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Kingham Hill School had been an all
boys' school since its inception in the 1870s, but
under the headmastership of Mike Paine, that was to
change in 1992.
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Severn House was opened
By Sheila Hanton - wife of the Chairman to the Governors,
David Hanton.
The article below was
compiled from notes submitted for our use by Mrs Rosie
Hayes, the first Housemistress to the girls' house at that
time.
First
Girl pupils on the Hill
Mrs. Rosie Hayes
First Housemistress
to the girls' house
| When we were
appointed to start the first girls' house there
were only 8 on the books, but by the opening
September we had 21 girls in a newly refurbished
Severn House ranging from year 7 to 12. The girls arrived
into all years and the opening day saw the sitting
room full of girls chatting and pots of tea being
poured as the new uniform was named and numbered.
We tried to liaise fully with
the boys' house so that we kept the same routines,
and gradually established good working practice
for prep time and responsibility for being organized
and looking after the house. Boys
visited the house every evening like bees to
a honey pot and we had to institute house night
in on Tuesdays so that we could have the place
to ourselves and chill out.
We were usually the
show house for visitors so “scores on the doors” for
tidiness set high standards. Discipline was linked
to community. Girls joined CCF, became prefects,
and trained hard to get netball, hockey and rounders teams
up and competing locally in matches from that first
year. |
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Activities included: piano practices, year 11 preparing
a dinner party for invited boys with juniors waitressing,
going punting, organizing a huge bouncy castle, pink
iced buns on Founder's day, mulled wine and carols round
the tree, chocolate fridge cake with leftover digestive
biscuits, sunflower growing competition, pamper and massage
evenings, Blind Date quiz with Durham House, car washing
days post exam, charity dressing up, learning Japanese
origami and welcoming girls from abroad, BBQs and water
fights in the garden, Valentine poems and heart biscuits,
Badminton on the back court, and formal Christmas dinner
parties in the house. We shared family life together
with tears and laughs, and many photos record events
and are still in the albums in the house.
Within a few years the house was overflowing
with 44 girls, day and boarding, and then Greenwich became
a girls' house for the juniors.
Ronald
Searle illustration for the original St Trinian's
stories.
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We at the Schoolday's website hope
that this will bring back memories from the first intake of
girls, who will then share them with all readers to enjoy and
compare. We wish that this was in existence in earlier times,
because as with Family History, once the oldest generations
are gone, so much goes with them that can never be recalled.
The History of a thriving school changes. Today's events are
tomorrows history!
Frank Foster Schoolday's
editorial team: December 2009.
Plaque on the wall of Severn House
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