the information on this web-site and in the Association's Newsletters comes from the attics/albums of ex-teachers' own memorabilia which they have kindly donated. This history of our schools eventually makes its way into our archives held at the IoE at University College London.

Below are two examples of such donations, from Marian Andrews (Nee Riley) of her colleagues at Marlborough First School, Osnabruck; 1981 - 1884.

Marlborough Staff May 1982

Peter Owens, Kate Johnson, Sheila McCafferty, Charlotte Wilkinsin, Marion Riley, Mary Brennan, Eileen Hilton, Glyn Pascoe.
Maria Wardlaw, Roisin Wellard, Patsy Hope, Eric Wilson,?, Anne Bull, Jinty Cowie

Marlborough Staff May 1984

??, ??, Sheila McCafferty, Marian Riley, Paula Clarke, Lesley Bayley, Sue King, Dawn Turner, Patsy Hope, Viv Evans, Joan Hunt, Peter Owens, Jinty Cowie, Anne Robbins, Moira Nicholl.

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Final Year of primary aged pupils at JHQ 2013

Summer 2015 saw the closures of the schools in Hohne/Fallingbostel Garrisons.

A significant quantity of memorabilia, documents and photographs were collected and sent to the Association's

archivist. Much of this has now been sorted, annotated, catalogued and deposited in the Association's archives at the

Institute of Education, University College London.

The final box of material from Gloucester School, Hohne was deposited on in November 2015.

Some examples are included on our Archives page.

Staff of Gloucester School, Hohne, 1996

Association Committee

The following members were nominated, seconded and unanimously elected to the Committee in Autumn 2018, to serve for the next twelve months:
Chairman - Ken Jones
Vice-Chair - Walter Lewis
Events Co-ordinator - Sue Adams,
Treasurer - Janet Bradley,
Secretary - Lynn Marshall,
Archivist - Walter Lewis.
Website Manager - Mike Chislett,
Membership Secretaries - Hugh & Christine Ritchie,
Newsletter Editor - Tom Nielsen-Marsh

Ladies Teachers' Mess, Hohne, Germany 1964

This photograph, and some others displayed on the Archives pages, is taken from " Tommy Atkins' Children" - the story of the Education of Army's Children, 1675 - 1970, by Colonel NT St John Williams BA. HMSO 1071

John Trevelyan, the founding Director of BFES is quoted in 1946 as follows:-

'Never in the history of education endeavour have people chosen so bad a time and so bad a place to begin an entirely new venture with so little to meet so many possibilities.'

This statement is made on the establishment of the British Families Education Service, BFES, Germany, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

" The new Director of BFES was John Trevelyan who was a brilliant administrator and very capable of handling Commanding Officers to secure buildings on army sites which would make satisfactory schools. We were able in the first year (1947) to establish, with the help of the army, having schools form Flensburg on the Danish border to Frankfurt in the south and Berlin in the east." - extract from the brief memories of Arabella Kurdi (nee Pallister). More on the Archives page.

The Association's Archive Page

- contains multifarious items, including documents, photographs, records, memorabilia and artefacts. This archive is constantly being added to and is proving of great interest to historians as well as to members of the Association.
With a number of schools currently closing due to the reduction of bases we would ask staff in those schools to send log books, photographs, documents etc to the Association's Archivist as part of your close-down procedure. This material has a significant historical interest for the future.

Your web-master has also moved a number of items from various other pages of this site - mainly photographs to 'Archive 2', so that nothing is lost as I gradually re-organise this wonderful web-resource.

The final staff of Windsor School Rheindahlen on its closure in 2013.

Pictured below: An early group of SCE teachers undertaking the NPQH in 1999
Can anyone add more details? It looks like Cyprus.
Your web-master suggests anti-clockwise from right, identities could be:
Martin Woods (Windsor), Sue Marshall (PRS) ??, ??. Jane Clarke-Dyke (then Naples), Wilma Simpson (then Bishopspark), ??, Lynda Donaldson (then IAS)

Staff and Pupils of Charlottenburg School, Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate 1990s

Headteacher - Sue Adams (with hat) & deputy Malcolm Brooke (back left)

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Schools operating today - Go to the 'Schools' Page and open the link to give you access to all the schools websites showing how they operate today and catch up with their day to day activities. All the schools in the Hohne/Fallingbostel area closed in July 2015. They have contributed a significant amount of material to the Association's Archives. Much of this has been deposited with our professional archivist colleagues at the Institute of Education, University College, London.