Ockbrook School Alumni Association

With immense sadness and heavy hearts, we have to share with you the sad loss of our dear friend and colleague Mrs Pat Ward, who died peacefully at home on Christmas Eve, following a short illness.
We are still coming to terms with this ourselves, but we know what an incredible teacher and iconic figure she was to the pupils, parents and community at Ockbrook School.
Pat loved Ockbrook School. She loved all of the pupils in her care and made a huge impact to their education and confidence, shaping the path to their future lives. We will miss her infectious sense of fun, immaculate presentation and ability to know just what each child, parent and colleague needed to help them, at any given moment. She carried out her role with the utmost fairness and immense kindness, which combined to make her a perfect teacher. We were also incredibly lucky to know her, as a cherished friend.
We are respecting her family's wish to come to terms with their tragic loss in peace. In time, we hope that any messages of condolence and memories of Mrs Ward shared will bring them some comfort.

We are pleased to announce our new Nursery funding provision for 2021-22. From September we will be able to offer up to 30 hours funding to eligible children. Please contact our registrar by phone or via [email protected]
Please share and forward to anyone who you think might be interested in starting their learning journey at Ockbrook.

The Ockbrook School Magazine - Midsummer 1940.

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part ten)

All boarders had duties and there was a rota which had to be strictly observed. The easiest one was for the weekly boarders, and this consisted of putting out the ‘own jam’ on two breakfasts and two teatimes every week.

Each girl had her own pot of jam, marmalade, honey, Marmite or peanut butter, marked with her name. These jars were stored in a big cupboard in the scullery next to the hall and our job was to put them all out on the right tables before the meal. Woe betide you if you forgot, or if you couldn’t remember at which table each girl sat. On the other days it was ‘school jam’.

Sometimes our supply of ‘own jam’ ran out, but we could, with permission, take our empty jar and go down Bakehouse Lane to the shop at the bottom of the hill where they had a wooden barrel of peanut butter, which was not ‘on ration’. If you were lucky, they had recently given it a stir, but, if not, you got a lot of the oil which rose to the top.

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part nine)

During the war, day girls at Ockbrook had school dinners delivered by van from a central kitchen which served many schools.

The food came hot in large rectangular aluminium containers and was variable in quality. There
was usually a lot of gristle in the meat. I particularly remember the days when we had hot beetroot slices swimming in white sauce. You could make some quite striking marbled effects by swirling the beetroot around.

Boarders were fed from the school’s kitchen, next to the hall which was both dining and assembly hall. I think the cooks were English but most of the other domestic staff were European refugees. It was not unusual for a pupil to report to the Headmistress that one of the maids was crying in the pantry. We felt desperately sorry for them; some were still in their teens, torn from their family and everything they had known, and stuck in a foreign land having to do menial work. On the other hand, they were alive and not in a N**i concentration camp which is no doubt where many of their families ended up. Incidentally, the pantry housed the school’s only telephone, an old-fashioned ‘candlestick’ model.

Our condolences to the family of Dr Tonie Haynes, a former pupil of Ockbrook School. She left us in the 1940s for Derby Technical College and then went on to medical school. She settled in the village and ended up living on the Settlement. Her niece has very graciously donated a number of historical school items and we will be sharing these with you over the coming months.

Here is a page from a pamphlet in 1949 advertising the launch of a school fund, which led to the building of the BIrtill Hall. There is also a copy of a school calendar from 1950. We have many more magazines and memorabilia to share with you soon - so watch this space!

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part eight)

My claim to fame was that my brother made me a primitive ‘cat’s whisker’ radio set. As my bed was below a sash window it was easy to drop the aerial out of the window and almost close it, with the
aerial end attached to the device and headphones hidden under the pillow. I snuggled down in bed to listen to whatever programme I could pick up and that was why, one night, I was the only girl not given an ‘order mark’ by Miss Harris who was on duty, when the rest of the dormitory were caught out of bed and misbehaving.

Just as summer nights in Junior Dorm could be suffocatingly hot, so could winter nights be unbearably cold. I remember folding my ‘home blanket’ multiple times to give some more weight and warmth over my legs. Most termly boarders brought their eiderdowns from home, but weekly boarders usually just had their extra blanket.

We were turned out of doors for morning and afternoon break times and in winter it was often quite a trial to keep warm. Sometimes we managed to sneak into the boiler room which was at the foot of the steps on to Bottom Court. The boiler was a huge coke-fired one, tended by Walter Cook, the school’s friendly handyman, gardener and general factotum. I don’t think Ockbrook could have functioned without him. The boiler room always smelt of coke fumes and was probably not particularly healthy but Walter was very kind and let some of us in to warm.

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part 7)

Being only 9 years old in Junior Dorm meant that you were ‘First Suppers’ and had to start going to bed at 6pm under the care of Miss Bayne, the school matron. We met in her room on the ground floor at the foot of the wooden stairs and in bad weather before supper we sometimes played games such as ‘Pelmanism’ or ‘Snap’ on the carpet. Older, ‘Second Suppers’, went to bed a little later, thus staggering the use of the bathrooms.

In summertime it was very difficult to get to sleep, because Junior Dorm got very hot up there under the roof, and the sound of senior girls playing tennis far below in the sunshine went on for ages. We were inspected by the mistress on duty who came up to
see we were all in bed at the proper time. Some of the younger staff would read or tell a story, but after that it was supposed to be ‘lights out’ and silence. Naturally it seldom was. Sometimes we made such a din that no one heard the duty mistress coming up the back stairs, but usually someone would notice the creaking wooden steps and a frantic whisper went round the room followed by a scramble to get into bed and feign sleep.

Occasionally, especially if someone had a birthday and a special ‘tuck’ delivery which could be hidden away, there would be a midnight feast, though it was never a feast and never at midnight.

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part 6)

I was given a bed in Junior Dormitory, an enormous room at the very top of the building and running the whole width. The view from the big sash windows on the south side was amazing and on a clear day you could see right beyond the Trent valley to the hills of Charnwood Forest. My bed was under a window on the north side. There were 24 beds in all, placed round the perimeter, and in the middle was a collection of chests of drawers, arranged back-to-back making an island. Several of them were handsome mahogany antiques. Every girl was assigned at least one drawer.

There was also a piano, one of several around the School used for piano practice. In its day, it had been a very good one but it
had lost a few of its genuine ivory keys and playing those keys with the remaining rough glue wasn’t very pleasant. In the middle of the west end of the room was a door to the wooden back stairs,
flanked by two small bedrooms for members of staff. At the opposite side were two cubicles for prefects, one on each side of the door leading to the bathrooms and the main stone staircase.

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part 5)

"I became a weekly boarder after one term as a daygirl. The journey to school wasn’t very easy, being about 6 miles cross-country. First I had to walk to Sawley Junction Station to catch the 8.22am LMS
steam train to Borrowash, two stops away. The big problem here was that the preceding 8.08am train was often late; it had priority because it picked up scores of workers at all stations from
Nottingham to take them to Spondon where they were doing vital war work at the British Celanese factory, but it didn’t stop at Borrowash as workers living there could walk, catch a bus, or cycle.

So my train, the 8.22, frequently had to wait at Trent Junction until the 8.08 went through. The consequence was that, after walking up from Borrowash station to the main Derby Road, the bus to
Ockbrook had already gone. There was nothing for it but to walk up Victoria Avenue – a long way, and with a very steep hill at the end. I was late so often, and also so tired, that Miss Orr, the
headmistress, persuaded my parents that the only sensible action was for me to become a weekly boarder.

That meant another headache for my mother because, as well as having to find clothing coupons for my school uniform, she now had to provide sheets, pillowcases, blanket, towels, a dozenhandkerchiefs, pyjamas and table napkins for school, as well as what I used at home. In addition, I needed a dressing gown and slippers, things we didn’t have at home. I was very excited when a trunk was bought to take all my things to and from school at the start and end of each term. It was the usual sort of trunk of its day, covered in coarse brown canvas with curved wooden bands to take the knocks. Forward planning was needed to get it packed about two or three days before each term, with everything present and correct with my Cash’s name tape sewn in on every item.

The local LMS station at Sawley Junction (now called Long Eaton) was informed and their truck came round to collect the trunk as PLA - Passenger’s Luggage in Advance - a service available if you had a ticket to the destination, and was often used when you went on holiday. A big collection of trunks would be assembled at Borrowash station and everything was taken up to Ockbrook ready for our arrival."

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part 4)

At Ockbrook, I soon realised that I didn’t speak the same way as the other girls. Most Sawley and Long Eaton people spoke in a local accent with the short vowels typical of the East Midlands and more northerly counties — ‘a’ as in act and ‘u’ as in full.

Although our family speech was not as strongly Erewash Valley as the ‘ey up mi duck’ variety, we did hang on to a few useful dialect words like ‘nesh’ and ‘mardy’. At Ockbrook, almost everyone spoke RP — Received Pronunciation, most commonly referred to then as BBC English. Like most children, I wanted to fit in and soon adapted my speech, though my brother taunted me about it. ‘She now has a bawth on the grawss pawth’ he said once, scathingly.

Another thing that changed was that I no longer called my parents ‘Mother and Daddy’ because all the Ockbrook girls spoke of their ‘Mummy’. Games were different too. The playground games enjoyed at Tamworth Road School were exchanged for netball, hockey, cricket and tennis, though we did play a number of individual ball games against the great high wall at the west end of
the building.

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)
School Days (part 3)

On my first day someone asked me what house I was in. Not knowing anything about house systems in schools I said, ‘Broad Eaves’, which obviously wasn’t the right answer. Ockbrook has three houses, all named after renowned Moravians: the educator John Amos Comenius (Komensky in his native Czech, where his name still appears above the doorway of many schools and colleges), John Cennick (evangelist and hymn writer) and Wenzel Budowa (who fought for freedom of worship for all Protestants and the Moravian Brethren in particular).

I found that I had been allocated to Comenius House and was given a set of ‘house colours’: royal blue tie and girdle to be worn at any house matches and on Sports Day, and blue enamel badge to pin on the yoke of my gym slip (Cennick wore yellow and Budowa green).

We could earn other enamel badges to pin on: red with a D for Deportment (good posture, shoulders back, no
slouching and not running in the corridors) and green with a C for Conduct (good behaviour and not talking when we were supposed to be quiet). These were self-regulated — each week we would award ourselves the marks we thought we deserved and the marks were subsequently added to the House totals and a shield awarded to the best House. If you had perfect marks for four weeks in a row you earned the appropriate badge, but this had to be surrendered if you then fell from grace. Naturally the House Captains and Prefects also had badges.

In addition, if you were a Brownie or a Girl Guide you could stitch your patrol badge on too, but the other badges awarded for skills and interests went on the sleeve of that uniform. I was originally a Brownie at Station Street Baptist Chapel in Long Eaton but joined the Brownies at Ockbrook when I became a weekly boarder. Sadly I could never be a Guide because Ockbrook Guides met on Fridays after school, when I was on my way home, and Station Street met during the week when I was at Ockbrook.

Please take a look and feel free to share on to anyone you think may be interested. Our extended school community are always our greatest advocates.

Ockbrook School Online Open Morning - Saturday 6th March 2021 Ockbrook School Online Open MorningSaturday 6th March 2021

Mrs Joan Rippengal (Ockbrook School 1944-1953)

School Days (part 2)

"Class sizes at Ockbrook were certainly different from Tamworth Road School. I started in Form 2 and was one of just sixteen girls plus one boy, with Miss Talbot, a Froebel-trained teacher, as Form Mistress. Among the many things Miss Talbot taught us are two which I still have, one mentally and the other physically.

Each week we learned by heart a few verses of The Enchanted Shirt, which we never saw written down. I can still recite it, yard by yard, though I don’t in public nowadays as its final word has since been appropriated for a completely different meaning.

The other is a book we made from scratch. Miss Talbot told us stories of the constellations, mainly characters in Greek and Roman legends, and we then marked the positions of the stars with red crayon on black paper. When Miss Talbot was happy with our layout we could then stick ‘stars’ over the red marks. Sadly, by this time in the war there were no ready cut-out five-pointed stars available so we used the scraps of shiny gum- backed coloured paper which was still left in the stationery cupboard. For each star we cut two small triangles from the edge of the paper (it was a wasteful crime to cut into the middle!) and these were stuck one on top of the other to make a six-pointed star. Then we pasted coloured paper over two cardboard end pieces, decorated the front cover and finally made two holes to lace everything together.

Form 2 classroom was on the first floor, the first on the left at the top of the wooden stairs. I was surprised at the desks, which seemed like antiquities. They were double desks on heavy iron frames, with a fixed, slightly sloping wooden top incorporating pen racks and inkwells, and a shelf underneath. The seats were two circles of wood, a smaller fixed one for the back rest and a somewhat larger, hinged one for the seat.

Form 2 was opposite the Staff Room, which had some shelves outside where ‘prep’ (homework) and other work to be marked was placed. Sometimes there was an unfortunate girl standing outside waiting to see a member of staff after having committed some misdemeanour."

Our new Headmaster, Mr Shipway was delighted to hear this week from Mrs Joan Rippengal of Hailsham, East Sussex, who has used the current lockdown as an opportunity to write her memoirs. She was a pupil at Ockbrook School from September 1944 to July 1953. She has granted us permission to ‘serialise’ her memoirs, and Mr Shipway has invited her to visit the School as soon as it is safe to do so. The pictures below are from 1948 and 1946.

"Mother took me to Ockbrook one day for the entrance test and it was the first time I had ever seen anyone wearing an academic gown, which was worn at Ockbrook by all teachers with a
university degree. I felt rather like a fish out of water but evidently showed enough potential to be accepted and I remember the excitement when a postcard written by Miss Orr, the elderly headmistress, came, informing us that I had been accepted and could start there on 19th September 1944.

The other, dreaded, information was the uniform clothing list which had obviously been compiled before the war and made no concession to the current situation of restricted clothing coupons, scarcity or unavailability of certain items. Somehow Mother managed to kit me out with winter uniform: navy greatcoat to be worn with black velour hat with
red school band embroidered with school badge, red or navy gloves, navy gym slip to measure 4 inches from the ground when kneeling, regulation red tie and girdle, 3 navy Viyella blouses,
3 pairs regulation navy knickers plus 3 pairs knicker liners, 3 ‘Liberty’ bodices, 3 vests, 3 pairs black or brown woollen stockings, 1 pair black or brown lace-up outdoor shoes and 1 pair
indoor sandals, plus gym shoes and shoe bag to hang on cloakroom pegs.

In autumn and spring we exchanged the great coat and velour hat for navy gabardine coats with regulation red woollen machine-knitted ribbed hat with school badge, and wore white Viyella blouses. On the joyful day when Miss Bayne, the school matron, pronounced it was warm enough for summer uniform we wore red blazers with Panama hat (plus school band) and white gloves for outdoors over our summer dresses of tiny red and white checked material which looked pink from a few feet away. White ankle socks were then the order of the day, a wonderful relief from the itchy woollen stockings.

In addition to all these requirements was the white Japshan silk dress with black bow to be worn by boarders on summer Sundays and just on Speech Day by day girls. Naturally this caused a lot of consternation to mothers of day girls – a regulation white dress for just one day of the year! Although it obviously had not been ‘the done thing’ to wear second-hand clothing before the war, some parents got together and outgrown uniform found its way to smaller pupils. I was lucky that my first summer dresses and Speech Day dress were second-hand pre-war ones; their quality was far superior to what was currently
being sold at D&P’s, the school’s official outfitters in Derby and Nottingham.

My mother did manage to source a genuine Panama hat – but it was a small man’s style with a slight dip in the crown and I loathed it. Every item had to be marked with one’s name, and I was thrilled to have a whole box full of Cash’s name tapes woven with Joan Reedman in red. It was much less exciting having to stitch them on."

Mr Shipway's Assembly - Friday 12th February 2021 Mr Shipway's AssemblyFriday 12th February 2021

Looking for other ways to keep up with us?
Have you tried following our school Instagram account?

https://www.instagram.com/ockbrookinsta/

Do you remember your Ockbrook Christingles?

Thank you so much to Victoria Jayne for this photograph of the choir performing at The Hilton on Park Lane on 16th December 1999. This was a warm-up, prior to a performance at Westminster Abbey the next day. Do any of you out there remember being at this event?

Do you remember your nativities or Christmas concerts at Ockbrook? Any pictures you want to share with us..?

It's always good to hear what our alumni are up to in the wider world. Emily Allsop got in touch with us - she is now a qualified doctor (medical) and recently became a commissioned military officer, a process she started in Year 11 at Ockbrook. She is now a Captain in the British Army. Congratulations!

We are delighted to announce the appointment of our new Head Teacher.

Mr Jeff Shipway, BSc (Hons), MA, PGCE takes over from Mr Tom Brooksby, who announced his retirement in January. Mr Shipway is currently Deputy Head (Pastoral) and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Tettenhall College, a co-educational independent day and boarding school for 2 - 18 year olds, in the Wolverhampton suburb of Tettenhall.

Amanda Redgate, Chair of Governors at Ockbrook School, says: “The Trustees and Governors are delighted to announce that Mr Jeff Shipway will take up the position of Head at Ockbrook School from January 2021, succeeding Mr Tom Brooksby, who retires after seven years of transformational leadership.

“We are delighted by Jeff Shipway’s appointment. He emerged as the outstanding candidate from a very strong field, who underwent a rigorous and inclusive procedure, involving interviews with pupils, parents, staff and governors. Given his impressive experience, as a Head of Department, a Boarding Housemaster and more recently, as an experienced Deputy Head of nine years’ standing, we are convinced that he will provide exactly the type of visionary leadership that we are looking for at this exciting time in Ockbrook’s history”.

Mr Shipway adds: “Taking Ockbrook School forward during these uncertain times is a challenge I relish. The School has a strong teaching and parent body, plus its rich history, beautiful countryside location and international boarding community set it apart from other independent schools in this area. I am excited at the opportunity to build on the great work undertaken by Mr Brooksby and his leadership team.”

Help us raise money for OSPA - Ockbrook School Parents' Association
There are 100 numbered squares on offer for each prize and they cost £2.00 per square.
Squares will be allocated randomly. For your chance to win these great prizes just email [email protected] with the following information:

I would like to win Escape Room Prize/ Halloween Hamper (delete as appropriate)
Name:
Contact No:
Number of Squares:
I enclose payment/ I have paid by transfer with ref:

You can pay by transfer direct into the OSPA account (Account Name: OSPA, Sort Code: 40-19-37, Account Number: 01740024).

Winners will be announced on Tuesday 13th October………. GOOD LUCK & THANK-YOU!!

Does anybody remember this view....?

This group photograph was taken in 1948 or 1949. It looks like the primary year groups with a few senior children? Are there any Ockbrook School uniform experts out there can tell us more?

OPEN MORNING, Saturday 3rd October, 10.00am - 1.00pm (Covid19 measures in place). Please contact Mrs Juliette Sheldon, [email protected] or 01332 673532, for further information or to book an individual tour on any week day.

• From ages 3 to 18, Nursery to Sixth Form. Boarding options available from Year 6.
• Come and meet our experienced staff and find out what makes our school so special
• Specialist facilities in a historic setting
• A personal, nurturing and caring ethos
• Located in a safe village setting, with extensive outdoor grounds
• Just off the A52, convenient for Derby and Nottingham

A school play from 1948. Which play do you think it is? The label has fallen out the photo album!

Some photographs from 1948 - Ockbrook's pupils and staff have always got out in the grounds as much as possible! One picture shows what is now the Mount (Early Years and Infants). Does anybody know which years were there in 1948?