Friends from that pool visit still meeting up

IT was a surprise and a delight to see a photo of pupils from Alderman Newton’s Girls’ School taken at Kenwood outdoor swimming pool in Saturday’s Mercury (and above right).

I have an original of this photo, being one of the girls on there. (Kneeling at the front, I was Carole |Hunt in those days – now Law).

However, I think the year was 1958 and we were all in Form IVB.

Our form teacher and French mistress was Miss Baker, who is just cut off on the bottom right hand side of the photo.

Miss Baker had taken the whole form to Kenwood as a thank you for either finding her lost dog or for getting her a puppy to replace her old dog which had died – I forget which.

Luckily, it was a lovely sunny afternoon. The two “unknowns” in the picture are Sandra Taylor (left side front) and Joan Walkerdine (between Jacqueline Mould and Barbara Ralphs).

A friend and I have over the years managed to trace at least 65 per cent of the girls in our year (there were two forms in each year) and are in contact with quite a number of them.

Unfortunately, some are no longer with us but six or eight of us regularly meet for lunch once a month.

As most of us turn 80 next year we are hoping to arrange a reunion of some sort but the date and venue have yet to be decided.

The Old Newtonians Association, of which I am president, is still going and I would love to hear from anyone who would like more details or go on our mailing list for our twiceyearly newsletter.

The boys’ school (the Greencoat school as it was then called) was founded in 1784 and the girls’ school in 1920.

The celebration of the centenary of the girls’ school, planned for June 2020, had to be cancelled due to Covid.

It’s a great shame that school originally in St Martin’s, close to the cathedral and later on at Glenfield Road, no longer bears the name of Alderman Newton, its founder.

Carole Law, Leicester