| Description | An interview with Pamela WILLIAMS, a single woman with no children, who is a retired Teacher, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Pamela WILLIAMS’s father was a Rubber tyre technologist, born in Wales and her mother a office clerk/part-time needlework teacher born in England. In the interview, she discusses:
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I was born in Birmingham in June, 1935… parents lived in Erdington, close to Fort Dunlop where father worked. Mother had also worked there. 3 sisters. Parents had met playing hockey for Dunlop. Not well off but happy.
2.18 At outbreak of war, parents decided to evacuate all 4 children together privately to North Wales where father’s aunts had a rented boarding house.
3.46 Describes the situation as an evacuee. Parents corresponded with each other every day during war. Mother very unhappy.
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Story about two planes crashing into the sea. [phone rings]
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Continues story.
2.00 Aunts unused to having children around.
2.47 Mother wanted to live in her own home. Lengthy description of mountain accommodation.
4.21 Went to village school. Welsh speaking area.
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Explains the teaching system at school.
2.35 Large influx of evacuees from London.
3.55 Pamela’s class had to hide under the stairs of the headmaster’s house during air raids.
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Rumours of German pilots being ‘on the loose’ in the countryside. Noises turned out to be cows breathing heavily.
1.21 Returned to Birmingham aged 10 and prepared for the 11+ exam…
Failed the exam and was very disappointed by this.
3.45 We certainly had more sport in Birmingham schools and learnt to swim…at Erdington swimming baths….
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After failing the 11+, parents decided to send Pamela to a private school which was expensive. Uniform was hand me down, didn’t have tuck money.
2.21 Got 5 O’levels and then left school in 1951.
2.55 I wanted to be a policewoman on a horse, but they didn’t have policewomen on horses. I wasn’t interested at all in being a policewoman unless I could have the horse… Because I was good at art, the careers officer suggested…there was a job in the Jewellery Quarter. My mother was adamant that I would not go to the Jewellery Quarter because the working conditions were so poor and she feared for my eyesight….
3.50 Encouraged to go to teacher training college by a teacher at school. Exam results were not good enough. Went to work at L.H. Newton in the lab. Describes her role.
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Continued.
44” Both parents had worked in laboratories.
1.23 Obtained another o Level on day release from work. Applied to go to teacher training college.
1.50 I was a very keen church goer at that time as well. Our family had been brought up in the Congregational Chapel in Erdington…we carried on our singing….I wanted to be a missionary…
3.27 I was successful at getting a place at what was then called the City of Birmingham Training College in 1953 when I was 18. It was a 2 year course….It was a women-only college….I didn’t want to live in….they were in dormitories….
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Describes the location and environment of the college.
37” The fact that I’d failed the 11+ and not been to a grammar school weighed very heavily with me still and I was determined not to fail again…. I did art and craft, and geography as my main subjects…
2.41 Details the journey from home to college.
4.02 First teaching practice at Perry Common. Obtained Teaching Certificate in 1955 and began teaching in Birmingham.
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Always taught in Birmingham schools even when moving away to live in Lichfield.
26” Describes teaching at an infants school in Perry Common. Importance of art and craft teaching. Improvements in book design.
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48” Moved to Timberley School in Shard End after 5 years.
1.21 It was a very modern school, built by an incoming Labour government who had spent a lot of money on making this a beautiful building…. Describes the environment.
2.46 Moved to Aston after about 5 years. I wanted very much to work in inner city schools, so I moved to what was called Elmer Street in those days. Describes the environment.
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Moved to another school in Aston, before transferring to a school in Alum Rock in 1965.
1.27 While I was there, there was new building begun for the infants….we had open plan classrooms which we shared between 2 classes…2 classes meant 60 children….We were virtually forced to change our teaching style. I felt we had to use this space in a more flexible way….We talked about how we could make best use of each other…as real teams….
3.48 Throughout my teaching career from 1955 to 1994 when I retired, there have been such debates about early learning and there seemed to be great swings from children being able to choose….and then swinging back to formal class-based education…..I got very frustrated being plunged into such changes, throwing out good things…
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When the teaching profession was moving towards an all-graduate profession I decided I should do some more study….. Studied O’ level biology and A’ level sociology.
3.11 Made enquiries about doing a degree. Describes course content of Open University degree.
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Continued.
1.54 Completed O.U degree in 1979.
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First home was in Lichfield in a maisonette. Moved to Sutton Coldfield in 1972.
58” Became deputy head at Alston Infants’ School.
Gives more details of father’s occupation.
2.51 Pamela moved away from home at 27. Father died in 1972. Mother remained in a large Victorian house alone.
4.28 Describes Diploma in Reading Development.
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Became a member of the United Kingdom Reading Association. Anecdote about arranging a conference.
Gives details of courses taken.
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I’d always done a lot of art work with children….to move on from their early stick figures to get them to use colour, paint….
1.29 Changes in the head of the school. Explains how this can affect the school.
4.16 Helped set up a community room.
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Offered the community room to a youth worker who worked on the estate. Anecdote about setting up a steering committee.
2.12 Part of the job of this crime reduction project was to make sure the houses were safer, so there were locks available to older residents and people on benefits….and the fact that people felt safer made a huge difference to how people viewed each other on the estate….
3.15 Converted a staff room into a nursery.
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Completed Open University degree and studied for a Master’s degree in early learning. Dissertation focussed on In-Service Training for Teachers. Elaborates.
2.46 This was part of the multi-cultural support service, so equal opportunity issues were becoming more important to me personally….I became more aware of women’s issues…I’d been one of the women in my union who’d fought for equal pay….I now belong to a Quaker women’s group….I’m a bit uncomfortable when people tend to ghettoise themselves into rather narrow groups…..
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I know that many parents of Asian girls like them to be educated separately, but this can cause problems in the mixed schools, where they are heavily male and not so balanced for the girls in mixed education….I have contacts with Hodge Hill Girls’….I know that sciences are very strong in all-female schools.
1.31 I’d become a Quaker in 1988 and learnt about conflict resolution work in schools. There is still….The Quaker Peace Education Project….Gives details.
3.09 Bullying occurs in all walks of life.
3.53 History of Conflict Resolution work.
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Organised conflict resolution work with the infants staff at the school, as well as dinner supervisors in 1990.
1.26 Describes the work of Saltley Plus and why it was set up.
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Took early retirement in 1994.
56” Participated in Management Committee of National Quaker work. Travelled overseas.
1.32 Leisure time after retirement. Anecdote about an art course at MAC.
3.13 Enjoys visiting art galleries. Has become a Friend of the Tate.
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Exhibitions at the Gas Hall.
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Discusses the Ikon Gallery.
1.11 Interest in industrial archaeology.
2.07 Visits as a child to the Midlands Institute.
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Participated in the writing of a manual for schools on conflict resolution work.
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Carer for her mother for over 20 years. Allocated a home help at first, then paid privately.
2.33 We also had more and more help from social services. So in the end it really was a team of people looking after her. In fact there were 4 visits a day and what we did was to have a little booklet so we could pass on messages and I kept those booklets because they’re quite a social history of care. And they became very important to the people who perhaps would not meet each other, but would communicate….Gives examples.
ENDS.
logged by Lorraine Blakemore. |