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| Mr W. Grant deputy head instructing the boys in the use of the Aldis Lamp, lamp signalling is practiced from the school to other boys under the castle walls about a quarter of a mile away |
| Before the last war the boys had their own schooner in which they cruised round the coast and across to the Continent. In 1925 during one of these exercises they were able to meet Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, and a reminder of that occasion is her portrait a gift which has a place of honour on the front porch. Everywhere in the school there are pictures and models of ships - a clipper which used to sail between England and Australia, a steam ship, an Arab dhow. Instead of the more unusual electric bell-push a ships bell marks the change of lesson periods; in the gymnasian among ropes, wall bars, vaulting horse is a cross beam which pictures a ships wheel, a compass spanner and hammer, sextant, cogwheel, while among lathes and benches in the workshop there are lifebuoys and a mast with rigging. On the library shelves sea books vie with reference books and adventure stories; the newspaper table has, of course its current Lloyd's Loading List and among the antique treasures are photographs of some of the first Sea Cadets, prints of old Scarborough, charts of the coast going back to 1829. Unfortunately a recent fire in the Library robbed the school of some of its literary treasures, but there were generous people who stepped into the breach and helped it with gifts and money so that a nucleus of new books could be acquired. Much of the boys' leisure time is spent in the library and in the adjoining chess room for, owing to lack of space there is little in the way of playing fields attached to the school. |
| Working with sextants beyond is the harbour and lighthouse |
| Almost in contradiction despite the schools leaning towards the sea, the curriculum is in many ways that of an ordinary secondary modern, for todays ship owners tend to require, as well as some seafaring knowledge a good all round education up to the Certificate of Secondary Education standard. Before long it is hoped however to introduce some examinations with a nautical basis. Unique as a local sea training centre the school is very popular and when the primary schools are circularised each year there are always many more applicants than can be accomodated. Yet there are neither the facilities for expansion, nor is it really desirable if that outstanding feature of the school, the personal approach is to be preserved, with numbers not exceeding 115 every boy can be himself and develop according to his bent in the most exacting of careers. From the headmaster downwards, everyone feels that he personally is responsible for the school's good name; it is a very real feeling. Old boys frequently return to visit the "old place" and only recently there was a visitor who had been a pupil fourty years ago. Even the domestic staff feel they "belong" - the last caretaker, a former pupil had been there (except for four years war service) 52 years. On his retirement his successor was within a matter of months, heard to remark on the "family atmosphere of the place" - a high recommendation indeed. |
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