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A LETTER FROM
MISS HILDA LONGWORTH


I asked Miss Longworth if she would be willing to write something for the Alumnae website and she kindly agreed.

So, stand up please girls; Headmistress entering the room!


_____

I was headmistress for sixteen years, the last eleven years of Lawnswood High School for Girls and the first five of the mixed comprehensive Lawnswood School.

When I came in 1960 the ‘bulge’ was just beginning and we became a 4-form entry school (5-form for one year) instead of the 3-form entry it had been. The other change was that we were no longer streamed; the form tutor groups were as similar as we could make them (from junior school records) and teaching was in sets across the whole year group. Some subjects setted on ability and some chose mixed ability teaching; girls had friends in other forms as well as their own and this was evident in the splendid re-union that was arranged in 1998 by the last entry that was wholly girls. When we introduced Russian as an optional second or third modern language it was available to the whole year group and it was a great help, when we were comprehensive, in providing varying groups especially for slow learners or Asian pupils needing to learn English.

There were many changes, all at the same time, in 1972, and very many joint staff meetings for two years before that. Not only were the junior forms and sixth forms mixed but our intake area was changed to the No. 1 bus route into the city centre and the school leaving age was raised but, also, we became a 13 - 18 year school. We were sad to lose our 11 and 12 year olds to Middle Schools but, even without them, the school now had 1,300 pupils.

_____


Miss Longworth was forty-six when she took over as Headmistress at Lawnswood High School in 1960. Initially, she was Headmistress of the girls' school but eventually became Head of the merged, co-ed, Lawnswood School. She left Lawnswood in 1976.

Sadly Miss Longworth died on the 7th December 2010. She was ninety-seven and had been living in a nursing home at Burley-in-Wharfedale

If you have any special memories of Miss Longworth, please share them with us by contacting lhs.alumnae@gmail.com

(P.S. A pupil of the time tells me that streaming ceased in 1962. SM.)


“A few years ago myself and 3 other girls organized a reunion for the girls of the year starting 1969 we also invited a number of teachers including Miss Longworth. On the night she said to us, ‘Yes it's me; I expect you all thought I was dead!’ She looked very glamorous in a velvet trousers and tunic.” Elizabeth Scales ’69-’76

“With all due respect to Ms. Longworth she looks quite a glamorous old stick.” Polly Peller ’59-’66

“I started at Lawnswood in 1970 as a Trainee Laboratory technician. As a 16 year old boy in a school dominated with all girls and all but two Male members of staff, it was a bit awe inspiring to say the least! Miss Longworth always showed me absolute kindness in what was a very scary place.

… “My humorous experiences are too many to mention but one particular one stands out above all others. Miss Longworth assumed because I was a Male, my electrical ability would be second to none. This said, she asked if I would wire her electrical sign which was located just outside her door. The three instructions on the sign displayed COME IN / WAIT / ENGAGED. Unfortunately as I have already alluded, my electrical ability didn't match my confidence and when I came to try out the new sign I had literally got my wires crossed! When the great lady pressed her desk button to inform someone to WAIT the display outside showed COME IN. Luckily she saw the funny side to it and I am still at Lawnswood some 35 years later.” Graham Baxter (Lab Technician 1970- present {2006})