The log books for Dronfield Junior School reflect a remarkable history of the school and make fascinating reading...

1875 - October 27
10 boys caned for truancy - missing school to see the 'Wild Beast' show.
Mr Gledhill 'punished Lydia White for blotting her copy book' and punished H. White for stealing ribbons, velvet and a pearl buckle from a girl's hat. 'With her parents' permission locked her up in a school till 7pm.'
'Miss Jane Fretwell and her two sisters have left this school to attend Unstone Board School because they find slates and writing books which are not provided here.'

1876 - March 3
Miss Gospill of Birmingham was appointed headmistress at a salary of £50 p.a. and the Infant School opened on March 13th with 121 children present.

1877 - August 5
Disease was very common and kept a lot of children off school. On the advice of Dr. Makintosh the schools were closed for a month because of scarlet fever, measles and chicken pox.

1879 - January 4
Times were hard - Mr Gledhill writes that 'several children left owing to their parents moving from Dronfield to find work' and that C Raynes left because her mother cannot pay 5d (2p) per week for her.

1880 - January 26
K. Tomlinson and M. Greenwood have this week lost a shawl and the other a jacket. Every enquiry has been made each day and a reward offered for the finding of the lost garments. It seems most likely that they have been stolen from the Porch by some tramps passing by the schools.

1880 - March 1
Owing to the funeral of two men (who were burnt to death when they fell into the molten metal at the steel works) the attendance was reduced by nearly one half.

1880 - October 25
Attendance very low this week. It was much affected by the very wet weather and the floods in the lower part of the town, which prevented the children coming from those neighbourhoods. Whooping cough very prevalent. The school room very cold on Friday, the thermometer only at 50 degrees at half past one.

1883 - March 3
A Ball was held in the school hall to mark the closure of Wilson Cammell's steel works, which transferred to Workington. This had a devastating effect on Dronfield and the school. The number of children at school fell by 25%, and over 300 houses were empty and available for sale at £7 to £9 each.

1884 - November 7
Mr Gledhill writes 'I have great difficulty in obtaining school pence, work being very scarce just now.'

1885 - May 1
School Board resolved that 'headteachers be instructed not to admit any children without prepayment of the school pence and in case of their neglect to obtain prepayment they must take the consequences of their neglect.'

1887 - April 25
The cattle fair on Monday affected the attendance.

1887 - July 4 – 8
Only a poor school as many boys are helping in the hay field.

1887 - September 19 – 23
Many boys absent gathering blackberries and mushrooms.

1888 - May 9
In the afternoon the Babies received their first lesson in Needle Drill

1888 - August 15
Infants gave the children their first lesson in Music Drill, but as there is no musical instrument whatever in the school, the tunes have to be hummed by the children.

1890 - May 19 - Infants
Received a piano from London.

1894 March - Girls
'For the last 3 weeks or so, words unfit for children's eyes have been written on various parts of the building.... All Wednesday afternoon and Thursday the children were kept under cross examination, each member of the staff doing her best to solve the mystery. A shilling was offered for the 'informer' and the offender was promised no punishment if she would confess.'
On Thursday a clue was found which led to the discovery of one of the offenders. She is being punished by being kept apart from the class. She was not caned as Miss Outram explained that "her home influence is such as to cause no surprise when such words are used by her."

1893 - February 28
Told all girls from Buckingham Terrace to discontinue attendance because of small pox.

1893 - September 4
The miners' strike causes many boys to be away picking coal.

1899 - December 8 - Girls
Took drill, stamping of feet, clapping of hands etc instead of scripture and the first lesson because of the cold. The turn of the century saw four incidents. The visit of Barnum and Bailey's Circus to Sheffield, a collection for the Transvaal War Fund, a holiday for the relief of Ladysmith, the relief of Mafeking and the funeral of Queen Victoria were all recorded in the Log Book.

1903 - October 12 - 16 - Boys
Several boys absent to attend Buffalo Bill show at Sheffield.

1904 - January 7
HMI Report. The average attendance of the Boys', Girls' and Infants Department must not be allowed to exceed 245, 194 and 180 respectively ie the numbers for which the departments are recognised, or the grant next year may be endangered. Both the girls' and boys' school celebrated Empire Day in 1906. Mr Gledhill reported that 'the children had suitable instruction given on the Empire and on the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. National songs were sung, the Union Jack saluted and three cheers were given for the King and Empire', and the girls were asked to write an essay on 'What qualities were needed to make good colonists?'

1907 - February 9
The Rev J N Dryerre, by the permission of the School Committee, gave a lecture to the boys on the evils of cigarette smoking on Friday morning at 9.15am.

1909 - October 27
When the Inspectors came, they suggested, 'that the master would find a visit to a good modern school stimulating.'

1914 - November 5
Boys, children of the Belgian refugees, were admitted and in 1915; 88 eggs, several cakes, a quantity of fruit and vegetables were collected for the wounded soldiers in Sheffield. A motor car claimed its first school victim when on April 13th Sidney Turner was killed in the road.

1916 - October 31 - Boys
Mr Gledhill retired as the school's only headteacher for 41 years. A half day holiday was taken and Mr Gledhill was presented with an 18ct gold watch. On November 1st, Arthur Lilley became the new Headteacher.

1917 - July 5 - Girls
This morning and the next 3 Thursdays the time table will be slightly deviated from, to allow 5 lessons in milking to be given to 20 girls by Mr Charles Albert Butler.

1917 - September 8 - Boys
A very successful vegetable show was held

1918 - July 19 - Boys
Attendance still falling due to influenza 59%

1918 - September 12 - Girls
To help with the County Blackberry Scheme in the afternoon 60 girls and 3 teachers gathered 25 lb of blackberries.

1918
The end of the Great War saw great rejoicing and at the request of the Officers and Non Commissioned Officers and men of 46th Midland Division a holiday was given to honour their recent achievements storming St. Quentin Canal, capturing 4,000 prisoners and 70 guns and 4 days later breaking the Beaurevoir Fonsomme line and taking 2,000 prisoners.

1920 - October
Miss Outram writes to the Board to ask for an assistant: 'Now that the English women have the franchise (the vote) and are citizens of the greatest Empire on earth, it is necessary that the Girls' education should be as good.... as that of their brothers, and I am firmly convinced that the educational difficulties of the Girls' Department clearly pointed out for them to remedy the difficulty.'
Reply form Clerk to the Board: 'I have a letter from the Director of Education informing me that his Committee do not feel able to sanction the application for an additional teacher for your Department.'
(NB: The school managers were in favour of an additional teacher.)

1921
The new regulation, which raised the school leaving age to 14, became law. The period 1920 - 22 was very difficult for the Girls' school, one member of staff was frequently absent with a nervous breakdown and another with heart attacks.

1922 - July 27
Miss Outram retired after 30 years as Headteacher - Miss Lydia Village was appointed as the new Headteacher.

1923 - May 4
The half term holiday was spent on the crowning of the May Queen, Mary Thorpe, elected by the Senior girls.

1924 - November
A surveyor from the County Architects' Office came to survey the site for the new school (what is now the Infants School).

1925 - September 14
The 50th anniversary of the school was celebrated by the opening of the circulating library of 150 books costing £15, the singing of the school song, a short impromptu concert and the eating of a birthday cake.

1926 - October 27 - Girls and Infants
The General Strike affected many people - the following number of free meals have been provided during the last 6 months
Breakfasts - 5,498
Dinners - 6,331
Total - 11,829
37 new pairs of boots were distributed to needy children and in 1928, a Christmas party was given to children whose fathers are unemployed.

1926 - September 30 - Infants
The new Infants School was formally opened by the Lord Bishop of Southwell. 'These buildings are capable of letting in all the fresh air God has given them.'
A unique heating apparatus of low pressure hot water circulating under concrete polished blocks was provided. The school cost £12,000.

1933 - November 27 - Girls
Electric light installation completed and used for the first time.

1934 - February 22 - Boys
Mr Rex Barker presented a motor cycle engine to the school for demonstration purposes.

1934 - May 28
Milk supply commenced today.

1934 - Girls
In 1934 the girls, by the kindness of Mr Henson lending them an excellent wireless, were able to hear the broadcast of the launching of HMS Queen Mary. The following year the girls celebrated the 'Silver Jubilee' holiday in Cliffe Park by singing patriotic songs. Each child received a mug and medallion from Mrs Cecil and a Jubilee 6d from the local council. A Jubilee beacon blazed on Hill Top at 10pm. In celebration of the School Diamond Jubilee a wireless set was provided and the children were taken to Lea Road to cheer and wave their flags as the Duke of Kent passed on his way to visit the Occupational Centre at Dronfield.

1936 - November 13 - Boys
This afternoon at playtime Roy Barker Class VI swallowed a pin. The teacher gave him a bun to eat, after which I sent him home.

1937 - January 1
Mr Walters retired as headteacher - Mr Hewitson became the Boys' 4th Headmaster.

1937 - May
Mrs Cecil presented mugs and medallions to all the school children on the occasion of the coronation of King George V. The schools marched in procession to the Picture Palace where a presentation was made to Mrs Cecil. After singing songs and having an entertainment they returned to school for a tea party and each child was presented with a souvenir tin of chocolates.

1939
The children were prepared for the coming war, being issued with gas respirators and confidential instructions were received in case of war. On the outbreak of war in September the school was closed. Local teaching groups were arranged by which 1 and a half hours of instruction was supplied on each of 4 days per week. No group consisted of more than 12 children and each child could reach home within 3 minutes. Most of these centres were private houses although Hill Top Mission (Hill Top Road) and Wesleyan Chapel, Snape Hill were also used. The attendance of the children was voluntary. By November 21 the local teaching groups were disbanded and school commenced on the shift system. By January 1940 school was re-opened for all, with full time instruction. The girls were busy knitting and 15 scarves, 20 pairs of socks, a pair of gloves and 40 pairs of mittens were sent to local men serving in the forces. The Germans having invaded Holland and Belgium caused the cancellation of the Whitsuntide holiday.

1940 - September 6
Two bombs fell on Dronfield at 2am and the attendance at school was reduced by 50%. Worse was to follow and Sheffield suffered an air raid from 7pm until 4am on December 15th. On the afternoon of 17th December, two hours were spent in the air raid shelters and the following day, the school was used as a reception centre for mothers and children evacuated from Sheffield. The children saved for victory and the grand total for Dronfield's Warship Week was £80,352, double the target aimed at.

1945 - May 8
VE Day. The school was closed for two days to celebrate. In June each child was presented with His Majesty's Address to celebrate and tickets were distributed for the Victory Day tea on June 8th.

1955
Dronfield's population was beginning to expand. Re-organisation took place in July 1955 and after the summer break the Senior Boys and Senior Girls transferred to the new Gosforth school and the Junior Boys and Girls amalgamated to form a Junior Mixed School with 398 pupils on roll under the control of Miss Lydia Village who had already served for 32 years as Head of the Girls' School.

1956 - August 31
Miss Village retired and Mr Reginald Taylor, Headmaster of Unstone school took up his appointment. A television set was presented to Miss Village.

1958 - March
Mr Winsor was struck by the goal cross bar when marking out the field and suffered concussion.

1958 - June
A small girl had occasion to be interviewed by Mr Taylor for stealing flowers from the graves in the cemetery and bringing them as a present for the teacher.
Dronfield was expanding and needed more schools to cope with the extra children. In May 1963, Mr H Holt was appointed Headmaster of Northfield School and in 1966 Mr Harry was appointed Headmaster of Stonelow School. On each occasion the school was afforded temporary relief, by the opening of these schools, but numbers continued to rise.

1964 - February 18
During the dinner hour I made presentations on behalf of the staff to Mr Outram, Mrs Bray and Mr Allen, who leave the staff today to take up appointments at the new Northfield Junior School next Monday. At 1.15pm I had all the children who are transferring in the hall and directed them to report to Northfield Junior School next Monday, February 24th, and gave them our best wishes in their new school.

1964 - September
Television lessons were introduced to the school.

1965 - June 1
57 children accompanied by Mr Winsor, Miss Smith and Miss Newbold left on a school journey to London.

1968 - September
Miss Shepherd joined the school as Deputy Headteacher.

1969 - July 23
20 children accompanied by Mr and Mrs Godhard left to spend a week at the Derbyshire Schools' Camp at Sutton on Sea.
In 1969 a telegram of congratulations was sent to Alan Ward, an old boy of the school, on his selection to play for England in their first test match against New Zealand at Leeds.

1968 - March 13
Mr Black, Miss Clifford and Mr Scrope visited to explore the provision of a kitchen, but decided that no site was suitable and a more viable proposition would be to build the kitchen for the Infants' Department.

Memories from past staff members

Mr John Anderson (Deputy Headteacher (1982-1988) and Headteacher (1992-2010)

Congratulations to everyone at Dronfield Junior School as you celebrate it’s 150th Anniversary this year. I was privileged to serve as it’s Deputy Headteacher from 1982 - 88 under Mr Henry and later as Headteacher for 18 years until my retirement in 2010.

I look back on my time at DJS with real fondness and with many happy memories, as this was a time of major changes in education, with the introduction of the National Curriculum and the coming of computers in the classroom. My proudest moment was with the Outstanding Ofsted report in 2007 which celebrated and praised every aspect of school life, from the outstanding teaching and the high achievement of the pupils and also the ‘stunning range of enrichment opportunities’ afforded to all pupils. I have always believed that school life should combine hard work with fun - with discos, parties, sports and artistic events, after school clubs, musical productions and trips and visits.

I inherited Mr Henry’s passion for table tennis (the school won national team championships several times) and with the support of so many excellent sports coaches achieved success in many other sports. I particularly enjoyed our Sports Days at the EIS, where every child experienced a range of athletics events while the teams competed in their House colours - so very exciting! I also remember the annual sponsored Krypton Factor Challenges where children attempted a wide range of challenges, often helped by celebrated stars such as the boxer Bomber Graham, astronaut Helen Sharman and Kevin Burns who came to see the challenges in action.

I loved to organise trips and visits - from PGL and Kingswood activity holidays, to trips to Edinburgh, Wales and London to visit the Houses of Parliament and see the sights, always followed up by theatre visits in Sheffield, Manchester and the West End to see top shows like the Lion King, Wicked, Matilda, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Cats. The Y6 children particularly looked forward to the France trips, visiting Paris and experiencing the magic of Disneyland. When I meet ex pupils now it’s always these extra curricular activities that they loved and remembered.

Of course my greatest achievement as Head was in appointing so many excellent members of staff who worked so hard and gave me such wonderful support - how many others schools would have all their staff turning up on Friday nights without complaints to help run the regular discos? I also enjoyed the very active support of the school governors who played such an important role in   supporting the school, helping in lessons, going on trips and helping to run our regular Quiz Nights.

So many memories - I miss the school, the staff and especially the pupils. I have met so many of them since retirement and it is so wonderful to hear how well they have done in their careers and in life. I was very pleased to pass the school on to Martin Finch and subsequently Nicola Thomson, both of whom have taken the school forward and when I occasionally pop in to visit the school I am pleased to see it is still such a vibrant community at the heart of Dronfield.

Memories from past pupils

Pat Hutchinson ( née Greetham) (Early 50s - 1954)

I joined Dronfield Juniors from the Infants in the early 50's until 1954 when I went to Dronfield Henry Fanshawe.  I loved my time there. There were some wonderful teachers ... Mrs Oliver, Miss Cadman, Miss Bramall and Mrs Lockwood. The Head teacher was Miss Village, who was lovely.

The school then was all girls and we were divided from the boys by a high wall, into which my brother, Robin, crashed whilst coming down an icy slide! He split his head open!  Our playground was full of girls having fun, playing hopscotch, chase and skipping.

There were 50 girls in my class and we sat according to merit which depended on the results of Friday's spelling and mental arithmetic tests!!!  The teachers sat at a high desk at the front of the class. I remember in Mrs Lockwood’s class there was a lovely fire and we stood round the fire guard in a long, orderly queue waiting to have our books marked … gorgeous. 

It wasn’t just Maths and English although we were given a good grounding academically; we did Nature walks, maypole dancing; we did sewing, we were taught about astronomy and learned the stories of Greek myths and legends. We also put on plays and I remember Judy Britten as Toad in Toad of Toad Hall … hilarious. 

All in all I am so grateful to the wonderful education and experiences I received at Dronfield  Junior School.

         

 

Nick Dann (1974 - 1978)

  

In 1975 I was a mere 8 years old and recall the 1975 DJS Centenary Celebrations with great fondness. There was excitement in the school as we looked forward to a celebration day where we all dressed up as Victoria schoolchildren. I think I was in Mrs Soaper’s class and I took a special trip to my Grandads in Chesterfield to relieve him of a flat cap and some braces. On the big centenary day at school I remember doing exercises on the large playground with the rest of the school as they did in Victorian times. I think we received a celebratory gift but may be confusing it with the Queens Silver Jubilee in 1977 where we got a tea spoon and china mug. One Christmas party at DJS we had a funny hat competition (which I won) after me and Dad made a toilet cistern for a hat with the aptly titled “Dann Dann The Lavatory Man” emblazoned on it. I recall being taken into the staff room just off the main hall to show all the teachers. It made a change to go in there and not be in trouble!

I was at DJS from 1974 to 1978 (I think) and I have very fond memories of my time at both the infants and juniors. At DJS I particularly enjoyed my year with Mr Allen who had just started as a new teacher (and is still teaching I understand). We were in one of the wooden classrooms on the main playground. The school seemed massive at the time and I would love to come back and walk around wondering if it has that same old nice school smell. I moved out of Dronfield in 1989 but still maintain contact with a lot of old school friends and our 1983 Henry Fanshawe leaving year still have a reunion every five years.