British Families’ Education Service/ Newsletter 30 Spring 2015
Service Children’s Education Authority
Association
Chairman - Dr Michael Ford Editor - Joan Hunt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Service Children’s Education Authority
Association
Chairman - Dr Michael Ford Editor - Joan Hunt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
New members
Barbara Peterkin (née Cliffe). Barbara taught in St Clement’s School, Wickrath. Barbara & Peter now live in Aylsham.
Bernadeine Ryan taught in Malta (1972 – 1978) and Hong Kong (1978 – 1981). She now lives in Cyprus.
Glynis Green (née Hall) taught at Shackleton Primary School (1980 – 1983). Glynis and David now live in Hampshire.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
On the move
Brian & Mariel Jones have moved to a new address but are still in Burnham-on-Sea.
John & Janet Allison have left Germany and are now living in Wicklewood, Norfolk.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Don’t forget to check our website, which is updated each month.
www.bfes-scea-association.org
In the first three months of 2015 the site received 8,731 hits!
Heide, Shackleton, Slim, Montgomery and Gloucester Schools
close this year: memorabilia required please! Please see our School's page
All members who have supplied an email address will have received the new password for the Newsletter page. If you have not received the new password and wish to, please contact membership secretary.
We also have a Facebook page.
Log on to Facebook and type in “British families education service association”.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 2
The Association's archives are housed at the University of London's Institute of Education (IoE), the largest institution in the UK devoted to the collation and study of education and related matters. Amongst their important collections are our papers of the BFES/SCEA Association. As artefacts memorabilia, memories and photographs are received we annotate and add to the collection. It is managed, catalogued and listed on line by two professional archivists, Sarah Aitcheson and Becky Webster, at the IoE.
This dynamic collection is the sole record of present and past educational provision for the children of British Service families abroad, since BFES was established in 1946.
The Association is keen to build upon its Archives and additions can be made via the Association Archivist (Walter Lewis, Tel: 01934 645 759) and through direct contact with the IoE. We would be pleased to receive memorabilia, memories, photographs, documents, Log Books and DVDs from present and past educationalists who serve or have served with BFES/SCEA/SCE. Between us all we must retain a vast quantity of material which will be of historical interest to future generations.Please search attics and storage areas for long-past or recent memorabilia and forward what you can to the Association. All contributions will be acknowledged and copies can be retained in Archives if originals are required back by donors.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
Our Association has been contacted recently by David Bishop, Headteacher of Heide School, St Barbaras Barracks, Bad Fallingbostel, asking for photographs of a number of schools in the area, all of which are due to close on 19th July 2015. He has contacted us on behalf of the Heads of Shackleton, Slim, Montgomery and Gloucester Schools, as well as Heide School.
They are creating Final Year Books for each school, to issue to each pupil and member of staff, but are lacking in any visual history of the schools or their predecessors. I'm sure that there must be a mass of historical photographs out there among our members, so, please, dig some out and forward them to me - annotated if possible, so that I can forward them to David Bishop. I suspect that photographic e-mail attachments will do if you would prefer to keep the originals. All documentation and copies of these final Year Books will be deposited in our Archives and I shall endeavour to bring some along to our reunions later in the year.
Walter Lewis
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
SCE Schools Worldwide Today
To see a list of SCE Schools that are currently educating children from Ministry of Defence Families please follow this link: It will enable you to go to their individual websites where you can see the day to day activities of the schools.
www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceFor/ServiceCommunity/Education/SCE/SCESchools/List.htm
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 3
Guests at the reunion lunch in Ilminster on 21st March 2015.
'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.
New members
Barbara Peterkin (née Cliffe). Barbara taught in St Clement’s School, Wickrath. Barbara & Peter now live in Aylsham.
Bernadeine Ryan taught in Malta (1972 – 1978) and Hong Kong (1978 – 1981). She now lives in Cyprus.
Glynis Green (née Hall) taught at Shackleton Primary School (1980 – 1983). Glynis and David now live in Hampshire.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
On the move
Brian & Mariel Jones have moved to a new address but are still in Burnham-on-Sea.
John & Janet Allison have left Germany and are now living in Wicklewood, Norfolk.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Don’t forget to check our website, which is updated each month.
www.bfes-scea-association.org
In the first three months of 2015 the site received 8,731 hits!
Heide, Shackleton, Slim, Montgomery and Gloucester Schools
close this year: memorabilia required please! Please see our School's page
All members who have supplied an email address will have received the new password for the Newsletter page. If you have not received the new password and wish to, please contact membership secretary.
We also have a Facebook page.
Log on to Facebook and type in “British families education service association”.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 2
The Association's archives are housed at the University of London's Institute of Education (IoE), the largest institution in the UK devoted to the collation and study of education and related matters. Amongst their important collections are our papers of the BFES/SCEA Association. As artefacts memorabilia, memories and photographs are received we annotate and add to the collection. It is managed, catalogued and listed on line by two professional archivists, Sarah Aitcheson and Becky Webster, at the IoE.
This dynamic collection is the sole record of present and past educational provision for the children of British Service families abroad, since BFES was established in 1946.
The Association is keen to build upon its Archives and additions can be made via the Association Archivist (Walter Lewis, Tel: 01934 645 759) and through direct contact with the IoE. We would be pleased to receive memorabilia, memories, photographs, documents, Log Books and DVDs from present and past educationalists who serve or have served with BFES/SCEA/SCE. Between us all we must retain a vast quantity of material which will be of historical interest to future generations.Please search attics and storage areas for long-past or recent memorabilia and forward what you can to the Association. All contributions will be acknowledged and copies can be retained in Archives if originals are required back by donors.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
Our Association has been contacted recently by David Bishop, Headteacher of Heide School, St Barbaras Barracks, Bad Fallingbostel, asking for photographs of a number of schools in the area, all of which are due to close on 19th July 2015. He has contacted us on behalf of the Heads of Shackleton, Slim, Montgomery and Gloucester Schools, as well as Heide School.
They are creating Final Year Books for each school, to issue to each pupil and member of staff, but are lacking in any visual history of the schools or their predecessors. I'm sure that there must be a mass of historical photographs out there among our members, so, please, dig some out and forward them to me - annotated if possible, so that I can forward them to David Bishop. I suspect that photographic e-mail attachments will do if you would prefer to keep the originals. All documentation and copies of these final Year Books will be deposited in our Archives and I shall endeavour to bring some along to our reunions later in the year.
Walter Lewis
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
SCE Schools Worldwide Today
To see a list of SCE Schools that are currently educating children from Ministry of Defence Families please follow this link: It will enable you to go to their individual websites where you can see the day to day activities of the schools.
www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceFor/ServiceCommunity/Education/SCE/SCESchools/List.htm
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 3
Guests at the reunion lunch in Ilminster on 21st March 2015.
Glyn Pascoe, Walter Lewis, Viv & Derek Ebbage
Alan & Gillian Glenn, Bob & Pat Steele, Glyn Pascoe
|
Jane Tull, Gaye Kellaway, David Tull, Joan Hunt, Janet Bradley
Walter Lewis, Viv & Derek Ebbage, Lynn Marshall, Glyn Marshall, Jane Tull
|
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 4
Page 4
Janet and John Allison
Tom & Betty Jordan, Joan Hunt, Kath Rawcliffe
Margaret Trust, Peter Williams, Brian Trust, John Monkhouse, Cherilyn Williams
|
Linda & Ian Lawrence, Sue Hughes
Joan McHale, Janet Smith, Helen Wilson, Christine Ford, Sur Royds
Rosemary Segebarth, John Ireland, Peter Segebarth, Bill Bowen
|
What did we have to eat? French onion soup with Parmesan Crisp; Guinea Fowl in Red Wine Sauce with Game Chips, Bouquet of Seasonal Vegetables, Dauphinoise Potatoes; Queen of Puddings, Coffee & Mints
**************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 5
**************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 5
This article was written for the final 'Georgian Chronicle' St. George's School, Hong Kong in 1996
Thirty Years On
The Headmaster informs me, that with thirty continuous years' service with SCEA, I am the longest serving teacher in the history of that organisation. If this is true, I can only say the years have flown. It seems like yesterday that my wife Dana and I with our two year son were awaiting with some trepidation (our first long haul), along with a few other new recruits we had met at the Eltham Briefing Conference, the departure of our turbo-prop aircraft which would take us in twenty-six hours via Kuwait and Colombo to the distant and mysterious unknown of the Far East. A last minute panic - our local doctor had not given our son the vital injections against yellow fever and cholera. So a mad dash across London to Millhill BMH. A while later, I consigned my old raincoat to the rubbish bin (I have never replaced it) and we boarded our plane for the start of a new life.
After University and a year as an assistant in a French Lycée, I had taught for four years at a comprehensive school at Swinton in the (former) West Riding of Yorkshire. The Comprehensive Schools were a recent development, often amalgamations of former grammar schools, technical or secondary modern schools, Swinton was a new purpose built glass factory for egalitarian education for 1500 youngsters from the neighbourhood. For the first time, Modern Languages were taught across the ability range, with the new CSE examination alongside 'O' level. It was rewarding but challenging work. I remember coping with an examination class of 35, one third preparing for 'O' level and the rest for CSE. Salaries were low and promotion slow. We needed a change, and so, having applied to Service Children's Schools and been offered the range of BAOR (Germany), Gibralter, Malta, Cyprus, Aden, Libya, Malaysia, Singapore or Hong Kong, I was finally appointed to teach French and Latin at Slim School, Terendak Camp, Malacca.
What a change, what a contrast! We thought we were in Paradise. No longer tedious bus journeys through the Yorkshire rain, snow and smog, but a car ride up the coast of the Malacca Straight, across the paddy fields and kampongs to the new Garrison HQ of the Commonwealth Brigade and its equally new small air conditioned secondary school of 350 pupils - British, Australian, New Zealanders and Gurkhas. It was a small, tightly knit, friendly and happy community. Our life revolved around the Beach Club and Mess with excellent opportunities for sport - squash, swimming, jungle treks ad scuba diving at Port Dickinson and on the East Coast. I also took the chance to attend Malay language classes and acquired a smattering which proved useful both then and on subsequent visits to Malaysia and Indonesia.
But one can stay too long in Paradise, and concerns for career development prompted me to move in 1968 to St. John's School in Singapore - a large well organised school of very high repute, which offered me a better chance to teach my subjects French and German to 'A' level. Now with a second son, born in Terendak, we spent three very happy years in Singapore. At St. John's we had a fully fledged BSAC Scuba Club, and organised regular expeditions to the various tropical islands dotting the South China Sea off Mersing. Night diving with the school students in shark and sea snake infested waters would perhaps not be sanctioned by safety conscious authorities these days, nor would our search for choice specimens of living sea shells and corals for our collections be approved by the environmentalist, but these were different times.
Having whetted my linguistic appetite on Malay, Singapore now presented the opportunity to try a more difficult 'tonal' language - Chinese. Opportunities and materials for study were meagre as Mandarin was not promoted by the government of Mr Lee Kuan Yew 7 at that time, though it has since become an official language of the city state. Nevertheless, I persevered and embarked on a task which has frustrated and given me moments of joy and insight ever since.
In 1971 a change in government in UK brought a rethink in foreign policy and withdrawal from the Malay peninsula. We had originally planned to spend two years abroad and then return to UK, but now the chance to transfer to Germany was an option which we decided to take. We departed from RAF Changi on a VC10 in July 1971.
Queen's School and Rheindahlen Garrison were to be our base and home for the next sixteen years. Professional satisfaction in another excellent services school, where I assumed greater responsibilities and became Head of the Languages Department, coupled with good conditions, excellent colleagues and lack of financial worries; the opportunity to develop links with German, French and Belgian schools and to travel widely in Europe, especially in France, made these very happy years for us. My wife, Dana, now that the boys were older, served her apprenticeship then became School Librarian.
But I was now of an age when I should begin to think of resettling in the Uk. After all, SCEA policy did not offer a full career, and expected staff in their forties to look elsewhere. Then in 1986, just after the IRA car bomb which rocked Rheindahlen Garrison and shattered a lot of windows, fortunately without causing serious injury, a conference was held on the new GCSE examination. I learnt from the Headmaster visiting from St. George's School, Hong Kong that the Languages post would be vacant from June 1987. I was fortunate enough to be offered this post initially for two years, but with changing policy and impending closure in July 1996, extended to that date. This gave me the chance to further develop my interest in Chinese and to teach the subject to GCSE level over the past nine years, mainly to Japanese, Cantonese and Korean speakers, but also to the occasional brave Westerners
Now, after thirty years away, we are returning to live in the Yorkshire village where I was born - no doubt as great a challenge, almost unknown as our destination of thirty years ago.
W.L. Warren
Thirty Years On
The Headmaster informs me, that with thirty continuous years' service with SCEA, I am the longest serving teacher in the history of that organisation. If this is true, I can only say the years have flown. It seems like yesterday that my wife Dana and I with our two year son were awaiting with some trepidation (our first long haul), along with a few other new recruits we had met at the Eltham Briefing Conference, the departure of our turbo-prop aircraft which would take us in twenty-six hours via Kuwait and Colombo to the distant and mysterious unknown of the Far East. A last minute panic - our local doctor had not given our son the vital injections against yellow fever and cholera. So a mad dash across London to Millhill BMH. A while later, I consigned my old raincoat to the rubbish bin (I have never replaced it) and we boarded our plane for the start of a new life.
After University and a year as an assistant in a French Lycée, I had taught for four years at a comprehensive school at Swinton in the (former) West Riding of Yorkshire. The Comprehensive Schools were a recent development, often amalgamations of former grammar schools, technical or secondary modern schools, Swinton was a new purpose built glass factory for egalitarian education for 1500 youngsters from the neighbourhood. For the first time, Modern Languages were taught across the ability range, with the new CSE examination alongside 'O' level. It was rewarding but challenging work. I remember coping with an examination class of 35, one third preparing for 'O' level and the rest for CSE. Salaries were low and promotion slow. We needed a change, and so, having applied to Service Children's Schools and been offered the range of BAOR (Germany), Gibralter, Malta, Cyprus, Aden, Libya, Malaysia, Singapore or Hong Kong, I was finally appointed to teach French and Latin at Slim School, Terendak Camp, Malacca.
What a change, what a contrast! We thought we were in Paradise. No longer tedious bus journeys through the Yorkshire rain, snow and smog, but a car ride up the coast of the Malacca Straight, across the paddy fields and kampongs to the new Garrison HQ of the Commonwealth Brigade and its equally new small air conditioned secondary school of 350 pupils - British, Australian, New Zealanders and Gurkhas. It was a small, tightly knit, friendly and happy community. Our life revolved around the Beach Club and Mess with excellent opportunities for sport - squash, swimming, jungle treks ad scuba diving at Port Dickinson and on the East Coast. I also took the chance to attend Malay language classes and acquired a smattering which proved useful both then and on subsequent visits to Malaysia and Indonesia.
But one can stay too long in Paradise, and concerns for career development prompted me to move in 1968 to St. John's School in Singapore - a large well organised school of very high repute, which offered me a better chance to teach my subjects French and German to 'A' level. Now with a second son, born in Terendak, we spent three very happy years in Singapore. At St. John's we had a fully fledged BSAC Scuba Club, and organised regular expeditions to the various tropical islands dotting the South China Sea off Mersing. Night diving with the school students in shark and sea snake infested waters would perhaps not be sanctioned by safety conscious authorities these days, nor would our search for choice specimens of living sea shells and corals for our collections be approved by the environmentalist, but these were different times.
Having whetted my linguistic appetite on Malay, Singapore now presented the opportunity to try a more difficult 'tonal' language - Chinese. Opportunities and materials for study were meagre as Mandarin was not promoted by the government of Mr Lee Kuan Yew 7 at that time, though it has since become an official language of the city state. Nevertheless, I persevered and embarked on a task which has frustrated and given me moments of joy and insight ever since.
In 1971 a change in government in UK brought a rethink in foreign policy and withdrawal from the Malay peninsula. We had originally planned to spend two years abroad and then return to UK, but now the chance to transfer to Germany was an option which we decided to take. We departed from RAF Changi on a VC10 in July 1971.
Queen's School and Rheindahlen Garrison were to be our base and home for the next sixteen years. Professional satisfaction in another excellent services school, where I assumed greater responsibilities and became Head of the Languages Department, coupled with good conditions, excellent colleagues and lack of financial worries; the opportunity to develop links with German, French and Belgian schools and to travel widely in Europe, especially in France, made these very happy years for us. My wife, Dana, now that the boys were older, served her apprenticeship then became School Librarian.
But I was now of an age when I should begin to think of resettling in the Uk. After all, SCEA policy did not offer a full career, and expected staff in their forties to look elsewhere. Then in 1986, just after the IRA car bomb which rocked Rheindahlen Garrison and shattered a lot of windows, fortunately without causing serious injury, a conference was held on the new GCSE examination. I learnt from the Headmaster visiting from St. George's School, Hong Kong that the Languages post would be vacant from June 1987. I was fortunate enough to be offered this post initially for two years, but with changing policy and impending closure in July 1996, extended to that date. This gave me the chance to further develop my interest in Chinese and to teach the subject to GCSE level over the past nine years, mainly to Japanese, Cantonese and Korean speakers, but also to the occasional brave Westerners
Now, after thirty years away, we are returning to live in the Yorkshire village where I was born - no doubt as great a challenge, almost unknown as our destination of thirty years ago.
W.L. Warren
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Hi,
I am searching the where about of ex Lister School Herford teacher Miss Sheena Walker; she taught at the school from 1971 – 1978. If anyone knows where she is, all the ex-pupils from Lister School at that time would love to hear from her, or at least how and where she is now.
Thank you. Mark Churchman
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 7
Sadly Departed
Alan Rowlands who taught in Munsterlager, Hohne, Hildersheim, Buckeburg & Enger between 1964 – 1985 has sadly died.
Olive Harvey sadly died of a stroke on 22nd January 2015. Olive taught in Dusseldorf, Lippstadt & Hamm between 1954 – 1963.
Gwynne Griffiths died in January 2015. Gwynne taught in Malaysia, Berlin, Wetter, Hannover and Detmold
Alison Stephenson (née Guest) sadly died on 10th October 2014 after a short battle against cancer. She was the domestic science teacher at Gloucester School, Hohne, from 1963 to 1969. Alison returned to her family home in Hull and taught in several schools in Hull before marrying Ernest Stephenson, a farmer from Beckhole, near Whitby. Incidentally, their farm featured in some episodes of “Heartbeat”.
Mary Ronald (née Shephard) sadly died in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, on February 18th, aged 80 years.
Marlene Varney died on 16th March 2015.
Poor health
Gerald Pears, now over 90 years old, had a fall last summer which left him confused and with mild dementia. He also suffers with macular degeneration and is almost blind. Gerald has now left his home in Chesterfield and moved into a nursing home. In his lucid moments Gerald remembers his many years of teaching in Germany with great fondness.
*************************************************************************************************************************************************
School closures
Bruggen School closes in July 2015.
Schools in the Hohne/Fallingbostel area close in July 2015 also.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
How to contact us.
Chairman – Dr Michael Ford - Tel: 01942 721940
Secretary – Lynn Marshall
Wilton House, Basingstoke Road, Spencer’s Wood, Reading
RG7 1PH
Tel: 0118 3274128
E-mail: lynnmarsh6@aol.com
Archivist – Walter Lewis – Tel: 01934 645 759
Treasurer - Janet Bradley Tel: 01788 891850
Membership Sec. – Joan Hunt,
51 Crossways,
Sutton,
Surrey SM2 5LD
Tel: 020 8642 0341
E-mail: joan.hunt@talk21.com
Website Manager - Glyn Pascoe – E-mail: glyn@pascoe.co
Hi,
I am searching the where about of ex Lister School Herford teacher Miss Sheena Walker; she taught at the school from 1971 – 1978. If anyone knows where she is, all the ex-pupils from Lister School at that time would love to hear from her, or at least how and where she is now.
Thank you. Mark Churchman
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Page 7
Sadly Departed
Alan Rowlands who taught in Munsterlager, Hohne, Hildersheim, Buckeburg & Enger between 1964 – 1985 has sadly died.
Olive Harvey sadly died of a stroke on 22nd January 2015. Olive taught in Dusseldorf, Lippstadt & Hamm between 1954 – 1963.
Gwynne Griffiths died in January 2015. Gwynne taught in Malaysia, Berlin, Wetter, Hannover and Detmold
Alison Stephenson (née Guest) sadly died on 10th October 2014 after a short battle against cancer. She was the domestic science teacher at Gloucester School, Hohne, from 1963 to 1969. Alison returned to her family home in Hull and taught in several schools in Hull before marrying Ernest Stephenson, a farmer from Beckhole, near Whitby. Incidentally, their farm featured in some episodes of “Heartbeat”.
Mary Ronald (née Shephard) sadly died in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, on February 18th, aged 80 years.
Marlene Varney died on 16th March 2015.
Poor health
Gerald Pears, now over 90 years old, had a fall last summer which left him confused and with mild dementia. He also suffers with macular degeneration and is almost blind. Gerald has now left his home in Chesterfield and moved into a nursing home. In his lucid moments Gerald remembers his many years of teaching in Germany with great fondness.
*************************************************************************************************************************************************
School closures
Bruggen School closes in July 2015.
Schools in the Hohne/Fallingbostel area close in July 2015 also.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
How to contact us.
Chairman – Dr Michael Ford - Tel: 01942 721940
Secretary – Lynn Marshall
Wilton House, Basingstoke Road, Spencer’s Wood, Reading
RG7 1PH
Tel: 0118 3274128
E-mail: lynnmarsh6@aol.com
Archivist – Walter Lewis – Tel: 01934 645 759
Treasurer - Janet Bradley Tel: 01788 891850
Membership Sec. – Joan Hunt,
51 Crossways,
Sutton,
Surrey SM2 5LD
Tel: 020 8642 0341
E-mail: joan.hunt@talk21.com
Website Manager - Glyn Pascoe – E-mail: glyn@pascoe.co