A lovely photograph of the Queen Mother at the opening of Wheathampstead Secondary School (1968). Vera Brunskill and I are in the background.I taught music and drama at Wheathampstead Secondary School, Herts from 1966 to 1968 and have fond memories of the children I taught. My colleague, Vera Brunskill was a flautist and had a recorder group. She and I taught ourselves the guitar and worked with groups of children who were keen to learn the instrument in the days when the Beatles were all the rage. I have a recording of a number of the children who were keen enough to give up their break to come in to the music room to work at their singing. In particular I remember Reginald Dyke and Denis Andrews, who sang duets together, Sheila Faulkner, Mary Rose, Simon Hedley, and Jeanette Wright. I wonder where they are now!
Wheathampstead Secondary School library. Mrs Vera Brunskill (flute), Jean Campbell (Collen) (guitar) and children playing and singing Cheelo, Cheelo.
I directed several plays at the school and enjoyed the improvised drama classes, where everyone let their imaginations run wild, although imagination was often tempered with TV series of the time, notably Till Death Us Do Part!
From the Herts Advertister.
During the time I was there the school was officially opened by the Queen Mother. We all spent a great deal of time practicing our curtsies for the moment when the headmaster, Mr JD Thomas would present us to the Queen Mother. Her private secretary came to the school several months before her visit to ascertain what she would discuss with each person being presented to her.
Although I am British by birth, I had lived in South Africa and had studied singing with Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, who were living in Johannesburg at that time. I was told that the Queen Mother would discuss South Africa and my association with Anne and Webster, whose singing she had always enjoyed.
The day of the visit was very exciting for staff and students alike. The music pupils and I played and sang Cheelo Cheelo, a South African folk song made popular by Miriam Makeba, for the Queen Mother in the school library. I still have several photographs of us in that performance, and being presented to her afterwards. She was very charming and I’m sure everyone who was present will remember that memorable day thirty-six years ago.
Me, Mrs Covey-Crump (in background) Queen Mother, Mr J.D. Thomas, Vera Brunskill.
I returned to South Africa in 1968, where I met my husband and married in 1970. I kept in touch with some of the children for a while, and with Vera Brunskill until the early 1990s. I was sorry to hear that the school in Butterfield Road is no longer there, and that it closed in 1987 under controversial circumstances, as it began with great promise and had so many wonderful open-hearted children and staff.
