SOUTH QUEENSTOWN PRIMARY SCHOOL
LETTER WRITTEN BY ELEANORA (NELL) LELLO
DANIEL
50 Rectory Close
Bracknell,
Berkshire,
RG12 4BD
August 14, 1981
Dear Mr Whitchurch
What a surprise to receive your letter from my old school, and what memories it brought back for me. Not only was I in charge of the school from 1926 (?) but I was one of the very first pupils there in 1908 at the age of seven. I watched it being built, brick by brick, from my old home on the other side of the river.
It was a very modern school in those days which incorporated floors raised in terraces with a row of nice dual desks along each terrace, each with individual backers instead of long rows of desks with hard backless seating. There were good windows and plenty of ventilation.
Behind the teacher's desk there wall was lined with splendid blackboards instead of the usual blackboards and easels.
The school was built to serve the youngest children who had previously had the mile long walk to the “big school” in all weathers, and only West Coasters know what that means. It also took children up to the age of 14. There were about 45 children in the larger room and some 30 in the Infant Room.
Mr Wheeler and his wife were the first to open this lovely little school, I remember, in my youthful mind, they were grey haired, elderly and kind and gentle, English, I think. They were followed by a Mr and Mrs Goodwin, brother and sister. Mr Goodwin was a quiet and conscientious man who taught us song tunes by laboriously picking out the airs on a mandolin. The faces he made in concentrating fascinated us rather than amused us. He gave us moral lessons by putting charts upon which were maxims and proverbs designed to keep us on the straight and narrow path. These maxims we had to chant every week. One such was, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.” I have since quoted many of these to my children, but with what effect I shall never know.
I never saw Mr Goodwin smile. Miss Goodwin dressed in Victorian style which had gone out of fashion by then and we were astonished to see her in long full skirts and bustles and high necked bodies with “leg of mutton” sleeves.
There is another thing Mr Goodwin taught us. I do not know if it was part of the syllabus then. I have never heard of its being taught in primary schools before or since, and I have had experience in schools in Tasmania, N.S.W., and in various parts of England. He taught us the basic Latin roots of our English language, and never having learned a foreign language in my youth that knowledge has always helped me in understanding some aspects of English.
In 1915, at the age of 14, I became a monitor there and it was Mr Goodwin's duty to coach me after school hours to prepare me for entrance to the Teacher Training College. I never did anything but a few exercises in Arithmetic. My salary was 5/- (50 cents) per week. I spent my days in hearing tables, reading, and poetry in the porch. I left there in 1916 and stayed at home helping my mother with twin babies.
Then, in 1917, Mr Percy Hughes at the big school offered me an opening again as monitor in his school and there my real education began. I studied under his supervision and duly qualified for entrance into the Teacher Training College in Hobart. I adored him. Later he became Director of Education and when he and Mrs Hughes came to England in about 1950 they visited us.
My sister, Mrs Edith Ellison, will be able to give you details of the teachers who followed. She is several years younger and has a very good memory. Address: 247 Davey St., Hobart.
In 1925 or 1926, I was transferred from the school at Strahan, under Mr G D McPhail, to South Queenstown, and then followed the most hard working, most interesting, and the most rewarding period of my teaching life.
After fifty years I still remember the children and most of their names. What became of Jean Plummer who had a wonderful musical gift? And little Roy (I think) Hannigan who was a born
artist and poet?
Young Joyce Tabart, cousin of Phoebe who later was in charge there, was my Junior Teacher and reigned in the infants' room. She was a darling girl.
I had a very active Parents Association which provided me with every possible aid and material I wanted.
This school had quite a number of pairs of twins. There were the Hill sisters, and Ronnie and Donnie Triffett. And in my time, in the one room, I had Jean and Joan Barwick, my sisters Jean and Jess Lello, Roy and Lallie Hanigan, and a single one Don (I think) Oxley.
At your request for a photograph, I am sending you a group photo of my Strahan Rounders Team. There must be many of these girls now grandmothers who still will be on the West Coast. The enlargement is taken from that group and many may remember me better known as Nell Lello than as Eleanora.
If it is of any interest, I also had twins, girls, who won scholarships to Cambridge and Oxford. My only son also went to Cambridge, and the other two girls went to Manchester and London
Universities. And I think that this all started at the South Queenstown Primary School.
Yes, I would like the photos to be returned please.
Wishing you every success in the forthcoming project. I wonder if I shall still be here in 1983!
Yours very sincerely,
Eleanora (Nell) Daniel
P.S. I seem to recall that Keith McPhail became a teacher. His father and Mrs McPhail, to our great delight, also visited our family here in England.