I was a pupil at this school throughout the war. It was situated in Worthing Road and named for St. George as the birthday of the owner/headmistress fell on 23rd April - every year the Union Jack was flown from the flagstaff in the small front garden, as it was proudly on both VE and VJ days. The school uniform in patriotic colours of red, white/cream and navy blue identified us clearly everywhere, and we were known to the soldiers in a small army depot that we passed on our daily pre-lunch "croccodile" walk as the Red Army. School rules regarding behaviour both during and outside school hours were strict, and I remember that when ice-cream was available we were forbidden to eat it in the street - we had to stay inside the dairy in the Carfax until it was finished.
The school was small but grew during the war years eventually boasting some 70 (yes, seventy) pupils aged from 5 to 17. The education was good, although by todays standards very limited in scope - instead of science we learned sewing and I can still remember how to make a properly-fitted pair of chamois leather gloves! For all that we had a good record in School Certificate exams (GCSE equivalent). We played some form of sport on four days of the week, and had dancing classes on the other day. A two-course meal was provided every day despite rationing, and much of it was very good, although pink blancmange and sago pudding still remain unpopular memories.
Regrettably the owner of the school was killed on a road accident when cycling to feed the two school ponies - the school continued for a couple of years with an excellent young headmistress Roussel Sargent, but then the school was sold and the new owner (a Frobel teacher) did not want pupils over the age of 13 so we had to leave. I lost touch with all my contemporaries, Mary M, Jean B, Patricia R, Joanna S-B and many others - it would be good to know what has happened to them.
Anne Davies
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