A full circle

Although the reintroduction of male students to Kilvington begins an exciting new phase of the School’s future, it is a little-known fact that boys have also been taught at Kilvington in the past. The School was established in 1923 with 13 girls and two boys, and the number of both male and female students enrolled quickly grew. Boys were taught alongside girls in Kilvington’s Junior School for many years.

Caroline Barrett, the School's founder, recalled:

‘Many young boys who afterwards fought in the Second World War spent their first years of School life with us. Leslie Hancock, Roderick Bowen Jones, Donald McClelland, Peter Fethers, Dermot Wade, Phillip and Cedric Permezel, George Strugnell, Ted Barber and Noel Barrett all, when they grew up, fought for their country. Leslie Hancock joined the Permanent Army (he had always wanted to be a soldier, his Mother said), and when war broke out he went but did not return. Noel Barrett, my dear grandson, became navigator of a Lancaster bomber which was missing over East Prussia and was never traced. As far as I know he and Leslie Hancock were the only two of those boys who did not come back. They all did their duty...’

Experience often teaches us valuable lessons. The inclusion of boys at Kilvington enriched the School’s educational environment in the early days. Now that we have come full circle, they will have the opportunity to do so again.