Falling Down the Thames Blog 16, 2nd July 2014
Old School
Krista and I recently returned from England, where we were consolidating plans for Falling Down the Thames. We visited the headwaters of the River Thames at Kemble, saw our planned stopping point at Richborough, and glimpsed the mighty river at many points in between. It was our opportunity to meet with outfitters that could supply our canoe and our kayak, and with a videographer who might record our adventure for posterity.
We had earlier decided to share our River Thames adventure on a more personal level with some of England’s younger residents. Krista and I contacted a small number of elementary schools situated along our route, offering to make presentations about our 2015 adventure as we passed by their communities. Curiously, we never heard back from a couple of these. The head teachers at both Thameside Primary School in Reading and Rose Hill Primary School in Oxford, both a stone’s throw from the river, remained mute to our offer.
But the staff at one school in particular was overflowing in their response to our offer.
Forgive yourself if you have never heard of Reculver; you may never hear of it ever again. Found on the north shore of Kent, the village is home to just over one hundred residents, a quarter of whom live in caravans. During the Roman occupation of England, Reculver was at a site critical for coastal defences, and was home to an important fort. It is currently home to the King Ethelbert pub, which, when I last visited, served a magnificent ploughman’s lunch. Krista and I will have a chance to see whether the lunch is still magnificent when we paddle by Reculver near the end of our adventure.
Reculver C of E Primary School is situated at the east end of the community of Herne Bay, several kilometres west of Reculver. I suppose the school got its name by being situated at the junction of Reculver Road and Reculver Lane, and not from its proximity to Reculver itself. To me, the most important thing about Reculver C of E Primary School is that it was the school of my mother, Kathleen, and her brothers, Desmond and Gerry, seventy-five years ago.
My mother’s report card from the Summer term of 1942, handwritten by Head Mistress Mrs. Pettman, survives to show what sort of student she was. Earning twenty out of twenty in Scripture (“Remembers well”), Reading (“Expression correct + voice good”), Poetry (Elocution very good!”) and Physical Education (“A good pose + jumps well!”), my mother fell a bit short in History, earning an unsatisfactory grade, and the comment “Not so well remembered.” Overall her attendance for the semester was 128/140. That seems pretty good considering that bombs were dropping on England at the time.
Jon Fox is the current Head Teacher at Reculver C of E Primary School, and when I contacted Jon about a presentation to his students, his support was immediate and incandescent. If Jon had been my principal when I was an elementary school child, I probably would have enjoyed school much more. As he showed Krista and me around the school and grounds, including the rooms in which my mother and uncles had been students, pupils launched themselves at him. “Mr. Fox! My family was in London over the weekend.” “Mr. Fox! I haven’t said hello in a while!”
The students at Reculver Primary are going to receive a particularly enthusiastic presentation from us in 2015.
- Glen
Photo credits: White Horse stained glass image – aclerkinoxford.blogspot.com; Reculver C of E Primary School crest – www.kent-teach.com