Being A Local Teacher

Being a local teacher in South Norwood and meeting the students when they have grown up. Features the Albert Pub.

In this audio you can hear Penny. 

The audio is 1 minute and 36 seconds long. 

Audio Transcript:

Penny

There were some very naughty children in the school when I was a teacher, but they’ve all grown up nicely now. They…my first year there, I had a Year 2 class and there were six naughty boys, and I could never decide whether they should just all be on a table together disrupting each other, or one at each table [laughs] and my…the…we had spelling cards and the…you know…a standout moment was when one of these naughty boys came to me and said “Miss! Miss! Miss! He has written on the ‘S’ card. He’s written a rude word on the card!” and I said, “What was the rude word?” Well it was a rude word, and it did begin with ‘s’ so I said “Yay! He wrote it on the right card!” [laughs]  

[pause]

The Albert pub, that is in Albert Road, you know, we sometimes went there as teachers for lunch or whatever. And over the years, you know, just drop in there after a meeting at the church or whatever and…A few years ago, a man came up to me in the pub and turned out to be a little boy who had been very troubled, and very naughty. And he…but he was now a grown man, and he tapped me on the shoulder and he said “Hello, Miss, I’ve just come to say I’m really sorry for all the trouble I caused.” which was so lovely!

South Norwood High Street Stories is funded by Historic England’s High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme delivered by Croydon Council. For more information visit www.croydon.gov.uk/southnorwood

Image credit: Croydon Council