St. John's C P School

Description

Although living in Kinmel Bay (Denbighshire) I was a pupil in this Flintshire Church Primary School from 1946 to 1952 when I went on to Abergele Grammar School. When I first started at St. John's Mr Frank Port was Headmaster, Miss Evans Infants, Miss Bedington Standard 1 and 11, Miss Batten-Jones Standard 111 and 1V and the Headmaster taught Standard V. A large "coke stove" dominated Miss Batten-Jones' classroom, the only source of heating and around which the frozen 1/3 pint milk bottles would be thawed on wintry mornings. A feature of school in those days was this daily milk ration for all pupils. The rooms were small and cramped given that two different years were in the same room, the teacher dividing her attention and syllabus accordingly. Miss Batten-Jones' classroom was divided from Standard V by a concertina type movable partition. A Miss Edwards briefly succeeded Mr. Port and was in turn succeeded by Mr Gwilym Thomas, fiercly proud of the Vale of Clwyd always asserting that "no matter where in the world one might go the beauty of the Vale would never be surpassed ". Both Mr. Port and Mr. Thomas were, in their turn, organists at St. John's Church.
The year I passed the 11+ was the year of St. John's best ever success with the 11+ examination and by way of celebration Mr. Thomas bought us all an ice cream.