friern school upper

[Pugwash]

I attended Friern Girls 1961 - 68. The first 2 years of school were in the lower school at Peckham Rye and the remaining years were at the Upper School in Goodrich Road.Hated the red uniform and even to this day I rarely wear read.When Miss Thompson went to become head of Peckham Girls school ( now Peckham Academy) Mrs. Pringle took over. 6th Form uniform was decided by the 6th formers and was classed as very fashionable (in 1966) turquoise blue or beige shirtwasher dress for summer, or grey straight skirt with pink blouse.Blue or emerald courtelle jumpers ( fashionable at the time from M & S) with either grey/navy skirts. Prefects wore silver medalions to denote their status.

[fotini]

I attended Friern School October 1958 to 1962; does anyone remember me? I have fond memories of Friern. I was a frightened little girl who didnt speak the language; Miss Thompson and Mrs Pringle were kind to me; I admired Mrs Pringle and would love to be given the chance to tell her how grateful I am to her; I looked for her when in London this last August but couldnt locate her; Miss Wheeler the History teacher found me my first job. Miss Black the PE teacher and Miss Harper who I feared was the Maths teacher. These two teachers seemed to be friends.They were always walking through the corridors together. Miss Slassor taught me and my sister English after school at her house in Brixton (for two and six pence). There was a teacher of Indian origin cannot remember her name. What was the Science teachers name, the girls used to try and embarrass him during lessons but I couldnt understand...

I had a greek friend named Helen who helped me a lot. Alice Williamson who invited me to her house for tea and Joy who let me copy her maths homework! how I envied her cause her mum baked her a cake and was there when she got home from school. Big & sporty Ruby, feared by all, this black girl stuck up for me when I was being picked on one day after school. Shiela/Irene; were are you now??? I have so many memories..

[Jgirl101]

OMG, this is weird ... I was cruising the web seeing if I could locate my biological father ... yep even weirder I know, I just wondered if I had other siblings out there!! :) .... I have way too much time on my hands!! .... and then I got sidetracked as usual and began thinking about school. It was like it has been totally obliterated from history, like it was all in my imagination, trying to find Friern on a search engine was not easy. I ended up a couple of times at Friern Barnet School!!

Anyhow, Wow, you all have such great memory recall!! I was there from 1971/72 onwards. I cant remember too much except that it was a nightmare from day one - my mum sent me to school a day too early, all dressed up with geeky hat and totally uncool briefcase-style bag ... life went downhill from that day onwards ... I think thats why I dont remember much :) lol .... My name back then would be Jackie (jacqueline) wilson or jarman... if you remember me ... and were not one of the several asshole bullies I had to endure for 6 years ... it would be cool to get back in touch, maybe you could shed some light on my incredibly terrible memory!!

[pmb]

I think I remember you. I was in Mr Howell's class & you were Jackie Jarman. I seem to associate you with very neat sandwich wrapping for some reason! Did you move during the third year? I don't think I bullied you - I think we were part of a group who spent the lunch break running round madly, and you were a very fast runner! Were you friends with Karen?

I remeber the hat (which I quite liked). My mum bought me the wrong one - I had the air hostess style one instead of the bowler hat. I think the one I had was meant for the upper school girls. It spent most of the week in the hat cupboard, anyway.

Pat.

[nevis]

I was there from 67. Do you remember Miss Pringle and Miss Coin the maths teacher?

We used to turn up the brims of our hats and roll the waistband of our skirts to make them shorter, lol.

I can still hear these words.."NO RUNNING ON THE STAIRS!". I can't remember what class I was in. My name then was Carol Ann Tobin. I was tall and thin with no chest..lol xx

[nevis]

Coyne...I spelt it wrong before. I HATED her. I also hated Maths because of her as I'd be too frightened to say if I couldn't do it. She called me a street arab once, so I ran home and told my mum. She had to come to my house to apologise for it. She scared me even more after that!

[carol sparks]

Hi, I remember you Carol, I was then Carol Janes, and I have just had a real wander down memory lane glancing thru this discussion, which I came upon while searching google for a totally different reason!!!! Hope all ok, all seems a lifetime away, I was there 1966-1971, God that makes me feel old!!! :-)

[Linda Hicks]

I was at Honor Oak Grammar School from 1960 - 1968. I remember Ms Stuart (maths). Very tall lady with heart of gold. Mrs Hutchins (needlework) - such a scary lady for a very small person! Also remember Madam Harris who taught French and Russian. Very exotic lady. Also Mrs Johnson, who taught Physics. I was then Linda Sadler and in a class of just two pupils for A level physics. The other was Ginette Davies. I remember that in the mock A levels she gave us both Es, but in the real exams we both got either A or B grade. Sneaky teacher! I remember also the PE teachers Ms Wheeler and Ms Corkindale. Names of pupils I remember - Christina Rich, Janice Wheeler, Susan Piper, Christine Stone, Susan Bagnall, Christine Tomlinson, Diane Chamberlain, Sandra Tubberdy. All would have left in 1968. A long time ago. Happy days!

[edhistory]

I have been told that in the 1950s and 1960s all new girls at HOGS were taken to the lawn next to the "stream" that runs through the school grounds and were told the "stream" was the River Peck and that Queen Elizabeth I used to picnic on the lawn.

Did this really happen?

John K

[Linda Hicks]

I don't remember anything about the river Peck or QE I, but I do remember that the rules were as follows:

1. You are allowed to jump the stream (good exercise I suppose) but

2. If you fall in, the stream will be off limits to everyone for a period, I think a month.

So, anyone coming in from a break with wet knickers was not popular!

[GSJ57]

I started at Honor Oak in '68 and don't remember being told anything about QE 1 but definitely remember being told about the River Peck and how important it was in Peckham. And, yes - stream was off limits for a while if you fell in! Jumping the stream is one of my fondest memories! We also used to crawl under the tunnel to the park during lunch hour - we thought we were so daring!

[Linda Hicks]

Anybody remember trying to find a way to wear that awful beret to avoid looking like a total nerd? I think the favoured option was to fold the damn thing in half and attach it to the back of your head with a couple of hair grips. It still looked stupid though.

[intexasatthe moment]

Oh Linda I remember that - though I was never brave enough to adopt that style !

Will PM you .

[lilolil]

I went there too and remember Miss Stuart. She interviewed me and I had to answer questions about bats. Ms Gibbs was the head still followed by Miss Willis later on.

My first teacher there was Mrs Bridges. she used to wear her dark hair in a bun and wore glasses. Other teachers I remember are, Miss Powell, Mr Jenkins, Mrs Hutchins ( who can forget her) Mrs Richardson(art), Miss Wheeler and Tyler(PE). Oh and the music teacher who had the cat 'o' nine tails.Mr Cook?

I was in Rowan house and can remember getting GWM's.

I used to love to jump the stream too and remember being sad when they had to cut down one of the elm trees because it was showing signs of Dutch elm disease.

[carol sparks]

Hi Carol,

I remember you very well, you lived quite near me, and were in my class I believe. I remember the shortening of skirts & turning up brims, Mrs Clements was my form teacheer for 2 years I think, , and I believe it was Mr Handley? who I had some of those violin lessons with at lunchtimes!! We were always in trouble in domestic science, tho for the life of me cant remember why. Rosemary Rolfe, Sheila Masters, amongst others. My name then was Carol Ann Janes. Nice to see a familiar name.

[Janice Addison]

I was at Friern Road Comprehensive School for Girls from 1955 - 1959. Miss Thompson was the Headmistress and Mrs Pringle the Deputy Head. Miss Young was my form teacher from 1A - 4A. She was also the French Teacher and had glasses on a chain and her dark hair rolled up into a French Pleat. Unlike most children I actually loved school. It was an escape from my horrendous adopted home life. It was the only place I felt really safe. I used to wear a Frankie Vaughan fan club badge instead of the Yellow Eagle on my blazer. Miss Thompson used to let me get away with murder as I suspect she felt sorry for me. I also used to take my little white mouse to school in my pocket along with a tiny square of chocolate. It frightened the life out of Mrs Coates our English Teacher. Miss Marshall was our music teacher and she lived in Pollards Hill South just past Streatham. I remember going to Ivydale School for Domestic Science when the bus strike was on in the mid 50's. It was a long walk! On my first day at Friern I was mortified to realise that my 'mother' had made me a red gingham checked dress in one inch squares instead of the smaller quarter of an inch. Did I get teased? But not much bullying went on then thankfully. Girls that I remember are Gloria Freeman, Susan Mann, Maureen Thew, Pauline Hyams. I have written a book called Peckham Cry which is actually written as fiction but based on fact. It is out in paperback and also re-written for the Kindle eBook Market. The Kindle edition is 77p and the p/back is ?1.99 with all profits going to help augment child abuse charities. Both are doing very well in the Amazon charts. As I seem to be one of the older ones on here, I'm sure that not many of you can remember me, but I live in hope.

[carol sparks]

Hi Janice,

I attended Friern from 1966-1970 but I seem to recognise your name, did you live in Peckham?

My name was Carol Janes then

[Janice Addison]

Hi Carol. Yes I lived at 41 Keston Road, near Goose Green. I worked in Jones and Higgins when I left school and then Timothy Whites the Chemist. I had a brother (half - also adopted) called Adrian. I was taken into care in 1961. I have wonderful memories of Friern. I also went to Bellenden Road from 1948 - 1955. I live in Devon now. I think most of the Londoners have moved out of London. I am quite intrigued when I watch A&E about Kings College Hospital. There were no stabbings there in my day...Nice to hear from you x

[carol sparks]

Hi,

Amazing, I also went to Bellenden but from 1959/60-1966. Again, I also worked at Jones & Higgins as a Saturday girl in 1969. I lived at 20 Wingfield Street, and spent a lot of my days at Goose Green.

How sad that you had an awful adoption.

I just recognised your name, which Im assuming it was then? I guess thst its very possible our paths crossed as we have quite a lot of places in common!

We spent a lot of holidays in Devon when I was a child, its lovely. I live near Sandwich in Kent now

Great to hear from you too.

x

[Janice Addison]

Yes my name was Janice Addison. My name now is Janice Bruce although for writing, my name is Janice Cooke as I wrote Peckham Cry before I married my second husband. I kept the name of Cooke because it sounds better as an author, and also because I keep the married joint account separate from my business account. Sometimes I even forget who I am! lol xxx

[carol sparks]

:-) I know what you mean. I've just bought your book from Amazon, I'm intrigued!! It looks like you are the seller, so you will now have my e mail & address, so if you ever think of anywhere I might have known you from, or any old photos youd like to share, feel free to contact me direct.

Good talking with you

x

[Janice Addison]

Thank you so much Carol. I do have a couple of photo's of what I looked like back then so will send them over. I won't have access to your email address though:( But I will send my contact details with the book which has my email and home address on, so you can contact me through there. Will keep in touch. xxx

[carol sparks]

Thats great Janice,I look forward to receiving them, and I'll then send you my e mail address

x

[Lin Henden]

I was at Friern Lower and Upper Schools from from 1963 tp 1968 and remember Miss Thompson and Mrs Pringle (bitch!). Had Miss Herbert as form mistress for the last 2 years and became excellent at religion. Had Miss Reeves for PE and Mrs Mills for history - I think she was one of the foundations poor old thing. I remember Miss Coyne as well. What about Mr Webb for science, we could make him blush.

Does anyone know what happened to Linda Probert? And although I don't remember Caron Ann Tobin I do remember a Susan Tobin, is this a relative?

[jamdowne1]

I went to Friern Girls (1967-1972) and thoroughly enjoyed my time there and yes! Pringle was a cow.

I remember Miss Higgins & Mr Ghosh, music teacher Mrs Salmon & art teacher Mr Corless I also remember Miss Mills she had one leg shorter than the other.

Would I be able to obtain photos taken at Friern Girls from an archive? Please could someone tell me.