People have been E-mailing me their Alderwood School Memories. I have been adding them to the website but they may have been a little difficult to find, so I have included a new link to this page where I shall put another copy of any interesting E-mails sent to me, with the latest mesages at the top. I have edited some of the messages just to include the schoool memory.

So get E-mailing, and I will include your messages here.

Date:	Sender	Memory
11th July 2004	Pamela Boorman (Nee Lee)	I can remember that the classes were different in the Infants as Carole Markham who is another great friend was in a different class to Pamela David and me when we were in the top year of the Infants. My mum used to be proud of the fact that as an Infants class we were the first class to get through the maypole dance with no mistakes. I can only recall the hours of practice for the great event and how nice it did look when it went right and the awful mess we got in when it didn't! I also remember having to perform the "Fly Away Peter, fly away Paul" verse, somewhere near Christmas but I can't remeber enjoying that. Trouble with this reminiscing I start losing track of answering e-mails. I just disappeared off to the performances of Sleeping Beauty in the Juniors ( I was the queen 'cos I had to say how dusty the palace was when I awoke) and The Pied Piper of Hamelin where I was narrator and had to sit crossed legged on the stage and jump up to stand and say my narration which included every "and" and "but" inbetween speeches. Also I've still got the costume my mum made for me to play Angel Gabriel at Christmas in the Nativity play. I still remember how bare the stage seemed after the curtains were taken down after the performances. It was quite a shock to find the stage had disappeared altogether when I went round on the celebration of 50 years day.
11 May 2004	Angela Akers	I was directed to this site by a friend of mine who happened to attend the same school a decade or two later than me.  I am so glad I did.  I remember going swimming with Mrs Bell and lining up for the foot inspection.  I can't remember what Mrs Bell looked like but I do remember her hooking pupils out of the pool and her blowing a whistle almost continuously.  I still have my certificate for swimming 25 yards although I never managed to swim successfully in my pyjamas so I never obtained a life-saving certificate. I remember Miss King, or Peg Leg as we called her then.  Did she have a wooden leg or was that an urban myth?  All the children were scared of her but more out of respect for authority than misplaced fear.  I certainly remember being sent out of class for being disruptive and praying that Miss King didn't choose that time to tour the corridors and share her thoughts with me about the importance of a good education. I remember school dinners (was there ever a time dessert wasn't covered in warm custard?) and warm milk being drunk through straws.  Swapping precious gems in the playground (glass beads and costume jewellery).  Collecting conkers and soaking them in vinegar.  Attempting to grow a hyacinth in the airing cupboard and failing miserably - I really should have watered it.  Trying out for the choir with my friend Karen Winter and telling her she sounded awful.  She did however got a place and I didn't so that was the end of my musical career.  I remember hanging around with Tony Sells and Ricky Andrews and thinking we were the bees knees.  All this before I even reached 10 years of age!  Happy memories.
2nd March 2004	Janet Bushby	wonderful happy memories of Alderwood and Avery Hill Firstly, so sorry to hear about Miss King , I only ever knew her by that name. Condolences to her family. My memories of Miss King are of 'fear!!'But a very healthy fear. I never wanted or ever did get sent to her as far as I can remember. Miss Duffin walking 'sideways' along a corridor checking her hair in the glass reflection !! Mr Pickering climbing over desks to get someone's hand with a ruler !!! Me being sick over Pam Rangecrofts hymn book in assembly - Still best friends after all these years We were at the reunion together - I came down from Blackpool hoping to see more people there from my class but unfortunately i think it was only pam and myself. But did meet lots of old friends so was well worth the visit. Swimming at the Hollies - I can still see the mist in there !! Early morning swimming at Eltham Park Lido what was that all about ????? I remember freezing and my mums egg sandwiches for breakfast. Did anyone else do that ?? I can't remember why. I think I must have been in some sort of gala or something. Later on my mum and 'Poppy' Crawford running a youth club at Alderwood and pretending it was all a bit 'naff' but loving it !!! Danny Lambert - my 'first love' 'cause he had a pianola in his house !! My dear friend Kenny Hutchings - leaving us so early in life. Janet, Kennys sister where are you now ?? So many kids all moved to a new strange place from inner london. We had so much going for us all on the estate, Saturday night dances in the school hall. My brothers group playing there. HAPPY DAYS !!!!!!!
20th Nov '03	Pete Ellis	I left Alderwood in 87 my lovely mug is in some of the photos I'm emailing over some memories I have of school My memories of school are that I wasn't the easist kid to teach , a lot of things going on . But if I could turn the clock back I would, I remember all the scrapes + happenings , playing football and leaving half my knees on the playground I remember Mr Rossi's ice cream van, skiding along the assembly hall floor, Mr James and Mr Arnolds attempt at uptown girl , going to Wrotham and finding fossiles (not the teachers), looking at the photos trying to see how we have turned out I know that Im a good person and have some very good and not so good memories
5th October '03	Terry Conquest	I joined the school in 1971 following a move from Forest Hill (Steven Hards and I both moved into Anstridge Road from Forest Hill within 6 months of each other). Left Alderwood in 1973 and went to Eltham Green. I was in Miss Patchel's class and I remember a number of pupils Including :- Melanie Twine who lived in or near Rennets Wood Road , Alison Bowring, Mandy Maze, her dad was a dentist I think, I once went to tea at her house in Sidcup Road, New Eltham. Many Truscott Lived in Lemonwell Drive off Bexley Road. Jamie Clary was my best friend, he Also lived in Anstridge Road as did Peter McGonigal, I remember Peter and Derek Vernon used to stick their ear up against one another's backside whenever they passed wind, then they would fall about the playground laughing. Raymond Hill and his elder brother Martin, Martin was always goading Ray in to fighting with me, though I don't think Ray was ever very happy doing it. Paul Scobble lived in one of the houses that overlooked the top of the Junior Playground. Little Colin Moore, I think He's a bus driver now. I remember the summer of 72, being allowed out on the grass to the front of the school for either reading or making up plays. We once did a play of Stig Of The Dump, one of my favourite books back then. I was always being told off for jumping on or off of the wall adjacent to the dinner hall in the playground, I finally learned why, I managed to scrape my shin down to the bone on the sharp texturing of the bricks that formed the copping. Pat Lynch was also a mate, he lived in the shop 'Lynches Stores' along Bexley Road Opposite the Off Licence. Good Old Mark Thorpe, He lived in Listead Court with his elderly parents, he was also a good mate, his trade mark was his Nation Health Glasses with a plaster on the corner!. I went on the French trip to Rouen In 1972, it was the first time I had ever been abroad, my mum and dad saved the £26 + £5 spending money for ages. We stayed in an old school (I went back to Rouen this year but could not find the school) and it was rumoured that they served us up horse meat (though I don't know if it's true). Breakfast was brilliant, a massive cup of coffee and croissants for the dipping of. Just to finish off, some things I remember :- Eating the chestnuts off of the trees to the front of the school, swimming at the Hollies, Sports day out on the grass in front of the school. Singing Cannon in assembly. Runnouts in the playground. Screeching your plimsolls in the corridors. The Little Cards you were issued with the times tables on them. Orange coloured bags and arm bands with Alderwood School and reflective tape on them. The Smell of polished floors after a school holiday. Peter McGonigal and Derek Vernon doing Armpit Farts. Mr Evans telling us about the first time he saw Colour Television and being amazed that the grass at the Oval Cricket Ground was in fact green and not grey. Fire Drills, 'boinging' your ruler on the edge of the desk. Country Dancing in the hall. Swimming Certificates. Clackers were banned from school (remember those two plastic balls on a string), cos people were sustaining terrible injuries from them. Taking in toys and games on the last day of school before holidays. Alison Bowring dropping a large can of powder paint which went all over her and the storage cupboard and Miss Patchell went ballistic. Being a Shepard (not one of the main ones) in the Christmas Play. Oh we also did the Sorcerers apprentice and I was one of the brooms! Spotted Dick and Lumpy, often luke warm custard. "Say what you will, school dinners make me ill we have quite a job to keep them down. Our school din dins come from pig bins out of town"!
29th Apr '02	Clive Brett	Memories of Alderwood in the 60's. The school seemed so huge, yet the toilets so small, with their horseshoe-shaped seats. Older kids at the playground entrance stopping you and asking 'mod or a rocker?', whatever your answer, you got a kick in the shorts. Miss King's stilletos indenting the wooden hall floor. Mr.Brownfield's passion for taking us on as many history trips to London as he could. Swimming lessons at the Hollies, by bus with an asthma inducing smell. Third-pint bottles of milk that were never quite cold enough. The bench in the junior's playground with a hole in it, hours of fun trying to flick stones into it, surrounded by girls singing popsongs from their Disco 45 magazines. The sheer terror of hitting Mr. Evans' Austin A40 with your football, well, he did park it in a daft place. The wooded area outside the dining hall, why could we never play on it?. Miss. King's drawer full of postcards she gave out for good work. Spam and lumpy mash for dinner, and stew full of sinuey bits, and semolina for pudding. Working out ways of creeping into the girls half of the Oxford Hotel, Swanage, and getting caught by Mrs. Kirby. Country dancing in the hall, 'heel toe heel toe 1234'. Amazed at the size of the set in the TV room whilst singing away to Mr. Appleby and his singalong show. Playing 'chariots' in the playground bashing into anyone in your way. The lavish sets and costumes of school plays. The unique smell of the beanbags. Drinking fountains that never worked. The rivalry between the 'class next door', also in your year. Looking for stag beetles on the waste ground next to the infants before arriving at school. And after a day at Alderwood, you'd pass the older kids at the gate 'Beatles or Stones?' they'd ask... And home, wondering just how did that tyre got hooked so high up that tree on the wasteground in Alderwood Road.
02 Feb '02	Graham Dobson	I went thru infant and juniors at Alderwood. I had my first girlfriend (called June) in infants - I was still 4 I think, as I was the youngest in class and probably in the school when in the first year ( along with Alan McCabe who was also born on 29th August). June was probably 5 and she knew more about such friendships than I did. I remember one lad in the infants wanted the loo - he was one who had active bowels and was told by the teacher he could not leave class as he was always doing so. When he poo'd himself he was told to stand outside the class until someone could come and clean him up. He stood back to the wall in the corridor so no-one would see what he had done and by so doing he left an indelible mark on the wall outside our class room. I remember in infants going without lunch on a number occasions because I had left my 9 pence - a sixpence and a thrupenny bit in my bag or coat in the cloak room and it was stolen. The person who did it thought they'd got away with it but I knew who it was and got my own back - I refuse to say who it was and what retribution I took, but they know they did it... Miss Spalding was my juniors teacher - she was very strict, but she got things done. I was frightened of her as were most of us. She was different in that she had no favourites. She also had very hairy legs, which I could not understand. Sorry Miss Spalding, but that's the sort of thing kids notice and remember. I remember being clumsy at school - one day my dessert - sponge and hot custard I think - ended up in my lap at the lunch table. I had to walk around with a lap full of custard the rest of the day. That was better than when it rained one day and we had to spend lunch time in the hall. Someone got over excited after lunch and was sick in my shoes - you could not wear outdoor shoes on the hall floor. My shoes remained with newspaper in them for the rest of the day and it was very uncomfortable walking home in them at the end of the afternoon. I think they got lost soon after that, a mistake my parents simply could not afford and so I think I wore second hand shoes after that. I hated school from day one - my mum (God bless her ) would drag me along Rainham Close, and I can still see it happening in my mind's eye, her facing one way, and me facing the other way screaming my head off. When I grew up I could not get enough of education and now regret I did not make the most of those days. I had to pay the price later in life because I had to work at education in my own time and expense. I remember my country dancing partner - and I often ask myself, "what ever happened to Marina Pearce?".
25 Jan '02	Graham H Milne.	Someone mentioned Miss King going on about fingers on the wall, in my second year I won a competition to paint on those hallowed clean walls. The sites were either side of the toilets. The figures were tall Roman Soldiers. I also remember being part of the class who painted a fairground scene on the opposite classroom wall. My parents were annoyed that I had spent so much time enjoying the art - and not progressing in the "3Rs" that, with my Grandmother's advice (deputy head at Timbercroft School, Plumstead - where I moved from) I was transferred. One name that I can remember was a lad called Hank, who lived near the new Church at the top end of Restons Crescent. I lived on the corner of Restons and Halfway Street. The corner of Averyhill and Restons was a Jill and Douglas (Coppins?) Yes - I will be there. What is this about a Disco? Will it include the 60s music? Or am I too old to attend? Sorry I have no photos of the time at Alderwood, but I do know that my artwork is nowhere to be seen! Can't win them all!! Good luck with the way you are presenting the School. Best wishes to all readers,
22nd Jan '02	Christine Adkins (nee Holden) 1972 - 1976	Mrs Pickman's wooden leg Staring at the very 70's blue and brown wallpaper during assembly - if you stared hard enough it seemed like it was jumping out at you! I always wanted to get a coloured photo for my daffodil that I grew for the daffodil competition, but only ever got a black and white photo beside my well cared for flower. I liked the egg rolling competition. One day I was asked by my form teacher Miss Stevenson to give a message to Mr James in his classroom ( who everyone liked as he was young and handsome!) Once I had delivered the message - he wrote "smelly" across my nose! ahh those were the days! Wearing a bright yellow jumper in assembly and Mr Brownfield shouting out - You with the yellow jumper on - stand up!! I was shocked when I realised it was me - as I'm sure it wasn't me talking - honestly!!! Being asked to show the class a cartwheel, by a teacher who I can't remember her name but her skin used to go blotchy when she shouted!! After that asking Mr James if we could start a Gym club up!! Oh how that club has progressed!!!! - who would have thought! Mandy Vost - my best friend - I've completely lost touch with her - in fact we moved just after I left Alderwood so lost contact with her then. Being in the Netball team and going to gymnastic competitions - winning the vault section and receiving a certificate in assembly. I remember my school trip to Swanage - my friend Lisa Williams got homesick I could go on - but won't bore you! Needless to say they were happy magical times - Thank you.
18th Jan '02	Kathryn Filip (nee Holden) (1968-1972)	Some of the memories that stand out for me are: The Daffodil growing - mine were always horrible - but I tried! The Easter egg rolling contest - I almost won! I think that Mr. Evans (My teacher for 3 of the 4 years!) brought this tradition to us from Wales. The two week school journey in France with Mr. Evans - what a great time! Mrs. Pepperpot stories in the infants - don't remember the teacher's name but her stories certainly have stuck with me! Swimming at the Hollies. School plays - I was one of the witches in Mr. Brownfield's plays - fun!! Learning to play the recorder. I remember assemblies very well - I loved to sing those hymns (Still do!!) So many memories come flooding back.... what great days they were. This all makes me very home sick!! If I didn't live so far away, I'd definitely come to the reunion.
07 Jan '02	Jennnifer Sheepwash (Sept 1971 - July 1979)	I remember trying out for the gymnastics team when I was in the first year juniors - Mr Fagins class. Never thought I would get in but I did and loved every minute of it. Don't think I have been so committed to anything since. We practiced every lunch time and even at weekends with Mr James and got a lift home in his TR7. Went to Gloucester for the nationals which I still consider my greatest ever achievement. Mr Mills the animal man came to see us every year. He put a huge hairy spider on my hand that for some strange reason was great at the time. Growing daffodils and getting that coverted colour award for it. I still have one in my 'box of memories' a bit brown and crinkled but I'd never part with it. I got my times tables certificate on the second attempt. 7 x 8 was 56 and that is one sum that I will still never forget! Swimming with Mrs Bell - what a nightmare! I was not a good swimmer in those days but managed my 25yards. I always remember what a good swimmer Ian Mather was. I also remember rounders in the playground. Michael Knowlden (spelling?) must have broken at least half a dozen rounders bats! At first break we had a bottle of milk with a straw. Me and Shelly always hung around cos any left over we were allowed to drink. In the infants there was this lovely dinner lady - wish I could remember her name - who had magic powder to put on my knee if I fell over. It worked too! The most important memory of all was those Jaws socks! You just had to have them or you were nobody - of course I had a pair.
4th Jan '02	Sue Ash (nee Jones)	My memories of Alderwood are my Mum being asked to take a seat during my entrance interview with Mrs Pickman, and at the grand age of 4 taking the seat myself! School journey to Wrotham with Mrs Hanson's magic remedy to cure my cold. Being given a position in the school choir, and never working out how Miss Turner could always see what was going on behind her. Warm milk in diddy bottles, which I hated Mrs Skelton, and her black medical box which contained the large bottle of Dettol. A very young Mr James with some rather long hair! Mrs Lucking's times table tests, which got you a certificate if you passed. Laying the dinning room tables, and making sure the desert spoons faced the correct way. Bring a star fish into school and it being left in a plastic bag, the result was a rather unusual scent. Mrs Hanson's Mrs Pepperpot stories. Mrs Jordan's drama classes. School sports days. Yearly daffodil competition. I think I only got a yellow certificate once. Decorated boiled egg rolling contests in the assembly hall at Easter. One year I had two eggs and gave one to Rosemary Newington - hers won! Swimming at the Hollies with Mrs Bell. The place was always freezing! Performing in 'Scrooge' as one of the sprits, but also having to understudy John Haslam in the part of Scrooge. I nearly had the part as John was taken ill, but in the end he was well enough to perform. Happy memories.
2nd Jan '02	Maureen Johnson (nee Callaghan)	I remember when the school opened. The kitchens did not open for a few weeks after the school itself so they brought in packed lunches for us. They were great. It was June. I remember one of the highlights were the cherries which we used as earrings before we ate them! Miss King was headmistress. I remember she was terribly proud of the wallpaper behind the stage in the hall (Sunflowers by William Morris I believe). She was also very proud of her new school - rammed into us that we were not to put our fingers on the walls and we must keep it clean and tidy! Bit of a battleaxe She also introduced us to a new style of writing - cant remember what it was called now - no loops allowed and very rounded! I believe her daughter was a mistress there too but I can't remember her married name (she was my teacher for a year or so). She was great at Nature studies. Used to take us over to Avery Hill Park. She also ran a competition for person who could collect the most different varieties of wild flowers Miss Duffin was also there, she took music and the first year in the junior school (I fell out with her on a trip to The Albert Hall for a carol concert. I remember disgracing myself on the underground escalator - trying to see whether I could go up the down escalator!) A Mr Pickman came to the school in my last year. He was terrific. Came from a boys school and made a show of discipline. But he was fabulous. Ran a weekly essay competition with the prize of a bar of chocolate for the best essay. Great incentive. I won it a couple of times. Names I remember as being in the same year are: Beryl Hunter, Phyllis Noall and Joan Twiggins - we all went on to Predergast. James Lucas (I had a crush on him) - he went to St Dunstans) Veronica someone (she went to Eltham High.) Christine Walker - she came from a convent school before Alderwood and was one of the naughtiest girl's in the class. Gave us all a great impression of convents! Robert MacEvoy and Raymond Payne - used to hang around with Jim Lucas. Gosh what a lot of memories you suddenly revived!
7th Dec '01	Yvonne Rees (nee Kettle)	I loved that school, I was in Mr Brownfields class,who was great, but made everyone jump when he shouted!. He use to take us on trips to london at the weekends. Great plays, I was the queen of seba, kate kanty of ofal court,and a witch in something and the wild swans! He loved the plays.
3rd Dec '01	Peter McGonigal	My memories of Alderwood are Mrs Pickman limping into assembly, "good morning Mrs Pickman good morning everyone." School journey at Whiteclif'fe Bay, Kevin Lovelock became 'sicklegs' due to his chucking up on every coach trip, even a ten minute one to Carrisbrooke Castle. One of the girls, who's blushes 1 shall spare, wetting herself at the top of the lighthouse to the sound of trickling wee on the steps below and the sniggers that followed. Mr Brownfield's telly addicts quiz and softly jumping off the stage to demonstrate finesse. Taking food on harvest festival and singing 'we plough the fields and scatter' accompanied by Mrs Turner on piano, bum notes and all. Warm milk in diddy bottles under the stairs with the 'the milk lady' Mrs Skelton, known to us as Mrs Skeleton of course. Henry Cooper on leavers day, 1 was given the job of thanking him for coming and 1 was so nervous 1 mixed up my words.... all four of them. Mr Evans dividing assembly into two and getting one half to start singing a few moments after the other, 1 think he called it cannon. Mrs Hanson's Mrs Pepperpot stories, Mr Fagan booming "YOU BOY". Teddy bear on a stick from the Rossi ice cream van parked in Rainham Close. Conker fights, 1 think 1 once had a 'twenty sixer'. Boiled egg rolling contest in the assembly hall at Easter. Mrs Sharpe the dinner lady and her son Phillip, 'a little mouse with clogs on, well I declare going clip clipperty clop on the stairs.' They'll know what I'm on about. And finally, who can forget swimming at the Hollies with Mrs Bell, foot inspections for verrucas, and doing a legth in your pyjamas for the survival certificate. 1 remember wearing brushed cotton paisleys and lasting about 5 seconds before being rescued by Mrs Bell's long stick. Happy memories.