King Edward VII School celebrates 100 years of education

King Edward VII launched the start of its year long centenary celebrations with a ceremony on Wednesday 13th January 2010, marking exactly 100 years since the school opened.

The highlight of these events will be a celebration dinner hosted by the Edwardians on Saturday 26th June 2010. Tickets will be available on a first come first serve basis and further information with regards to how to purchase tickets will be made published shortly.

As part of these celebrations we would like to share any memories of your time at King Edward VII school, we have set up a memories board (see below) to allow you to do this. We have also added our archive of pictures and would also be grateful if you could provide us with copies of any pictures that you may have. If you do not have electronic copies and are able to bring or send these into the school we will copy the images and post/return them to you.

Photos - Stuart Smith (September 1911–1939)

Photos - Harry Anderson (1939-1956)

Please send us your memories of the school

Memories Board

I attended the school from 1971 - 1975, after coming up from the Sarson school. I lived in Melton Mowbray and walked to school each day. My brother and sister also went through the school for their secondary education.

Back then these years at school were called 4th and 5th year, lower and upper sixth. I took my O and A levels during this time and looking back, I feel I received a sound education. We were "streamed" according to academic ability to go on to take O levels or CSE exams.

The school at this time was lead by Mr Brewster - a man of few words and rather a remote figure. The school had recently become a comprehensive school. The teachers at the time wore academic gowns and many of the old Grammar school traditions were still in place ie Prefects ,Head Girl and Boy, colours awarded for sporting success and a house system again mainly for sporting competitions. Latin was also offered as an O level subject. I was deputy head girl and a prefect and also won colours for hockey and athletics.

I also was a member of the choir which put on the most amazing Gilbert and Sullivan productions - "Patience" and "The Yeoman of the guard". These productions were produced by John Duckworth and Phil Vincent and really were a credit to the school. Great fun for the pupils too with costumes bought in from an outside agency plus lots of teenage "romances" going on between cast and orchestra members.

The school buildings were a mix of old and new. The old hall was used for exams and PE. The 4th side of the Quad was also there and was used for girls’ cloakrooms. I remember having physics , chemistry and Maths in the old classrooms. The clock Tower, since demolished, was also there and the clock worked and was a familiar landmark when coming in to Melton over the Dalby airfield road.

Our uniform in the 4th and 5th year was a grey skirt , red jumper, school tie (red and grey striped) white shirt, black shoes. Then in the sixth form we could wear black skirts and cardigans, white shirt and the prefects had a blue sash worn around the waist. I still have mine proudly holding prefect and colours badges.

The sports department introduced basketball which was considered to be a new sport at that time. Inter school hockey, netball, rugby, cricket matches were held but athletics never went further than the sports day. This was very disappointing for me as I was a sprinter who enjoyed the 100, 200 yards plus the relay events. Girls weren't allowed to do the 400 then, I'm sure I would have liked that too.

When we left school it was very low key, just a small dinner with a few staff members present. Nothing like the graduation ceremonies today. The school also didn't have a speech and presentation night for prizes which given it's Grammar school history is surprising.

The most famous contemporary of my school days must be Robert Harris who has written several best selling novels. At school he wrote a very witty play which we performed in the sixth form and he edited the school newsletter "Memograms"

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In 1958 when I was in the 5th form something quite amazing happened in assembly. A pupil fainted and then another and another they were taken out of the hall so I decided I would pretend to faint so I fell as well. My friend Shirley was told to take me home and it wasn't til we were walking down the hill that we looked at each other and asked if we really did faint, we smiled and said no we were fine. We couldn't go home but in Melton at that time were two cafes with jukeboxes where you could sit for hours with a cup of tea costing 4d. Our favourite was called Bills and was at the bottom of High street and the other Jims which was where the Italian cafe now is. Doing something like this at that time was quite daring especially with a headmistress like Miss Chamberlain!!

Christine Wiggins (nee Snowden)

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My memories of the Grammar School are recorded in Chapter Two of my book "From Melton Mowbray To Canada: A Pictorial Journey 1940's to 1950's which is available from The Melton Book Shop. Here is an excerpt from page 13: Miss Packer took us for our Latin classes...suffixes, prefixes, declensions, which were all Greek to me! How anyone could learn Latin enough to teach it was very impressive and Miss Packer, in her black gown and mortarboard, commanded our utmost respect not to mention that she was also the headmistress. I recall that the book from which we were to glean this challenging language had shiny pages with very ancient looking photos.......

Considering that we had only a limited time for instruction in Latin it is surprising that any of it registered. Miss Packer was also proficient in mathematics which,decidedly,I was not. Mr.Anderson the headmaster also instructed us in mathematics. He would sail into the classroom with his gown billowing behind him, chalk a problem on the board, say a few words of encouragement and sail out again.We probably wouldn't see him again until the end of the double period! Having been left to our own devices we could move around each others' desks, chat, and exchange answers. Somehow we all managed to have something to hand in at the end of the session. I failed dismally at maths in the final GCE. I could never equate algebra as being of any use to me. An anecdote told to me regarding the headmaster goes something like this..a certain Colin D was sent to the headmasters study for punishment. Mr. Anderson had to leave for a few minutes while the miscreant waited with apprehension. On the Head's desk was........

Carole Naylor (nee Allen) 1946-1951