Miss Fanny Wicks - Head Teacher 1880-1882

Selected entries from the school log books from 1880–1882

1880

5th January 1880 Fanny Wicks becomes Mistress of the school.
5th February 1880 Willie Smithwaite received a "stripe on the hand with the pointer for fighting and for persisting in disobeying the monitor".
21st April 1880 Miss Wicks has made a good start in the infants school. The children are kindly taught and some of them answer very nicely, but care should be taken not to allow a few children to give all the answers.
18th June 1880 The needlework of the infant girls is very creditable.
27th August 1880 Attendance low as hop-picking commenced on Wednesday afternoon.

5 weeks hop-picking

1881

27th January 1881 No children attended on Wednesday due to the heavy fall of snow.
9th July 1881 Attendance poor owing to the hay making and curranting season.
16th July 1881 Frederick Word sent home from school – and his mother ordered by authority of the managers to keep him at home for 2 weeks so that during the interval, she might make them fit to be with the other children.
30th July 1881 The Words came back to school but as their bodies and clothes were still covered with vermin, they were not allowed today.

1882

31st March 1882 Attendance not so good as usual owing to the prevalence of mumps.
1st July 1882 Sewing and knitting are very praiseworthy.
4th September 1882 Miss Wicks resigned. The managers, parents and children gave her a reading lamp as a token of affection and good wishes.
1st December 1882 Nearly all the children are quite laid up with bronchitis brought on by colds caught during the late cold winds.