Caldecott “Meeting”.
A personal reflection by Tony Inwood.
An important milestone at the beginning and end of every term was the school meeting. It was a very well organised affair and had to be rehearsed in detail by the Junior School, two or three days before it was due to take place. This ceremony had something in the nature of a “Trooping of the Colour” air about it and was conducted with great reverence.
It always took place in the library, which was a substantial room and capable when full, of holding all the school pupils without it being too cramped. All the furniture was neatly arranged, with the mock Chippendale table being brought in from the hall and placed squarely in front of the mantelpiece, with two chairs tucked in behind it. It was in these chairs that Miss Leila and Miss Dave would sit, regally surveying the rest of the library. Either side of this table there were two more chairs which were for the two Heralds. These Heralds were usually both prefects (PPU’s) and there was normally one boy and one girl. Opposite them, at the back of the library, was a long row of chairs which seated the remaining prefects, in addition to nearly all the members of staff, as this ceremony included the whole school except for the nursery children.
Then, in front of these chairs, there would stand rows of children in order of age, with the oldest ones at the back. The children were grouped into two halves, with the girls on one side, and the boys on the other. In order for the children to get into these positions, they had to march in row by row from the doors at either end of the library. This marching took place to the accompaniment of “The Washington Post” by John Philip Sousa. This was suitably stirring March music and was played with great gusto on the piano, by Miss Rayment, the music teacher.
Gradually, each row would file in, age group by age group until we would all be present and correct and standing with our hands clasped in front of us. Whilst waiting to come in, children would start marching on the spot to the music. On one occasion one of the boys in front, changed feet to throw the marching into confusion!
There was a strict dress code for this occasion, namely, uniforms. For the younger boys this consisted of grey shorts, white shirts and a tie. The older boys wore grey shorts, blue shirts and grey jerseys, which all looked very drab. The girls wore an equally drab uniform as well!
Once all were neatly assembled, Miss Leila would tell us to sit. The over 14 age group had chairs provided, but because of lack of space, the younger age groups sat on the floor. When everyone was duly seated, the “Charter” would be read out by both Miss Leila and the two Heralds, who each had their own section to read.
After the charter was finished, Miss Leila and the two Heralds would sit down and hand over the proceedings to Miss Dave, who after a brief pause, would stand up and regale us with news of various children who had left. These she had either seen during the holidays, or they had written to her during the term. Most were good news stories of the life they were carving out for themselves, but some were rather sad tales of those who had ended up in rather sorry situations.
Next, would come reports of how children had done in their respective exams. This was always carried out with a slight air of the pep talk about it, in order to try and encourage all the children to work hard and achieve excellence in all things, as well as praising those who had achieved good results.
After this, at the end of term meetings, came the housework reports. Housework was carried out by all the children over the age of nine, in addition to some of the staff. However, the latter, did not, of course, feature in such reports! These tasks were by no means arduous and served a dual purpose. This being to give practical assistance to the staff in maintaining a good standard of cleanliness and also to make each child aware of the importance of a clean and tidy environment. Housework was always treated with mixed feelings among the children, and the reports fully reflected this!
Each was written by the member of staff to whom the child had been assigned and was intended as a measure of either praise or rebuff, according to the performance given. In addition to this, a housework present was always kindly given at the end of term to each child, regardless of whether it was a good performance or not. Some children, myself included, did not really take to housework. So occasionally the reports when judiciously read out by Miss Dave reflected this and would give rise to hoots of laughter from the assembled children, when a particularly unfortunate comment was made about a child’s conduct! This laughter was sometimes frowned upon by Miss Dave, who on occasions, would rebuke us in the most serious of tones saying that it “was not really a laughing matter”.
Meeting would then end with a song, which was either “Jerusalem” or “Non Nobis Domine”. This would be sung lustily by one and all and then after a prayer, we would all march out to the same stirring music that we had come in on.
Although this meeting was a very worthwhile affair, some of us found it rather quaint and even giggled afterwards about some aspects of it that struck us as funny. Similarly, the Charter, although not necessarily appreciated by all at the time, was a very valuable document and contains extremely wise words.