November 2007

Elfrida Vipont Foulds

Susan Vipont Hartshorne has written the history of Yealand Manor School of which her aunt Elfrida Vipont Foulds was the head. She is now embarking on the biography of her aunt.

Many older OS will remember Elfrida and her visits to school well, and could have anecdotes or information about her. If so, please contact Susan. And if you are interested in the history of this Quaker school for young children during the Second World War, it is available from Susan, price £8.50, plus £1.50 postage

November 2007

News of Old Scholars
sent in during previous years

Isabel Smales (left 2003) writes:

In July I go to Canada for about two months, on a geography/biology field trip to study Orca whales up on Quadra Island. A really gorgeous part of the world, about halfway up Vancouver Island. I am also going on a Canadian choir trip, and visiting Victoria, Vancouver and lots of other places. In September I am now going to Oxford Brookes to study philosophy, theology and singing. I will then re-apply for music college as a postgraduate. This ‘term’ has been one of great excitement with the climax being my win at the Harrogate Festival and my first piece of silverware, a gorgeous cup. I have also been working very hard preparing for a concert in May, preparing a short recital for the Alzheimer’s Society Remembrance Service in the Mnster at the beginning of July, and preparing to do my Performance Diploma. Yet another two exams! I thought once I’d left school I would have at least one year free of exams, but I will have done a further four more types of exam by the end of the year. However, they have proved to be much more relaxing that school exams!

Naomi Sheldon (left 2003) writes from Thailand:

I have been living with the Thai and Karen people now for just under four months. My experiences here have uprooted my initial prejudices and I have formed new opinions. I wanted to wait until this time to tell you of life out here so I could provide a rich and honest account.

Over the first month of living in my village in the mountains 'Ban Sanjao' most of my time was occupied with adjusting to this very different way of life. Although 'primitive' in that it has farm animals and water buffalo roaming wild around the village and the houses are made of bamboo and leaves, Ban Sanjao has a couple of televisions dotted around and is often over run by well used motorbikes.

The Karen people are immensely kind and generous to us despite our huge communication difficulties. I don't think I'll ever become skilled in the Karen language! The village feels like one huge family and in a way it really is. Sanjao is made up of around twenty households but everybody lives in and out of each other’s houses, looks after each other's children and shares practically everything. It is truly a collective society with territory and possessions being of little importance.

Evenings are often spent huddled around a little fire outside or inside somebody's house watching Karen music videos or Jackie Chan films! This is still a wonderful social event as most of the village gather under one roof in order for the men to drink rice whisky, the boys to play guitar and the children to cuddle under blankets. To be accepted and feel part of this kind of gathering, when words seem unimportant, makes me feel deeply touched and privileged to be here. I am at these times often filled with a warm feeling by finding myself accepted into a Karen family.

The diet is something else to get used to. We eat rice three times a day every day, accompanied by pumpkin and sometimes fish but after three months you become grateful for the fact food is plentiful if not varied. We do have the option of joining our Karen mother in eating some roasted rat (her favorite) but tend to gently decline the offer.

I think part of the reason that Sanjao has such a close community is because these families have been living here for generations with children staying in their family home. Although I haven't seen any real family disputes or arguments, that are so common in England, a gap is definitely forming between the generations. The Karen children are becoming increasingly Thai and can speak both languages fluently whilst their parents are often limited to Karen. Several of the older teenagers now live and work in Bangkok for months at a time in order to earn money for the family. They come home with new experiences, modern clothes and a wish to live outside the sheltered village. Times are changing and I wonder if in ten years time some of the families in Sanjao will have moved away and the village will have shrunk. Such is change with the benefits of progress yet regrettable loss of tradition.

The secondary school at which I work three days of the week is large with nine hundred students. Although it can afford a sound laboratory and money to kit the students out with a varying uniform throughout the week, there is no disabled access whatsoever. The whole building is designed on steps and staircases. There is one severely disabled boy I teach who is around fifteen years old and who literally has to drag himself across the ground to travel. Everyday he pulls himself up the flights of stairs and is then carried down again later on by his fellow students. At first I was appalled and thought how degrading it must feel to have to pull yourself along the ground with your hands especially in a country where feet which touch the dirty floor are seen to be so offensive. Then, after speaking to him, I discovered that he had in fact refused the government provided wheelchair he had been offered in favour of his present way of getting around. He said he felt that without a wheelchair he would have more independence. The other students' helping him to get around so willingly actually shows genuine friendship and a commitment to each other.

Many of my lesson plans have been based on all I can remember from my past French lessons. In fact I sometimes wonder how the other volunteers who haven't studied a foreign language have any confidence teaching English out here -I've used my past experiences that often! I've also realized how fantastic my teachers were (as I'm sure all students discover once they have a go at it themselves). Teachers must have such patience and dedication to do their job well. I have fun teaching my students but I have doubts about my natural abilities, especially where my spelling is concerned!

What I find particularly hard is teaching the oldest class and finding some students can't answer 'how are you?' without difficulty. This kind of variation in ability has come about by the fact that each year the students are put in sets based on their overall achievement rather than set in specific subjects. Therefore you get students who are fantastic at mathematics and science and not able to speak a word of the English language although they are in the top set and vice versa.

If you do not pass certain end-of-year tests you are kept on a year behind. This means I am teaching a few twenty-year-olds in my fourth year class! My own age also causes difficulties. I feel I cannot pressure an older student to answer my questions in class as I can a fourteen-year-old. It seems so strange to be teaching 'my daily routine' to students older than me. It was even stranger when they found out my age!

Interestingly, it is the Karen students who fill the majority of the lower sets. The Hmong tribe and Thai students take the limited university places in the top sets. The Karen students just seem to be genuinely unperturbed by the big race to university and do not feel the pressures of schoolwork. The Hmong and Thai students however have the more Western anxieties of the need to be academically successful, although these goals are seemingly limited to becoming a doctor, nurse or a member of the police force. Karen students prefer to dream of becoming football stars or to carry on the family farming tradition

Khun Yuam secondary school is relatively wealthy compared to the tiny primary school I sometimes teach at just outside my village. The ages range from four to fourteen and as far as resources are concerned they have next to nothing. During tourist season, all the children drop their studies in order to build shops to sell food to occasional tourists and spend all their time lugging around machetes and chopped bamboo.

Karen people 'are the happiest, most contented people I have ever met. Western culture may destroy this way of life. Nevertheless every person deserves the right to an education which introduces the students into different ways of thinking and shows them different ways of life. To deny them that would be to make them truly deprived. Which is why I am so glad to be here to open both my eyes and theirs. Still, I ask myself, is there is any way for them to experience a different culture and retain the less corrupted non-commercial values of theirs? Perhaps when I return to such villages in the future I will be able to see for myself.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my generous sponsors for making this incredible experience possible. I would also like to give a warm thank you to The Mount School for their consistent support throughout my higher education and their encouragement with my work here, allowing me to explore life from anew and refreshing angle.

In Memoriam - HAZEL STEPHEN

23.07.39- 29.01.02

With Hazel's death there passes a multi-skilled polymath and teacher, a loyal and loving friend and a champion of the under-privileged. She died of lung cancer after a long and courageously fought battle. She wanted no fancy funeral -just a simple cremation, followed by a glass of wine, as she always enjoyed a good party.

Hazel was born the third daughter of the GP in remote Drummore near the tip of Galloway. Her ashes are now scattered on the beach on which she played so happily as a child. At the age of eight she went to boarding school in Moffat and at eleven followed her elder sisters Muriel and Irene to The Mount. Her personal religion remained founded on the Quaker principle of quiet reflection, and she always acknowledged the strong influences and benefits of her schooling. Quite a shy girl, she was very strong academically.

Hazel went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, influenced by her father, and by the early accidental death of her much-loved sister, Irene, who was then studying medicine. Having demonstrated her skills and ability she switched to Medical Social Work -an early sign of a lifelong restlessness and ability to change direction, but only having succeeded first. Casework in the slums of Glasgow and in London imbued her with deep sympathy for the less advantaged. In the early sixties she met and married Dudley Davidson, a South African doctor for whom life under apartheid was intolerable. The Aldermaston marches and anti-apartheid protests were among the outlets for her energy at this time in her life. She and Dudley had three daughters (Emma, Victoria and Harriet) and a son (Hamish), and during this period of motherhood and home-building Hazel managed to pursue her love of Art and Literature as an early student of the Open University, gaining a degree in the History of Art.

Sadly, Hazel's marriage failed, but she found lasting happiness with Paul Garner for the last 22 years of her life. This was severely tested early on by the tragic death of her eldest daughter, Emma, which affected her deeply. Living in Wimbledon, Hazel and Paul restored a lovely cottage and garden in Hampshire, where Hazel put great effort into support of the local Cheshire Home for the disabled. They moved to France, where she continued her work as tutor and counsellor for the Open University. This she fitted in with dressmaking, concrete mixing, plastering, plumbing, decorating, gardening, cooking, antique-dealing and all the other things someone who can do anything, and has boundless energy, does in a normal day. Between restoring their lovely house near Cahors (known as Chez Noisette, as "Hazel" proved too difficult for the French), Paul and Hazel opened a very successful antique shop in the village of Catus. The next enthusiasm was a restaurant in the shop, which soon became the focal point of the village. From the upstairs windows music (mostly French songs) entertained the entire population at the Tuesday market. The restaurant proved Hazel's brilliance as a chef, and the "theme" evenings, with live entertainment, were fully booked within days of being announced -and mostly by the French, who recognised inspired cuisine and took Hazel to their hearts.

With Hazel’s illness the restaurant became too strenuous and they sold up. That did not mean settling for peace and tranquillity, for her restless spirit remained undimmed to the end. Retaining their property in France, she and Paul bought a house in South Africa, where her daughters Victoria and Harriet now live, each with a South African husband. Yet another house was restored (and another swimming pool installed) and Paul and Hazel became actively involved in helping the people of the nearby Township, a venture which Paul successfully continues m her memory. In Cape Town Hazel found fina1 fu1filment in the role of loving Grandmother, at which, once again, she excelled.

Hazel was a tremendously gifted person. She was warm and loving, though quite shy and undemonstrative. With a kind and hugely generous heart, she nurtured and sustained a wide circle of friends, whom she loved to entertain -wining, dining and dancing being not the least of her skills and priorities. She is greatly missed by Paul, her family (including five grandchildren), her sister Muriel, her friends, and by all those whom she helped unostentatiously, but with great skill and dedication, at each of the many phases of her life.

In Memoriam: Dilys (Thurgar) Dawson

Maggie Stalker writes:

Dilys and Jill

I suppose we go back to our first impressions of Dilys and Jill. I was a late arrival into Form 3X. The twins had been at the Mount for more than a year by then. 3X was an odd classroom down under the dining room. It was January 1954 when I arrived. There were only about 5 new girls in the school that term. KLCS took us for elocution. We stood at the end of the classroom and we were meant to project our voices to the far end of the garden saying over and over, "Why did you wake baby, wake baby, wake baby?" It was all so solemn, but one didn't laugh at the headmistress. I remember realising that I was the only one giggling. After some days I asked someone if Dilys and Jill were twins. They had their own friends so were rarely side by side. They were always smiling and happy. Jill and I became good friends and often stayed at each other’s homes during holidays. I met Hilary, their older sister, who was at university then. Jill used to say we are Hil, Dil and Jill. They were daughters of 2 doctors. Mr Thurgar was a cancer surgeon in Newcastle and his wife worked at children's clinics. It is ironic that both twins developed cancer as did their father. Jill died far too young in her 40's of breast cancer. She was married to Norman Johnsen and had 2 children, Edward and Penny. This year Dilys died from ovarian cancer. Dilys was married for many years to Colin Dawson, and they have a son, Christopher. Hilary had a number of medical problems and has also died.

At school we were in a friendly form and many are still in touch. I am indebted to Jill for passing my O levels. It was the summer term in 1957. I couldn't believe it when Jill said, "Right Maggie, we are going to do revision in every spare minute". It was the first day of term and we went up to the library in the evening with our books. It was worth it. We revised and questioned each other then revised again.

Dilys had a boyfriend from Bootham that term. There is a nice story that Jill told about catching the train home to Newcastle. She was on the platform when the boy (who shall remain nameless!) rushed up and kissed Jill fervently. Rather than embarrass him by telling him his mistake, Jill said, I just kissed him back!

A group of us went from the Mount to do a domestic science course at Athol Crescent in Edinburgh. We had great fun and some good laughs. Dilys and Jill went on to become nurses in Newcastle and I did the same in Belfast. Jill came to our wedding in 1961. We wrote to each other frequently and were in touch for years until her death. Dilys nursed her sister when she was dying. Dilys used to say that she felt cheated out of Jill's companionship. There are many who feel that for both of them. It as just last Christmas when I wrote to Dilys and Colin, that we learnt about the ovarian cancer. Poor Dilys had been checked for breast cancer as her sister had it and given the all clear on that.

William Sweeting (a proud cousin of Zoë Sweeting) has set us details of this picture.

Zoë  in action !

Old Mounty Zoë Sweeting who attended the Mouunt as a boarder in the '90s and left in 1997 very recently acted as Lady in Waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent for her three day visit to Howden in east Yorkshire.

A Most interesting Press Release from the
 University Women’s Club
 

Below are a selection of pictures and news sent in to the Website. If you have any of interest please send them in.  Maybe some photographs taken when you were at the Mount !!
 
Please let Joy Saunders have any items you would like to see included