Mrs. Pearson (English and Drama)


Mrs. Pearson- Similar to Jill Gascoine, Seventies star actress.
 

Mrs. Pearson taught English and Drama. She was quite an attractive looking lady with a bubble perm, doll like features and always dressed stylish clothes for the day and lived close to the school in Wood Plumpton road. She had only been at the school a couple of years when I started in 1975.

In the First Year one she took a group of us to Preston Charter Theatre to a Friday matinee performance of Shakespeare’s, As You Like It. Sadly the Bard, was lost on us rookie First years. As we shuffled about in our seats, crunching snacks, waiting eagerly for the end of nearly two hours of culture so we could go home early.

A couple of years later I was in Set 4 for English and it was a lively class with quite a few characters. We used to have English just after morning break on a Monday. As I made my way into class, unusually the class door was open. Normally you had to wait until the teacher taking your class turn up to unlock the door to let you in the class.. I looked towards the blackboard were in capital letters from left to right was something derogatory about Mrs. Pearson occupation outside of work. As Mrs. Pearson entered the room she was visibly shaken by the claim.  She asked who the terrible deed had done by? There was a wall of silence. To add insult to injury the derogatory comment on the blackboard  had been spelt wrong which in an English class was not good. Mrs. Pearson next step was to go to the Head Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones entered the room look with some disgust at what was written and asked us all one by one if we had any idea who had done this. There was still a wall of silence which did not impress him in any way and made him angry. He said, “how dare someone insult a member of staff in this way and would in no way tolerate it.” He then put the whole class on a week detention which he would personally supervise, with a letter sent to each and every one of our parents. He then spoke to Mrs. Pearson, outside the room for a few minutes. 

For the rest of the week after school we were in room 31, next to staffroom writing lines, cleaning the desks and other menial tasks which meant that we were not leaving the school until nearly 5pm on the dark winter nights is no fun. A few of us who were involved in the school football team missed practise and inclusion in the squad for the forthcoming match against local rivals St. Cuthbert Mayne. I also  remember that Dave Thompson, Sue Duckworth and I were given the task of sorting out Mrs. Pearson' s dusty storage cupboard which was full of exercise books and English Literature novels. This we did in our breaktimes as part of a punishment.    

Nobody ever owned up to the deed. Rumours were rife of course of the culprit. I believe Mrs. Pearson left the school in the mid 1980’s to teach at Penwortham Girls School.

 

 

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