Portslade Secondary Modern School for Girls as it was known when I attended that school. I absolutely loved it there right from the start which was in 1947, when I left St Mary's Convent School, Vale Road (which I hated, one of the nuns used to hit us with a man's shaving strop!), until 1952. I had stayed on for an extra year to do a secretarial course but left half way through as I got a job with the Alliance Building Society in Brighton in 1952. Mrs Kellaway was the headmistress. The other teachers I remember was Mrs Martin (Needlework and Singing), Mrs Parker (Sports), Mrs Rudd (History), Miss Wheeler (Domestic Science), Mrs Roxan, one of my form teachers, Miss Taylor (Science), and Miss Shaw. We were well noted for our sports and had a friendly rivalry with the Knoll School. I can remember the annual athletics at Hove Greyhound Stadium where we usually ran in bare feet on the cinder track until the introduction of spike shoes. Looking at the above photo I do not remember the old Nissen hut at the top of the field. What a lovely field that was, we were so lucky to have it for our sports. I am still in touch with some of my class mates, Lynne Abbot in America, Iris Gray in Canada and Barbara Hughes living down in the New Forest. A couple of years ago Valerie James and I organised a reunion and we managed to get about 18 of the 'girls' there. Hadn't the place changed! Did not really recognise it at all as I hadn't seen the alterations due to me living near Reading. I remember the smell of the freshly varnished floor in the hall every September when we came back from our summer holidays. I remember Jean Pumpfry singing 'There's a hole in my bucket' at a school show which brought the house down. I also remember a very ambitious Shakespearan production performed by the class above me. Our form did Alice in Wonderland! It must have been in my early years there that we had a stalk of bananas sent to us from the crew of a ship that the school used to write to. So many happy memories.

I can agree with Jan about changing in that hut at the top of the playing field at the girls' school. We boys had to walk from the High Street, through Broomfields Farm, get changed in that darn hut, play football, then get changed and walk all the way back covered in mud. No showers, and absolutely frozen. It was a lot better in summer of course, but then the girls were out on the field too. A welcome distraction.

When I attended the girls school, Ms. Taylor taught geography, Ms. Martin sports, (her husband was at the boy's school) Ms. Allen, art, Ms. Rhodnight, nursing, and Ms. Hawkins, a seemingly strict energetic person, cannot recall the other teachers. We never used the tin hut for changing, that was out of bounds for us, we had to change in the cloakrooms, very little privacy there.
Ms. Hawkins was a tyrant and I remember her well, even to meeting up with her years later, she had not changed much, except as an adult she seemed more kindly. We had tennis courts and lovely green grass to do cartwheels on......and the smell of new mown grass was always great. We changed from the blue and white uniform to grey and gold. One girl, with black hair turned up in assembly with gold hair one morning, and grey uniform. Ms. Kellaway made a remark from the stage... nice to see more girls in uniform today she smirked. The girl's face was red, she had not meant to show up that way... but it was pretty mind blowing.

Oh my lovely school. Not in the middle of Mr Broomfields farm feilds anymore, I used to walk to school through the farm what lovely memories. Funny we got a council house the year I was going to Mile Oak, we moved to Easthill Drive, hence the walk to school. I remember taking farming and science with Miss Taylor, Cookery with Dolly Dawes and having to buy powdered egg for her at Mr Sayers shop. Also learning how to do the wash and use the mangle. Miss Rudd with red fingernails teaching us handwriting, Mrs Roxan did art and was also a form teacher. I am trying to think of the caretaker I believe it was a Mr Scully? Mrs Powell tought us needlework, Mrs Kellaway was head mistress. We also took home nursing which was fun. There was a German woman that did our PT she always slapped us on the legs, "on your toes, on your toes" she would say, I cannot think of her name.
I have been home a couple of times, many changes to take in. Will be home this year for Christmas with family long ride from Idaho , I will probably check out Mile Oak once more then on to Devon where my sister now lives. Best wishes to all of you from over the Pond.

I was also a pupil at the Mile Oak Girls School from 1950 - 1954. I can honestly say that they were four very happy years. Mrs. Kellaway, headmistress, Miss Powell (later Mrs Rhode-Knight) Mrs Roxan, Miss Wheeler, Miss Taylor, Mrs Parker. When it was our turn to do the pantomine, we did Jack and the Beanstalk. When in form 3a (Mrs Roxan) we did a production of the Midsummer Nights Dream in which I played the part of Bottom. I remember a few of the names of the girls in my form: Maureen Burtenshaw (my best friend) Pam Vine, Grace Giles, Joan Sach, Betty King, Dot Mengham, Molly Wren, just to mention a few. I also remember that the school had a 'school' cat called Pyjamas which I used to feed in the school holidays. Happy Days. A very happy Christmas to all the ex-Mile Oakers.

Joan Sach used to live a few doors away from me in Fairway Crescent, though she was a couple of years younger than me we use to play together. She died very young leaving two children. Yes, the caretaker's name was Mr Scully, I would never have remembered it until you said. Mrs Mitchell did teach us PT and I know she was very strict, I think she must have taken over from Mrs Parker who was there when I first arrived. Mrs Roxan also took us for shorthand if we stayed on for an extra year. The teachers seem to turn their hand at quite a few subjects.

Pat Maynard - would you have been at Mile Oak Girls' School with a girl called Shirley Strong? She was two years older than me (which you would roughly be) and Shirley was my cousin. I have completely lost contact with her as I have been living in The Netherlands since my marriage to a Dutchman in 1959. I would like to know how she is and where she is. If you know something perhaps you could mail me at ppd@hetnet.nl

Pat Peeters Bunting - Sorry I don't know your cousin, but she might have been in the other class (2 classes per year). I do have a address of someone who was in the other class to me - I could make contact to enquire if she knows her. I was born in Nov 1936, would that have been her age? Did she marry and if so, do you know her married name?

I attended mile Oak Girls during 1964-1968. Miss Sanders/Saunders was the head. My oh my, she had a sharp eye. We all used to file in to assembly in the mornings; she would sit on the stage and pass her ever critical eye over every pupil as they walked by. If you were in the senior classes and allowed to wear stockings, you had to make sure they didn't have a ladder - or you were summoned by a prefect at some point in the day to attend her office. Stockings off, given a pair of socks. If your mini skirt was more than 6 inches above the knee (measurements taken by kneeling on a chair and placing a ruler from chair to skirt hem),any higher and we were sent to needlework classroom to lower the hem. Teachers I remember - Miss Taylor-geography (didn't we all play her up); Miss Hawkins chemistry, recall the five legged frog in one of her sinks and dropping a phial of mercury on the floor; Ms Martin sports, thanks to her confidence in me, I went on to higher things. Mrs Rudd,who used to teach my Mother, who also attended St Mary's Convent, Vale Road, prior to Mile Oak. She went home with bleeding knuckles where the nuns used to hit them with a metal ruler because she was left handed. There was Ms Rhode-Knight who we all held in high esteem taught nursing. I forget who taught art. Then Mr Wincer, the first male teacher in the history of the school. He taught maths, not my favourite subject. He was always hitching up his trousers. He awarded me 6 out of 150 on an exam, then drew breath and told the class 'that was for neatness only'. Our uniform was grey and gold, oh and the thick grey knickers worn for P.E. The field was used twice a week by the boys from Mile Oak for football. There were all us girls -grabbing the window seats. Happy days. Seems a little harsh now, but hey, they were good times.

I moved up to Mile Oak School from St Nicholas school with many friends in 1963 and left sadly in 1970. Miss Saunders was the headmistress leading a very fine team, sadly many of them now passed on. Very fond memories of Mrs Rhode-Knight who ran the pre-nursing course which I joined. She infused in me a love of nursing which I have followed, hand on bedpan for 35 years! Mrs Allen was the P.E. mistress then and it was she who taught us, among other sports, trampoline. She encouraged me to compete for the school which I did and came 13th out of over a hundred pupils. Miss taylor taught history in the prefab on the right at the front of the picture. Wonderful days of summer during lunch lazing on the grass picking daisies. We were so lucky to have the freedom to breath fresh air (except when the wind blew the fumes from the gas works up the vally-phew rotten eggs). I remember one summer suffering in Miss Taylors class with the windows closed because the smell was so bad she thought it was the gas works when it really was the stink bombs let off under her chair! Remember the chair so big she almost needed a step ladder to sit on it so she envaribly lent her ample bust on the desk to teach us. I was blackboard monitor in her class and remember dating it 6/6/66. The quad housed a small pond and a very large colony of guinea pigs as well as rabbits that they almost undermined the school foundations so when we came back one September a cull had taken place and the numbers were drastically reduced and were never allowed to get out of hand again. I wonder where Miss Hawkins got her dissection specimens from that term? She is one teacher who although not though very highly of when I was her pupil I can honestly say she is the one I think of most often and the one who taught me how to live in the big wide workd. I was delighted to meet her and tell her so at one of our reunions last year in Worthing. Over the years we have grown from the inital 3/4 to quite a group. Jill Redman, Christine Smart, Jill Attwater, Janet Wiles, Denise Bush, Sheila Tobin with news of Valarie Wilkins, Jeanette Seaton as well as many others. The next one is 19/01/08.
The Amsterdam P.H. Shoreham Sadly I cannot attend and sent everyone my love. We were very lucky to have been given the opportunity to participate in conservation work camping out at various venues to clear ponds and old railway lines of weeds etc organised by Miss Hawkins and does any one remember the School cruise? SS Ugander used as a medical hospital during the Falklands war and now I fear razor blades! Went back last year and showed my 13 year old "my school" still recognisable but the lovely field-scene of my athletic achievements, no more but hopefully giving many others fond memories.

Mile Oak School - no one has mentioned the cat Miss Rudd used to have in her history room, big fluffy and white he belonging to Lorraine who lived in Mile Oak; he would come over for the day. Also Miss Mars, the religious teacher, who would regularly chuck me out of the class and so I would listen to the music in the hall, and Miss Hawkins who would throw chalk at me for talking. She regularly played netball when the teachers played and wore those dreadful check skirts. Mrs Yarnell and Miss Wheeler the cookery teachers, Miss Wheeler would bring her old dog in everyday. Miss McKey who taught chemistry and talked frightfully posh - she threw me out too. I remember we would hide in between the coats to avoid going out for breaks on very cold days, and the bottles of milk in the crates, there were always plenty over which I have to say I usually enjoyed. Miss Allen the art teacher who didn't like me told me I was useless more or less, because yes I talked and I got an O level in art - no comment. The horses Betty and Blossom sloughing the fields, the ice cream man parked in Valley Road, and back then Chalky Road was just flint and chalk. At play time I could see the horses in the field where I spent most of my time and of course who could forget those thick horrid grey knickers!  I also remember a certain Iris who would escape from a classroom via the window. Theplay we did was the importance of being Ernest. These were certainly good times with good memories

I attended Portslade Secondary Modern School for girls between 1965 and 1969. I remember the head teacher Miss Sanders very well, I should do I spent a part of most days out side her office because of my behaviour - mostly not wearing proper school uniform or run-ins with prefects. Also I remember Miss Taylor and the big chair that she had in her class room which we use to put drawing pins on while she wasn't looking that was when we were not locking her in the big walk in cupboard in her class room. I also remember Miss hHawkins, she actually made me cry in one of my science lessons - and me such a rebel. I lived in Valley Road, and my best friends were Linda Carney and Janet Garland. Linda has now passed away while Janet moved away while still at school, I lost touch with her after then - i would dearly love to get in touch with her now. I remember Miss Wheeler from cookery with her dog how would that work these days with health and safety?

Poor Miss Taylor, I think she must have had an awful teaching career. I went to the Mile Oak school between 1947 to 1951 and I can remember her leaving the class room in tears more than once. She always wore those flat leather strappy sandals, fiddled with her necklace when nervous or upset. My niece went there some years later and she said that her class used to play her up. The school was devided up into four houses in those days: St Andrew, St George, St Patrick and St David for all our sport activities. I also remember the milk in the crates delivered outside the hall, I was often the milk monitor and I hated the smell of milk especially in the warm weather. Still not a great lover of milk! It was a lovely school and I really look back on those days with great affection.

For all Mile Oak Girls School girls from the 40s-50s and 60s, and any children of these girls. If you lived in Mile Oak, we are thinking of getting a back to Mile Oak get together, date to be confirmed but around 27th-28th of July. Details available when firmed up. Time to really walk down memory lane with other like minded. Contact Bonny email address BonnyCother@yahoo.com and or aussigal1@yahoo.com

I have just read Suzanne Myers posting and yes I'm sorry to have missed you at our last re-union, will catch you at the next one. I attended 1963-1969 and have many happy memories of my time there; the school trip to Crackerjack, where I was a contestant and also to London Zoo, where we were met by Peter Scott. The trouble we got into with Miss Sanders if we did not wear our boaters on school trips out. Poor Miss Taylor, how we teased her and the stink bombs we let off in her class, which backfired on us when she insisted we closed all the windows! Miss Hawkins still lives in Portslade and came along to one of our re-union nights out.

I was at the girls school from approx: 1950-1954 Mrs Kellaway had just become headmistress, I hated school until I went there, they were very happy years for me, and I think we were very lucky to have the calibre of teachers that we had. Unfortunately poor Miss Taylor was in the wrong job I think, but Miss Powell/Rhodeknight, Mrs Roxan and the others were great. I was very sad to leave when I was 17 (I did the Pre-nursing course) which was a very new idea I left in 1954.

Linda Packer - Is Peter Rowley your brother by any chance?

My sister (Jacqueline) and I went to Mile Oak late 50s to middle 60s. Enjoyed it there(only school I did).  Always remember poor old Miss Taylor, my classmates locked her in the supply cupboard, she was fuming, the whole class suffered that week. Miss Wheeler was a hoot - yes poodle there too - she always said "shush don't say anything", but it used to cock its leg on the side of our tables.  Loved making Christmas cakes, hated PE.  Once or twice I ended up in Mrs Kellaway's - can't remember why. Did not care for Saunders.  I remember going to London for the theatre - Richard III, great fun - and Beckett the movie.  I had giant posters of the Beatles, stuck them on the wall of my classroom, I was flavour of the month after that.  A great school.

I remember in my last year at Portslade Secondary Modern Boys School in 1953 we entertained the same age girls from your school. I believe it was prefects only but not sure. I think it was food and a few harmless games well watched over by the teachers. I fell for Anita Hughes but was too dopey to do anything about it. I think Jim Smith from Mile Oak Road was the only one to strike lucky with a girl called Marion from Abinger road. Did the two schools have turns at hosting these parties? Many years later I worked for Anita's Dad at BEL in Fishersgate, needless to say I never mentioned my old crush.