Message from Australia

This week I received a message from Australia!

Good Afternoon Harewood School

I attended Harewood C of E Primary School 1958 to 1964 as Linda Susan GAINES.

My Mother attended Harewood Primary School 1939 to 1945 as Audrey Jean CUTHBERTSON.

I currently live in Melbourne Australia working for the Victorian Department of Justice.

I am writing to ask if the school has retained the Honours Board, from my Mother's time at the school, as she would dearly love to have a colour photograph of that board - which shows her name in gold letters as having passed the 11+ Examination 75 years ago.

If you could possibly help me with this request, I should be extremely grateful as it would make an elderly lady very happy indeed.

Thank you and best wishes

Linda

(Mrs L S Sherer - nee Gaines)

PS

I attach current photo of my Mother and a certificate from a book prize I was awarded at Harewood C of E Primary School in 1962.

I thought this was very interesting so I replied.

Hello, thank you for your message from Australia!

I am the assistant head teacher of the school and I have attached a photograph of the honours board which is still on display in our school library. Audrey's name is quite faint at the bottom right, the last few names seem to have a different print to the others, but it can still be read 

There have been a lot of changes at our school over recent years, not least the fact that we have expanded the size of our school building by incorporating the school house next door into our school creating an additional upstairs classroom, we also have a classroom created from space above the school hall. At the moment we have 105 children on role, but as I write the school is closed due to the coronavirus and we are not sure when we will be able to re-open. All the children are being taught at home.

I know the children will be interested in your correspondence and with your permission, I would like to share it with them on our school blog. I often see children looking at and studying that board and I am sure they would be very interested to see a real person whose name is on there. Bringing history to life for them.

Kind regards

Mrs Burnley

and she replied...

Good Afternoon Mrs Burnley and Harewood School,

Thank you so much for taking the time to help us with the Honours Board. My Mother is absolutely thrilled to see it once again, after so many years' absence. She would be delighted to have a Blog article about this, thank you again so much. 

We both have extremely happy memories of Harewood School, which was a perfect start to our education. My Mother has travelled the World, including two World Cruises, but we both still love to visit Harewood (from her home in Leicestershire) when I visit from Australia. 

I went on via Harrogate Grammar School to complete a Linguists Certificate (French and Spanish) Qualification and later a Diploma in Local Government Policy and Law. 

Subsequently, I was elected to the role of Town Mayor of Newmarket, Suffolk, during HM The Queen's Golden Jubilee Year, and attended a luncheon hosted by her in the Bury St Edmunds Athenaeum,  in that same year. So exciting!

I'm attaching a photo from the Wetherby News of Summer 1963, when our Harewood School won the Lord Harewood Cup against Gateways School, in the Annual Sports Day on the Cricket Pitch in Harewood Park. Quite a rivalry existed in those days!

Best wishes

Linda 

I hope you enjoy reading this blog. 

It is so nice to hear from someone now living at the other side of the world who came to our school. It is a lovely reminder of the special place that Harewood school is and how people always have a piece of Harewood with them in their hearts long after they have left us.

Mrs Burnley