Audrey Rann remembers starting school and how she was allowed to sit in the older class until she felt more confident: School in Hulverstone does have fond memories. I was not the world`s best scholar but I was good at writing, reading and spelling so I could get away with history and geography, but not maths. This didn`t make any sense to me at all, my brain would become scrambled. My favourite teachers were Barbara and Dora Hookey, sisters, from Brook.

Barbara taught the infants. Both were nice and patient. We had a fire at each end of the big classroom. I can`t remember any heating in the small classroom but think there must have been. Later, Barbara Hookey got married and Dora Hookey moved onto Ventnor Infants` School, where she was Headmistress. There was some sort of a problem, I don`t know what it was, but one day something had been said or done and my brother had been accused. One morning, my mother took me by the hand, took Auntie Rose`s walking stick, as she was with us on this particular morning, and we marched across the road and into school. Mother opened the door, went straight up to Miss Clarence, who was Head, and shook the stick at her, then we left just as abruptly. I never knew what it was all about. If that happened today, there would be a right to do! Miss Cole was strict and would shout at you, but I did like her. I never, ever, heard Barbara or Dora raise their voices. I don`t know how or where they received their teacher training, but it must have been on the