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Holy Cross School - Page Two.


The Mayor, Councillor Bridge, visited Holy Cross on the 30th June and presented a souvenir medal to each child. For the Coronation of King George V on 22nd June 1911, each child was given a beaker.

In the summer of 1908 there was an outing where the children were taken in three horse-drawn char-a bangs to the new Forest. There was a picnic lunch and later tea, after which they went to church in Lyndhurst for Benediction and returned home about 9.30 in the evening.

On the 4th July 1917, Bishop Cotter visited the school in connection with his Silver Jubilee as a priest. There were Peace Celebrations on the 18th July 1919, the children attended a service in the Church and had the rest of the day as a holiday.

During the twenty years between the two World Wars, the school generally pursued a generally regular round of events, Empire Day in May, Armistice Day in November, the annual town school sports, the football and netball tournaments, the school selection examinations, regular visits by the school nurse, the medical officer and the dentist.
National celebrations included the wedding of the Duke of York to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on 26th April 1923.

There also occurred the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935 and the Coronation of King George V1 in 1937, with each child being given a silver beaker.

Mother Crofton died in October 1939. She had been associated with the school from its earliest days. At her requiem in the Convent chapel, children from the Holy Cross formed a guard of honour.

One overdue improvement at this time was the replacement of gas lighting by electricity in 1940.

On the 21st May 1940, the school closed to allow the premises to be used as emergency accommodation for French troops evacuated from Dunkirk, This lasted for two weeks and the school re-opened on the 12th June.

In April 1945 Holy Cross was an all-age school, with pupils from five to fourteen. And that same year, the school was able to celebrate the end of the War.

Improvements were made when needed, in 1948, a small kitchen and dining room able to prepare a hundred meals a day was built adjoining the hutted classroom and in 1950 the paved playground was extended.

Miss McCaffrey retired at the end of April 1950, having been Head Mistress for 25 years and a teacher in the school for 41 years. She was succeeded by Mother Margaret Egan who had been a teacher at Holy Cross for seventeen years until the end of 1945, when she went to Ryde Convent

The school leaving age was raised to fifteen on 1st April 1947 and for additional pupils, temporary prefabricated classroom units were supplied by the Ministry of Education.

The summer of 1953 saw the celebrations for the Coronation, when each child received a silver beaker.

In 1954, Holy Cross school was to become a four-class primary school.

The Catholic secondary modern school was provisionally to be included in the five -year building programme 1952 -56.

The school had accommodation for 240 pupils but the future development of the school posed problems for the Managers. The site was very restricted, about 0.6 of an acre, much below the standard required for a one-form entry school.

The number had risen steadily from 146 in 1946 to 256 in 1954, the year in which senior pupils were transferred to St. Walburga's school, Holy cross being recognised as a primary school. In response from parents, the Managers opened a nursery class in June 1951 using the hutted classroom provided in 1947. This proved very successful but was closed by the local authority in 1957 due to a national shortage of teachers.

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