Miss Good Placed a Form in Front of Me and Told Me to Sign

1930 – 1940

 

Lorraine Pratt (née Ellis)

 

My primary and secondary education were both gained at Hindmarsh – the latter being in 1928/29. As well as being interested in handwork I enjoyed art lessons. Our art teacher, Miss Hettie Buchanan, who was a close friend of Miss Good’s, explained to my mother and me that a full time class was to begin at the School of Arts and would be known as the Girls Central Art School. This school was part of the vocational guidance scheme.

Entry scholarships were to be awarded. I applied and was successful. This was an important and memorable time in my life. Subjects studied in 1930 were English, French, geometric drawing, object drawing, freehand drawing, plant drawing, design, light and shade, lettering and showcard writing, history of art, modelling, arithmetic, algebra and geometry. The last three were discontinued after two terms. French was discontinued in my report card after two years.

Because of Miss Good’s ‘broken’ two years in 1930/31 when she spent 12 months abroad as an exchange teacher, Miss Harris was class teacher. During 1930 we presented extracts from As You Like It and this was the first production of a Shakespearean play in the Botanic Gardens. In 1931 we performed Maeterlinck’s Blue Bird of Happiness .

In 1932 Miss Good became Assistant-in-Charge. One day, four years later, early in 1936, I sat, with a drawing board on my lap, in the Botanic Gardens. Miss Good placed a form in front of me and told me to sign. (There had been no earlier discussion). I did so and ‘immediately’ became the first junior teacher at the school!

My close connection with the Girls Central Art School and the School of Arts lasted 10 years from 1930 to 1940. It was broken only by two years at Teachers College (1937–38) but, even then, I attended the Art School for further studies. Miss Good’s action really changed the direction of my life as I met my future husband at Teachers College and changed from city to country life in 1941.

© Erica Jolly and individual authors