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Extract from the Lytham St.Anne’s Express,
August1930.
Private Schools - Fostering the Individual
Child.
The opening of Queen Mary School in September will be an event of
considerable importance to local education. It will increase the
facilities for public education, the effect of which may be felt,
for a time, by the private schools. But this effect, we believe,
will be of a temporary character only. The borough is growing, and
in the nature of things pupils will increase in number for all
schools, demanding more educational facilities.
The private schools, which have maintained their high tone and
excellence for half a century in Lytham St.Annes, will continue to
prosper. Before ever golf had brought fame to this district the
private schools were renowned throughout the kingdom. Their chief
characteristics were the numerous successes in public examinations
and the supreme healthiness of residence on the coast-the dustless
breezes of the Irish Sea. As the borough develops these features of
the private school will be maintained.
There is room for public schools and private schools. Then, again,
the schools of Lytham Charities are not boarding establishments,
although several unsuccessful attempts have been made to introduce a
limited number of boarders into King Edward VIl. School. To open
these public schools to boarders would be a misapplication of the
funds of a public charity which was founded for the education of
“poor " children. Notwithstanding the great increase in elementary
and secondary school facilities in Blackpool the private enterprise
schools maintain their high character. All the children of our
borough could not be educated in the existing public schools, and
the healthiness of our coast will, as it has done for five decades,
continue to attract children from many parts of the country.
Queen Mary School opened in 1930
A Broadminded View.
The principal of Saxonholme School - Mrs. Thornley, B.A. - views
this matter with broad-minded common-sense. Speaking on prize day
Miss Thornley said:
'' Private schools in St. Annes have now to face the competition of
our new rival, which opens in September. The way to face this is not
by belittling its work or its attractions. Such schools are sound. I
know, for I was a specialist in a similar school for some years.
They have what one might describe as a certain 'momentum,' which
comes from size and money, and in their own sphere they perform a
useful service to the community.”
"But the work of the private schools, while being equally efficient,
goes further. It is from the nature, of our respective
organisations, accomplished with less rigidity. Our numbers are
fewer, our timetables more elastic, and we can and do foster the
individual child and develop her to the uttermost of her powers. We
are able to study each individual pupil - her health, her
temperament, her weaknesses and her gifts - and give to her that
extra personal care and attention which are so very essential, but
impossible to give in a large school."
That admirable, reasonable and cheerful view will be appreciated and
endorsed by the principals of the private schools of the borough."
Never has there been more need for the private school, with its
personal influence, than to-day," said Miss Low, M.A., at the
St.Annes College prize day, and the Mayor, in appreciating the good
work of private schools, remarked that there would always be schools
of that kind. The long lists of successes in the public examinations
provide proof positive that such schools, with their “personal
influence," are fulfilling a great and creditable part in our
community. Long may they prosper!
Extract from the Lytham St.Anne’s Express,
August1930.
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Girls from Queen Mary School aboard the Queen Mary
at Clydebank, 1936.
Queen Mary School Speech Day at Lytham Palace
Cinema c1955.
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