Little Eaton Schools

 6. Headteachers and teachers from 1884 to 1945

Here is a list of Headteachers at the Alfreton Road school:

•       1884 to 1891: Edwin Orford (who had already been Head at the old school for 5 years)

•       1891 to 1892: Arthur Pritchard (who became ill and left to return to Coventry)

•       1892 to 1927: William Grocock

•       1927 to 1952: Arthur H. Hallett

Notable teachers:

•       1881 to 1926: Eva Green

•       1881 to 1901: Edith Poole

•       1891 to 1901: Elizabeth Hastie (Pupil teacher aged 16 in 1889)

•       1901 to 1920: Alice Tomlinson

•       1909 to 1922: Lizzie Fogarty

•       1907 to 1947: Frances Rhodes

William Grocock

William Henry Grocock was born in 1866 in Coventry. His father was a carpenter. He came to Little Eaton in his early 20s with Arthur Pritchard, another teacher from Coventry. These two boarded with the Ryleys on Alfreton Road. They both taught at the school. Pritchard was appointed Headteacher, but only stayed one year before going back to be a head in Coventry. Mr Grocock took over the headship in 1892, aged 25. The same year he married Annie Abbots. They had two children, Marjorie and Harry. Both the children went to Little Eaton School. Marjorie became a Pupil teacher by the time she was 16.

Mr Grocock stayed as headteacher for over 30 years to 1926. His wife Annie died, and in 1905 he married Elizabeth Walters, daughter of the Chair of the School Board. He and his two children moved to The Grove, home of the Walters family, and lived with his Chair of the Board, recently widowed.

He and his new wife had four more children: Frances Mary Grocock b 1906, Winifred Mabel Grocock b.1907, Anne Crawford Grocock b.1910, Arthur C.Grocock  b 1912. Marjorie Grocock remained a teacher until she married in 1922 (Herbert Edgar Bowmer) at St Pauls. She died 1970. Anne Crawford Grocock became a teacher. In 1939 she was still teaching, living in Belper with her incapacitated Mother (widow) and sister Winifred, single and brother Arthur, single. She died in 1991.

Eva Mary Green

Eva Green had started teaching aged 15 in 1881 as a pupil teacher in the Parish Room school. She remained at Little Eaton School until retirement in 1928 aged 62. She was the Infants’ teacher and taught most of the village children between 1880 and 1926, including many of her own relatives. In 1888, an inspector’s report said “the Infants class were carefully taught by Miss Green”. By about 1918 she was the Headmistress of the Infants’ School.

The Greens were a well-established Little Eaton family. Her mother was Caroline, who lived all her life at Woodside Cottage. When her mother died in 1911, aged 87. Eva’s lifelong friend, Isabella Hastie (from Park Farm) came to live with her and together they brought up David Green, Eva’s nephew whose mother had died in 1906.

When she resigned in May 1926 Mr P.H. Currey presented her with a cheque for £30 from the whole village. There were also gifts of a handbag and purse from the staff and pupils.

When she died in 1928, the Derby Daily Telegraph reported “Little Eaton’s loss” and gave a long list of attenders at her funeral. She left money in her Will to her friend Isabella Hastie and her nephew David Green.

 7. School life in the early 1900s

Gwen Tatham, the daughter of Edith Poole, lived in the village all her life. In her recollections she wrote about starting in Miss Green’s class at the age of four and writing on slates. She travelled to school by walking along the old Gangway which stretched from the Post Office to the Clock House.

Most children walked to school, even the few who came from Breadsall or Coxbench, sometimes carrying their shoes so that they could arrive at school with clean shoes!

School life for teachers was hard. There were up to 50 children, covering three or four age groups, in every class, lined up in rows of desks in front of them. They would be taught for most of the time as a class, chanting their tables and texts together. The teacher would try to spot children who were not keeping up and give them some special attention and there were pupil teachers to help some of them. But, however good the teacher, some children would be bored and others would be left behind.

 Mr Grocock was followed as Headteacher by Arthur Hallett. He had served in the first world war and been wounded. He taught the 11 to 14 year olds in a room with varnished mahogany boards listing the achievements of past pupils. He served as Headteacher until 1952, and was nicknamed “gaffer” by the children.

Our picture of school life between the wars comes mostly from the memories of Cathie Woodward. Cathie Woodward (nee Piggs) was born in 1924 with 3 older brothers and a younger sister. Cathie’s schooldays 1929-1938 were all spent under Mr Hallett as Headteacher. Her parents, her grandparents, her siblings, her own children and grandchildren attended the schools also. Her aunt Emmeline Piggs taught there until she died of diabetes aged 27.

Cathie remembered another teacher dying in 1932 – Grace Hillier, and also remembered a 5-year-old being killed on the road outside school. Another pupil who died just before Cathie left school was an 11-year-old who’d just passed the 11+ but died of meningitis before starting at the grammar school.

Cathie’s older brothers told how Mr Grocock and the top class had gone to plant 6 lime saplings on the bank between the Park and Church. She also remembered being told by her grandparents of the early Dames’ School where pupils were charged 1/4d a week ie: a farthing, and of the cholera epidemic of 1841.

Cathie remembers her first day at school; “Mother came with me for first and only time”. She remembers a handkerchief tucked into her bloomers, the smell of chalk, bad breath, unopened windows, hard smell of ink, cleaning resin.

Miss Potts, the Infant teacher, smelt of Coty talcum powder, mixed with chalk. The school was “not unlike a Convent”. Boys and girls were segregated - two entrances, corridors, cloakrooms but taught together in classrooms. Earth closets - boys and girls in same block, the teachers’ lavatory block next to the childrens’.

A bell called them to school and there were no excuses for being late. If anyone was one minute late for roll call they had to wait for headmaster in corridor. In the Infants’ room was a blazing fire, and Cathie remembered the children singing the alphabet and counting dots on the blackboard.

When she was in Standard 2, her teacher was Mrs Rhodes. Mrs Rhodes had no College education but was an excellent, well-liked teacher with firm discipline. She had “the gift of the gab” so her nickname was “Twitter”. Nicknames were common “Tarzan” being the nickname for Miss Baldwin, Cathie’s teacher when she was 9. In this class the curriculum included:

240 pence in the pound, inches, yards, chains, furlongs, gills drams ounces etc. (Children 10, 20 years later were taught the same things). Other memories were of learning poetry by heart, and practising for the dreaded scholarship exam.

Floods were almost a yearly occurrence. Teachers and children struggled through to reach school. The flood in 1932 was the worst. Children were given time off school as classrooms were under water. Cathie remembered how cold it was in the winters, with fires in the classrooms to keep them warm.

Flood at the school in 1932

Mrs Rhodes taught at the school for 40 years, before retirement in 1947. A school inspector once reported that too many teachers were too old, had been there too long and should be replaced by new blood.

 “Every year we had a day trip to Skegness or Southport, organised by the Co-op Guild with Mrs Rhodes as leader”. (This day trip to Skegness is first mentioned in the log books in 1884)

Mr Robson taught the 10-year-olds then Mr Hallett took the older children with 40 pupils aged 11 to 14 – those who hadn’t passed the scholarship. The scholarship (or 11+) started in 1920.

At the age of eleven, children who could pass the entrance exam went to Grammar school. Special buses took more than 40 children to Strutts, Parkfield Cedars and Bemrose Grammar Schools. Some Grammar school places could be bought by richer parents who could afford fees. Clever “arty ones” went to Green Lane Art College at the age of 12. The rest stayed on at Little Eaton.

Cathie left school in 1937 to work in Derby. Other leavers that year went to the Mills, to Rolls Royce, Engineering firms, as Miners, the Railway or the Army.

 School standards

There was constant debate about standards and much concern about apparently low rates of success in the 11 plus exam. In the 1950s, a row erupted over school standards, as there were poor results throughout the 1950s. Only 4 children passed the exam in 1951 and 1952, only 2 passed in 1953, 1954 and 1955, only 1 passed in 1956, 5 passed in 1957, and 4 passed in 1958. 0nly 1 passed in 1959. John Easter, chairman of the managers demanded action.

The 11 plus exam was finally abandoned in 1976 and the present comprehensive system introduced. Most children go on to Ecclesbourne; a few go to other schools in Allestree, Derby and Denby.

1980 to 2020

The 80s, 90s, and 2000s have seen four headteachers (Mr Paling, Mr Howard, Mr Bateman and Mr Schumann) develop the school together with a committed and dedicated staff team.

Janet Easter was a familiar face welcoming children, staff and families as school secretary from 1975 to 2006. There were many others who stayed for more than 30 years including Sheila Gascoigne and Andrea Wilson.

In 2004, the overcrowding was finally eased when Glenda Harrison and her family sold some land to the Council to build the new Infant block and playground. This meant that two of the temporary classrooms could finally be demolished and the school hall no longer had to be used as a classroom. Four bright new purpose-built classrooms, shared space and a new playground were built. The picture below shows