North Kensington Central School (St Mark's)
The prefects of North Kensington Central School with the Head Teacher in 1927. My mother is in the back row with the long ringlets.
My mother Mary Horwood (born in 1911) attended Portobello Road School, which along with the other Board Schools in London provided education up to age fourteen. However at aged 11 she passed an exam that allowed her to move on to the Central School on St Mark's Road (just north of the roundabout by St Helen's Church). There along with the usual academic subjects she was taught office skills, typing, shorthand and bookkeeping. The boys were taught technical drawing. The head teacher also made sure that they all learnt to speak properly, without their London cockney accents. According to my mother every day at assembly they all had to recite "Round the ragged rocks the ragged rascal ran the rural race" and "How now brown cow". They were taught ballroom dancing and mixed dances were held monthly at the school. They were all being trained to work in the new offices opening up between the wars. Employers recruited the students directly from the school. My mother left aged sixteen to work as a bookkeeper in the City. She spent her first pay packet on cutting off her long old fashioned ringlets.
A school play at North Kensington Central School in 1927.
Sue Snyder
