The School Photograph

Every parent and grandparent is familiar with the annual school photograph and I guess that many readers have a collection of their old school photos as well as some of their children or grandchildren. The tradition of the school photo dates back to the mid-19th century and consequently these photos are an important part of local history. The Forncett Archive, established by John Webster, contains a number of these photos, many of which came from the collection of Daphne Coleman (1931-2022) who worked at Forncett St. Peter school for 18 years. 

This photograph shows the children of St. Peter's school in 1914. Average attendance at that time was listed as 47 children of whom 43 were present for the photo. The school headmistress was Miss Rosa Woods (and she appears to have two assistant teachers). Rosa was born in Mettingham, near Bungay, Suffolk in 1872. She and her sister and brother all became teachers in Bungay and Rosa moved to Forncett from Bungay in around 1895. Rosa held the post of headmistress here until at least 1922.

St. Peter's school had been built in 1848, before which time Forncett children went to Forncett St. Mary school (now our village hall). Originally St. Peter's school had a single classroom, together with the headmistress's house. The school was enlarged to provide a second classroom in 1894 (at a cost of £350!) and much of the original structure can still be seen today. In 1914, when the school photo was taken, both St. Peter's and St. Mary's schools were still operating but in 1919 St. Mary's school was closed and all pupils were transferred to St. Peter's.

St. Peter's school in around 1930

The school logbook for St. Peter's in 1914 sheds light on the lives of the school children and the problems that Rosa Woods had to deal with. On 5th January 1914 school opened after the Christmas holiday but on 13th January, one pupil, Martin Smith, was away with measles. By 19th January the school was closed until the 23rd by order of the local doctor, but when it reopened things didn't improve. Attendance was down to 40% and by 9th February the school was closed for another 3 weeks. Even when it reopened, in March, attendance was still very low and it took until 27th March for all the affected children to return to school. However, on 24th April another pupil, Ella Fox, was absent with whooping cough and this disease was still affecting pupils in November.

Extract from school logbook for 1914

These records are remarkably topical, given the recent calls for parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated against measles. It is a very infectious disease and its impact on children's health and education at St. Peter's school in 1914 was clearly very harmful. The first measles vaccine was licensed in 1963. Routine vaccination began in 1968 and the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine was introduced in 1971. However, coverage of at least 95% vaccination is needed to ensure herd immunity and recently in the UK it has dropped to below 90% and under 75% in certain parts of London.