Letters home from school ....... nu 2 come and join us

Now I can't remember just how the Education Department told us that our four had a place at Oakwood/Chorlton High School and I certainly have no record of the confirmation that I was to attend Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern School.

But this is how Manchester did it in 1954.

It is another of the documents that my friend Ann has passed over to e.

She began at Whalley Range High School for Girls in the September of 1954 and here is her letter of confirmation.

What I find fascinating is that her parents were invited down to the Education Offices on Deansgate to sign the "agreement to keep your son/daughter in attendance at the school until the end of the school year in which he/she reaches the age of 16."

Seven years later when it was my turn I assume we signed a bit of paper but essentially it was just a matter of me leaving Edmund Waller school in the summer and presenting myself with 240 young hopefuls in their brand new uniformsSeptember of 1961 at the school gates.

Location; Manchester, London

Picture; admission letter to Whalley Range High School, 1954, from the collection of Ann Love

Letters home from school ....... nu 1 about attendance

Now I like the way that yesterday’s mundane correspondence becomes today’s piece of history.

So I was pleased when my fiend Ann offered to share some of her school letters and reports.

She attended Whalley Range High School for girls from September 1954 and over the next few days I want to publish some of them.

And I start with a letter which will seem very familiar and could have been written only last term.

It was sent in the July of 1957 and expressed concerns that “we have become increasingly aware that the progress of some girls is hindered by frequent short absence.

We would remind parents that absence can be excused normally only on the grounds of illness of the girl herself, and that a note from the parent giving the reason should be sent on the girl’s return or after three days.”

A full century before and the attendance of many young people in rural raea turned on farming year with many falling out of school to help with the harvest.

And today the debate over prosecuting parents who take their children on holidays in school time rumbles on.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; letter from Whalley Range High School for Girls, 1957, courtesy of Ann Love