I left Drayton Manor in 1951, having taught there from 1947-49 and again from 1950-51, with the intervening year spent teaching in France. Did you know I am also a Phoenician of very long standing? Perhaps I had better start at the beginning.

1937: I joined the school in the first form. It was just making a name for itself as a Grammar School. Most of the staff were young and enthusiastic, dedicated to their jobs, full of new ideas and aiming to establish the reputation of Drayton Manor, which had opened only seven years previously.

1939-41: The War years saw a vast change in staffing, building and general conditions. The young men on the staff - almost all of them - joined the Forces or went to do essential War work and this meant that married women came back to teach. (Before the war no married woman was allowed to teach in a state school.)
When the Blitz was at its height a part of the school was evacuated to Torquay with many of the staff. The rest of the pupils and staff spent many hours being taught in the shelter, where several lessons would go on simultaneously - English, for example, at one end and Biology at the other end. As only the pupils near the entrance to the shelter benefited from light, the rest of us sat is semi-darkness and moved along the benches every so often, just as if playing 'musical chairs'. Because there was not enough room for everyone in the shelters the examination forms had priority and that meant the younger pupils often came to school for just half a day or on a rotating basis (5 days out of 7). I well remember spending many hours knitting 'sea boot stockings' for sailors while sitting in the half-light and listening to a member of staff reading to us aloud or teaching us poems for choral speaking.

1941-42: Pupils from the other two Ealing Grammar Schools joined Drayton Manor in the fifth and sixth forms (remember that sixth forms in those days were relatively small and, by amalgamating pupils from Ealing Grammar School for Girls and Ealing Grammar School for Boys with those of Drayton Manor, one member of staff could teach instead of employing three separate ones).
Out of school activities, though curtailed, still flourished; plays were produced, concerts organised and I well remember a Film Society and Debating Society, Chess Club etc. There were regular games practices after school and netball, lacrosse, rounders and tennis teams played Saturday matches against other clubs and schools in the Borough. The boys had their football and cricket clubs of course and the standard of athletics was high. House Competitions took place, usually at the end of term.
One unusual memory - during the war when manpower was not wasted on school gardeners the whole school was occasionally sent out onto the field behind the main building for perhaps 45 minutes at the end of the afternoon on what was called a 'Plaintain Drive'. This meant everyone had to uproot as many plaintain plants as possible, collect them carefully and take them to a member of staff who would count them and the person who had collected the largest number of these weeds would be given a prize (usually a merit mark for the house to which he, or she, belonged). Loyalty to a House - we had four, Athenians, Romans, Spartans, Trojans - was a strong feature in the organisation of the school.

1943-44: Harvest Camps were organised by the staff who shared the 'comforts' of camp life with the pupils. Sleeping in bell tents we scared one another in the dark by telling ghost stories and often spent time 'mopping up', when heavy rain had penetrated the canvas and soaked shoes and clothes left too near the edge of the tent.

You may be interested to know that I am still in touch with two former members of staff - Miss Grace Fredericks, who taught History and now lives near Oxford and at the age of 93 is busy and involved in her local village community. Miss Perkins (who is now Mrs Short) taught PE in the late 30s and early 40s. She now lives with her daughter and family in Cornwall, is active in the local church and continues to drive, aged over 80.

Marianne Ascher
September 2000