MEMORIES OF ST. TERESA'S

My First Day

Kindergarten

Gates, Doors and Stairs

Games and Break and Things

The Nuns

Boarders and School Meals

11a

11a+ and Other Exams

Historic Events

Upper 111b

Concerts and Feast Days. Music and Dance.

Christmas Parties

School Trips

Senior School

New Head, New Uniform.

The New Hall

Last Years of St. T's

My First Day

I started at St Teresa's in January 1950. I was six and three quarters. St Teresa's was my second school. I left St Teresa's in March 1961. I felt very strange in my new uniform, having never worn dark colours before. I had to learn to tie my tie and the blue girdle round my waist, which was tied with a tie knot as well. Getting dressed was quite a job! I carried things to school in a leather satchel.

I first met Mother St Gerard, the Head Mistress, at my interview and found her very stern. I had never seen nuns before. They were rather frightening in their long black robes. When my sister saw her first nun she thought she was a witch!

We arrived at school at 8.40 am. Lunchtime was 12.20pm to 1.50pm and we finished at 4 o'clock. In the senior school we finished for lunch at 12.45 and had a different break time to the juniors. Most lessons were 40 minutes long. The first thing we did when we arrived at school was to hang up our coats and hats and change from outdoor to indoor shoes. Then we went to assembly.

Junior assembly was in the library and taken by Mother Teresa who was a very strict nun. On my first day, I was not able to change my shoes quick enough. I went to assembly in one sandal. I had to stand at the front waiting to be told which class I was in. I felt awful in one shoe and tried to hide my foot behind my other leg. We had prayers at assembly. I knew the Lord's prayer. I did not know about crossing myself. I was not a Catholic. We said a prayer called Hail Mary that I did not know at first. I picked up the words after a while, though I think some of them were the wrong ones

In assembly Mother Teresa called the register for the whole of the Junior School. We had to stand in straight lines in silence. When our name was called we had to say, "Present Mother." It was frightening the first time, with so many children listening. If you wanted to leave a classroom to go to the loo you had to put your hand up. When the teacher spoke to you, you had to stand up and say, "Please may I be excused?" You always had to stand when you wanted to speak to a teacher. You had to stand when an adult came into the room and say, "Good morning."

After assembly the Protestants went to their classroom for half an hour of Bible. The Catholics went to Sister Sylvester's kitchen for Catechism. They had little catechism books. They had to learn all the contents by heart. This taught them to be good Catholics. Sometimes the Priest came and heard their catechism. At the end of my first term we were told the Easter story in Bible. I knew about Jesus but did not know that he died on the cross. I was so upset that I cried. In every classroom there was a big crucifix and a statue, usually of the Virgin Mary but sometimes of Jesus with his Sacred Heart showing and some of St Teresa. I noticed there is still a statue in a niche in the wall of the New Assembly Hall.

On my first day at St Teresa's I was put in 1a, Miss Tuffet's class. She seemed a cross lady and I was glad that I was put up on the second day to 11b, Miss Gilgannon's class. She was nice. I started using ink in her class. We spent a lot of time practising handwriting. We did arithmetic every day. We had to take spellings home to learn by heart for a test next day and tables and spellings. Back to top

Kindergarten

I was never in the Kindergarten because I was too old but I do remember having to go there for the odd day when a teacher was away. It was in a separate building next to the convent main gates on Quirk Street. It had its own playground with outside loos. They were very smelly. It was awful having to go out to them in the rain and cold. There were two classrooms, I think. I remember the ceilings were very high. There were no radiators like we had in the big school. Instead, there was a big cast iron stove in the middle of the room that burnt coal. It had a big stovepipe that went out through the ceiling. To stop us burning our selves there was a metal guard round the stove like a cage. It had a sort of mesh shelf. The babies, as the kindergarten children were called, drank milk at break out of enamel mugs. The milk was put on the guard to warm. The mugs smelt of stale hot milk. You had to hold your nose to drink. It was horrible. The babies sat at round tables to do their work. In the afternoon Sister Joseph, their teacher, put up camp beds and they had to have a rest with an itch grey blanket over them. I thought this must be very boring! They stayed in their little school all the time. And used the convent gate as an entrance. Sometimes they were allowed to come to the big school for the Nativity play. Back to top

Gates, Doors and Stairs

We came into school through the front gate like you do. Bus people used the one on the corner. We kept out bikes by the hedge. We were not allowed to use the front door. This was only for visitors. We went down the path to the right of the school and came in through the doors in the covered way. There was a wicket gate part way up the path that was closed so we could only go in and out when we were supposed to. At home times Sister Sylvester stood on duty at the corner by the gate, making sure we had our outdoor shoes and hats on. We went up stairs using the back stairs or the blue stairs in the new block. The main staircase from the front hall, which had red Axminster carpet, was Mother St. Gerard's staircase. The teachers used it if they went to see Mother St. Gerard but it was out of bounds for pupils. At the top of these stairs was a big gong that a senior girl rang at the end of lessons. It had a very deep tone. We did not have bells. At the top of the blue stairs was a smaller gong for the other end of school. This made a rattly noise. We thought the blue staircase was made out of a meteorite because the stairs sparkled! Viv dug a loose bit out with her penknife and kept it on her dressing table. She said she could still see the place where she removed it when we visited the other day. Please do not try and do this yourselves or I shall get into trouble for telling you. Back to top

Games and Break and Things

Games and break were in the playground. In summer we used the backfield. Before we went to the playground we went to Sister Sylvester's kitchen. She gave out small bottles of milk, which we drank though a straw. She sold crisps, doughnuts or cream buns. They were lovely! I think the cost 3d. We changed into our outdoor shoes for break. To get to the playground we walked along the path crossing the convent gardens. The first part was a big vegetable garden, which the nuns tended. Then you went through a rose arch to another part with lawns and statues in arbours. On some saints' days we had a holiday. The Catholics had to go to a church service and sometimes they scattered rose petals along the paths where they had a procession. The petals looked very pretty next day. On Ash Wednesday they went to church and had a smudge of ash put on their foreheads. That was the start of Lent. We had to give up something for Lent as a sacrifice. I would have liked to give up school but usually it was chocolate instead.

In the playground we played games like hopscotch, skipping, marbles, jacks, ball games and tag. I think the boys went to the kindergarten playground at break but I am not sure. If it was wet we went in the old gym. We spent a lot of time making cat's cradles out of bits of string or wool. If you were caught paying cat's cradle in class the wool was confiscated. We did French knitting on a wooden cotton reel with four nails in the top. It made a long string of circular knitting.

We were very proud of our gym. It was very modern. Miss Johnson used to put on a gym gala once a year. We demonstrated our skills jumping the box and the horse and doing difficult things on the wall bars, climbing windows, horizontal bars and best of all the ropes. In summer we played rounders and cricket on the backfield. In winter we had netball and rounders in the playground. When we were in the senior school we walked to Alcombe to our hockey field in winter and in summer played tennis on two tennis courts where your playground is.

One of the things I remember about our playground was the smell of hot suds from the convent laundry. We could see nuns working in there. It looked very gloomy. Girls who lived in the convent helped them. They were poor girls and were mostly Irish and eventually become nuns. I think they were called St Louis girls. Back to top

The Nuns

When we were in the senior school Irish girls used to join us for a term or two whilst they were being prepared to be nuns. They had had very little education in Ireland and could hardly read or write. They left us and became novices. Novices wore black dresses to their ankles with short veils on white starched bands. You could still see their hair at the front. When they took their vows they were dressed like proper nuns with long robes, a rosary round their waist. They had a ring on their wedding finger, a crucifix on a black cord hung round their necks and a veil down to their hips. Under the veil was a white starched wimple, which covered their head, forehead, neck and chest. When I first went to St Teresa's the nuns wore long strips of white starched cotton around their heads. They looked like blinkers. It must have been difficult to see side ways. If you look at some old school pictures you may see them. The habit was modernised, I can't remember when, the blinker things were done away with.

The nuns belonged to the Order of St Louis, which was a French order. Many of them were French or Irish and even the English ones spoke some French. Our French teacher in the senior school was a French nun called Mother Marie Theresa. We called her Bonjour Mere. Ladies lived in the convent with the nuns. They were drearily dressed spinsters. Some of them had bedrooms in the school and in the houses next to the school. Miss Davis was one of them. They spied on us when we were in the town and reported us for not wearing our hats, eating in the street or bad manners (like not holding a door open for an adult, walking through a door in front of an adult or just being silly). Mother St Gerard gave out the bad reports in assembly - there were never any good reports! Back to top

Boarders and School Meals

The boarders lived in the convent in dormitories. They had a study for doing homework. In school they had a separate cloakroom. We felt sorry for the boarders because they did not see their parents until the end of term. They were only allowed a bath and clean clothes once a week. On Saturdays you sometimes saw them out walking in a crocodile with a nun. They had to wear school uniform all the time but I think they had special skirts to go to church on Sunday. The number of boarders had diminished by the time we were in the senior school. I don't think there were any by the time I left.

The daygirls who stayed for lunch ate in the convent or had sandwiches in the old gym. There was a chapel up stairs in the convent but we never went there. I remember the lovely sound of nuns singing up there. The daygirls who went home for lunch hardly ever entered the convent. I remember having tea there a couple of times. The refectory was at the back and was very dark. We sat at long tables and said a very long grace that was in Latin and had to cross our selves many times. The tea was awful - just bread and margarine. Back to top

11a

In my second year I was in 11a with Miss Clatworthy. She was nice but very fussy about neat crayoning. I wrote my first composition (story) in her class. It was about a squirrel and I thought it was very good. I wrote about three-quarters of a page! Opposite the lined page was a plain page where we drew a picture. Mine was of the squirrel in a tree eating a nut. I was pleased with my picture. Miss Clatworthy covered my lovely story with red pen marks. She did not like my picture because the crayoning leaked out of the drawing. All the crayon lines had to go in the same direction and I had sort of scribbled mine. I did not get a good mark. I was not very good at spelling. We had to write all our spelling mistakes out three times at the end on the exercise. It took me a long time, as there were so many. It spoilt all the enjoyment I had writing my first story!

My writing was very untidy. We wrote with dip pens, which tended to get their nibs crossed. This sprayed ink all over the page. The ink was in an inkwell in the top of your desk. Sister Sylvester made the ink from a dark blue powder and brought it to the room in a bottle. An ink monitor was allowed to pour it into the inkwells. You had to blot your work on blotting paper. If you forgot, the ink smudged and went all over you?re drawing. Mine was usually smudgy and there were lots of blots. Back to top

11a+ and Other Exams

We did not have SATS tests then. At 10 we sat the 11+ exam. If you passed you could go to the Grammar School, if your parents wanted you to (I did not want to go there because they had to have showers after games). You could have another try to pass the exam the next year if you failed. Next year you could take Common Entrance exams as well, to get in to a Public School. There were no boys left in the school after Common Entrance.

At 16 we took our GCE 'O' levels and at 18 GCE 'A' levels. You could leave school at 15 if you did not want to do 'O' levels. After 'O' levels some girls went next door to the Commercial School where they learnt typing , shorthand and book keeping. I think a nun taught them. They became secretaries when they left. I stayed in the sixth form until I was 17 then finished my 'A' levels at Minehead Grammar school (this is where your Middle School is now). I did not have to have showers after all! Back to top

Historic Events

During the winter of 1952 the George V1 died. We were in the gym changing room when the Head Girl rushed in, she was crying. She told Miss Johnson that the King was dead. We knew he had been ill. We were all sad. We had to get used after that to having a queen and not singing, "God save the King." The coins and the stamps had to change to show the young queen's head. New post boxes change from GR to ER.

The most exciting thing was the Queen's Coronation. Every child in the country received a coronation mug. We also collected pictures of the new queen from sweet packets. We had the day off for the coronation. Not many people had televisions. We didn't. I was taken to the W.I. Hall where a TV was set up. We took sandwiches and a flask of tea and stayed all day. It was so exciting even in black and white.

The other big event I remember was when the Pope died in 1958. He was Pope Pious X11. He had been pope since 1939. The nuns were very upset. Then there was an election for a new pope and he was called Pope John XX111. Back to top

Upper 111b

I can't remember much about Lower 111b except our teacher was Miss Read and she was nice and we had Miss Mac Loughland for arithmetic, she was very strict. I was in Mrs Handley's present classroom for two years, in Upper 111b. I was a year ahead of myself and had to wait there to take the 11+. Miss MacLoughland was our class teacher. We called her Tick Tock behind her back! She had black hair parted down the middle and pulled back in a bun. She wore a blouse with a round collar, a black skirt and a maroon or black cardigan. In summer she had a spotted frock. Her shoes were black with a thick heel and a strap done up with a button over the instep. Her desk was an old fashioned high one, standing on a platform. Miss Mac Loughland would not let you talk about yourself. If you did she would say, "I! I! I! Me! Me! Me1! I'm the only pebble on the beach! So I tried not to say anything! She frightened me.

The room looked very much like it does now except for the desks and the black board was on an easel in the corner by the window. The funny little window at the back was covered with posters showing priest's vestments. We had individual desks in straight rows. All your exercise and textbooks were kept inside your desk. All books had to be covered with brown paper at the beginning of term.

Arithmetic started by us chanting all our tables. First the times tables 2 to 12 then all the weights and measures and money tables.
16 ounces one pound
14 pounds one stone......... etc?
I wasn't any good at arithmetic. I can't remember being any good at anything except art and games in the Junior School. We were taught humility. This meant you were not supposed to boast or even think we were good at something. It was very bad to look pleased if you won a race or did good work.

We were told that if we were bad a black mark went on our souls. Your soul was pearly white to begin with. I thought mine must look like my blotting paper. If you were naughty you were put in the corner behind the blackboard. The worst thing was being sent outside the door. The nuns wore rosary beads round their waists. These hung down and jingled as they walked. When you heard the jingling coming along the corridor you were very frightened. If it was Mother St Gerard (we called her M.S.G for short but not to her face!) or Mother Teresa you were in big trouble. Some people used to hide in the loo opposite if they heard a nun coming.

We did the Tudors for history in upper 111b. So I did them twice! For history, geography and bible we divided our pages in to quarters. We copied some writing from the blackboard in the left hand quarters and drew a picture in the right hand ones. We had to learn lots of proverbs. "A stitch in time saves nine." "A rolling stone gathers no moss." "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" We did Aesop's Fables and poetry, which we had to learn by heart. I remember, "Mary go and call the cattle home across the sands of Dee." Also, "A chieftain to the highlands bound....." He was looking for Lord Ullin's Daughter.

Lessons were not as much fun as they are these days. Usually we just took it in turns to read a sentence each out of the textbook and then, if we were luck, there was a time to ask questions and then you did the copying and the pictures. The teachers did the same lessons year after year out of the same textbook. I know this for fact as I did two years with Tick Tock. They did not have to work nearly as hard as your teachers do.

We had hobbies once a week. You had to bring your own hobby in. I did stamp collecting and weaving beads in to bracelets and flowers. Miss Davis, who was horrible, took us for gardening. She made a big fuss about cleaning the tools. She did wood work with the boys while we did sewing on the top floor with Sister Sylvester. If your teacher was away she filled in. She made a big fuss if we fidgeted and made us sit up with very straight backs. My favourite lessons were art with Miss Barnet, gym with Miss Johnson and singing with Miss Nicholson. I still send Miss Johnson a Xmas card. She was my best teacher ever!


We left upper 111b at Easter 1953 and went next door into Transition with Miss Watts. She was really nice. It was a relaxing term after 11+. We had a wild flower competition. We had to collect them in our spare time and bring them to class to identify. Viv and I won for getting the most. I think there was a prize but the best thing was to know all the flower's names. Nowadays we know it is a bad thing to pick wild flowers or they will all disappear. It was different then, as people did not take as much interest in the environment. Back to top

Concerts and Feast Days. Music and Dance.

We did a lot of singing and sometimes we did band with drums and cymbals and triangles. My sister learnt recorder but I didn't. You could have piano lessons but you had to pay extra. When we were older we learnt to read music in singing. When I was about 13 Miss Broom taught some of us to play violins after school and we had an orchestra. I was the leader. We made an awful noise! In the senior school we had music competitions. The house captains trained their team and we had to perform before the school. The music teacher judged us and the house with most points at the end won. I was in a house called St Christopher. We had a blue button-badge to show this on our gymslips I can't remember the other houses.

When I first went to St Teresa's I had ballet lessons in the old gym. They were extra and were in the lunch hour. My parents stopped me going because they said I was getting 'stage struck'. I had riding lessons on Saturdays instead - that was nothing to do with school but some of the boarders came to riding but had to wear their school hats. I felt sorry for them. Miss Barnet used to come with us.We did ballroom dancing lessons as extra in the old gym when I was in the senior school. My friend Viv had cello lessons.

We had concerts and plays at the end of term. Miss Barnet did drama lessons. Our parents came to watch our performances. Reverend Mother used to come sometimes. She was the chief nun and ruled the convent but rarely visited the school. It was like a royal visit when she did come. Once a year in September she had her feast day. She would visit the school and each class would bring in flowers and make a huge bouquet. One girl from the class would present it to her. She had lots of bouquets! The nuns did not have their own names but took saints names like St Teresa. They did not have birthdays but the feast days on the saint's day that they were named after. We made a big fuss of Mother St Gerard's feast day as well but not for any other nuns. Reverend Mother was the most important person in the world to the nuns after the Pope. Back to top

Christmas Parties

At Christmas we had a school party in the Catholic Hall. It was fancy dress. Reverend Mother and some of the nuns from the convent, who we did not know, came to judge us. They arrived after the games and tea. We had to parade in front of them so they could see who had the best costume. I wore my bridesmaid dress one year and my mother made me into a Christmas fairy with wings and a wand. I wore a tinsel star tiara on my head, which itched. I won first prize because the nuns thought I was an angel. The next year I went as an oriental girl. My mother spent weeks sewing on beads and sequins. I wore baggy trousers with a bejewelled sash and a special sparkly hat. I did not win because the top let a little bit of my tummy show. Nuns did not like this. We had to keep well covered up. Miss Davis once took me off the tennis courts because my blouse did not cover my elbows. She said I was disgusting and had to buy a new one before I could play again. She wasn't even taking us for games!

When we were in the senior school Rock and Roll started. Mother Teresa ran the senior school Christmas party. We used to do country dancing and sometimes watched a film. We persuaded Mother Teresa to let us have a Rock and Roll record called Rock around the Clock by Bill Haley. I still have the record. We all rocked and thought we were quite shocking! Back to top

School Trips

Mother Teresa was very strict. She threatened to put an inkblot on my nose for every blot on the page of my homework. She taught science in the senior school. She was all right though and organised good fun things. She took us on a train to Cardiff for the Empire Games. We saw famous runners from all over the Empire. The Queen was there to present the medals. We had several trips to London to the Ideal Homes Exhibition, a science exhibition and to the Old Vic to see a Shakespeare play called Coriolanus. For these big trips we wore special cream berets with yellow and blue tassels. Only prefects normally wore tassels on their berets. She took us to Harwell to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment. I wanted to be an atomic scientist or a hairdresser. Mother Teresa said I could not be a hairdresser, so I ended up being a science teacher. My friend Viv bumped into Mother Teresa many years after leaving school at a station in London. She was no longer a nun.

The only other things we did out of school were Nature walks up to Hopcott which were fun. We had awful geography outings on the beach with Sister Mary Peter when we were older. They were awful. Sister Mary Peter was quite pretty but very strict. She walked so smoothly that we used to try and stand at the bottom of the stairs when she was going up to check whether she was on roller skates. She wasn't! Back to top

Senior School

We went in to the senior school when we were eleven. Our class was 111a. Different teachers for different subjects taught us. The senior teachers wore black gowns over their clothes. We started French and Latin in 111a as well as science, algebra and geometry. I loved maths and science. Funny because I had not liked arithmetic with Tick Tock.

The other new thing was cooking. The cookery teacher was Sister Bernadette. She was very grumpy. The cooking room was underneath the art room. You had to walk across the convent garden and the playground to get there. Naturally you had to change into outdoor shoes to do this and carry your sandals to change into when you got there! The first thing we had to learn was how to wash up! Can you believe anything so boring! Then we learnt to do jacket potatoes and baked apples. The first time we used the ovens I got into trouble. We were told to turn the oven on nearest our worktable. I did. No one told me it was the teacher's oven. Sister Bernadette erupted! When she opened the oven smoke came out. How was I to know she used her oven to store her recipe books!

She taught us sewing in the same room. We had to make a cookery apron and a special bag to keep our samplers in. Then we made a skirt and a blouse. It took so long to make a garment you hated them when you had finished them. In about 1958 a new cookery room was built near the old gym. I did not do cookery for 'O' level so never went in it.

When we were 15 we were allowed to chose which subject to take for 'O' level. You dropped some and started new ones. At about that time we were allowed to wear navy skirts instead of gymslips. We still wore the blue girdle and white shirts and ties. The skirts were sunray pleated ones, which were very fashionable. We were forbidden to wear stiff petticoats under the skirts. Stiff petticoats were the height of fashion. Over our blouses we wore blue cardigans or a v'necked jumper in the winter.

You could be chosen to be a prefect when you were 16. The prefects had to be treated with as much respect as the teachers. They did duties to make sure we did not run or talk in the corridors or on the stairs, kept order in the cloakrooms and sometimes looked after a class if a teacher was away. The other thing they did was to look after a class in senior assembly. This was in the old gym. When you arrived from the cloakroom your prefect would line you up and make you silent. They would then lead you out to your classroom at the end. Mother St Gerard took senior assembly. There were no other teachers there, just the secretary, Miss Dunn Miss Dunn called the register for the whole of the upper school. We had prayers and sang a hymn. Miss Dunn became a nun called Sister Bernard. I saw her in 1993. She was Reverend Mother! There were only six other nuns left in the Convent for her to be in charge of. Back to top

New Head, New Uniform.

In about 1960 Mother St Gerard retired as head mistress and went to a convent in Frome. I think she became Reverend Mother there. There were two other convents of the Order of St Louis in Somerset, Glastonberry and Frome. We used to visit them when we were seniors for hockey and netball matches. I was Head girl when M.S.G. left. The prefects organised a collection and I asked her what she would like us to buy for her. It was a bit difficult buying a present for a nun. She asked for a portable radio or an angle-poise lamp. We thought this cool and not what we expected! We collected enough to buy both. We chose her an Ever Ready radio covered in tan leather. It had a shoulder strap so you could carry it around but I don't imagine she did that! I visited her in Frome in about 1964 and was pleased to see the radio in her study.

After M.S.G. a new nun called Mother Bernard became headmistress. She changed lots of things. The prefects decided to approach her and ask if the summer uniform could be modernised. We had a meeting and decided what the thought we should wear. We chose a shirt-waister dress with three-quarter length sleeves, which was the height of fashion. Instead of berets we suggested boaters with the blue school band but with two streamers at the back. We drew a picture and put it on the notice board at the top of the new blue staircase. All the staff and pupils thought it such a good idea that the uniform was changed. The dresses still had to be blue and white spots but bigger modern spots. I was disappointed when my father took me away from St Teresa's before the first summer term of the new dresses and hats. I was sent to the Grammar school because all my friends had left and I was the only one doing A'level. I did not like the Grammar School uniform and envied my sister in her smart new convent uniform. Back to top

The New Hall

For years and years we had been raising money to build a new assembly hall. I remember buying a brick that was supposed to be used for the new building and would have my mane on it! They never used these bricks but the hall was built whilst we were in the sixth form. It must have been about 1960. We got quite excited with all the workmen being on site. We had no male teachers and were told by the nuns that men were wicked. I thought this odd, as MSG seemed to like my father a lot when he arrived at the beginning of term to pay my school fees!

At about 5 o'clock one evening, just after guides had finished in the old gym (we had guides and cubs and brownies for the juniors) there was a disaster. They had just finished building the end wall of the new hall and it fell down smashing through the old gym roof. Fortunately everyone had gone home and no one was hurt. There was an awful mess for weeks.

When the new hall was finished we did a big production for the public of the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. It was a great success. We had a write up in the Free Press. We had assembly and music in the new hall and once a week orchestra. When Mother Bernard arrived, she took all the Catholics to Church first thing every Thursday. All the Catholic teachers went as well. Most of the teachers were Catholics. The Protestant stayed behind. There was one teacher on general duty. The prefects took assembly. I had to stand up on the stage in the new hall and say the prayers. Viv played the piano. We decided to have Church of England prayers and hymns. We cut out the sign of the cross and did the creed instead. The prefects then had to look after the Protestants bible classes. As there were more Protestants than Catholics we had quite a responsible job. Back to top

Last Years of St. T's

When I left the convent for the Grammar school it started a trend. Three years later, by the time my sister had done her 'O' levels, anyone with five passes wanting to do 'A' levels went to the Grammar School. This, together with the fact that when teachers left, nuns without proper training replaced them, was the beginning of the end for St Teresa's. I was very sad when I heard it had closed. As you know the school building was bought from the convent by Somerset County Council and turned into a Primary School. A lot of the convent land was sold and built on. There is a road off Pagnal Road called. Bernard Close. I wonder if that was named after Mother Bernard?

That is about all I can tell you about my school days at St Teresa's. Despite the strict discipline, they were very happy days. We were all thrilled to be able to come and look at the old school last week. I was very sad to see the science lab had gone. I spent most of my sixth form days in it. Some of the ladies that were with us had been boarders at the school during the war. They said they had bedrooms in the school in those days and not the convent. Some were on the top floor and some at the top of the back staircase. I will draw you a plan if I can remember the layout! If you want to know any more please send me an e-mail. Gosh, how Mother Teresa would have loved to have e-mail! Back to top