School Reports

My mother kept all sorts of odd things, many of them in the old Arab chest, including a muddle of family papers. Occasionally, I dip in to it and find something I didn't know was there - like a small package which contains my first school reports.

The earliest is from the Junior European School in Dar-es-Salaam, dated 5th April 1950. At the time I would have been just over five so, since my birthday was 2nd January, this is my first school report. One of the lessons is 'Handwork & Art' - I assume 'Handwork' is crafts.

The next report is also from the Dar-es-Salaam school and is dated 9th August 1950, which must have been just before we moved to Mombasa. In it I am described as 'inclined to be slow' and to 'worry unduly'. Mmm, yes, Mrs Walker, you were quite right about the worrying: I still do.

Some but not all of my reports from my next school, the Mombasa European Primary, are in the package.  This is the last one, dated December 1953. I'm not sure what 'Vernacular' was, unless it was the use of the spoken, as opposed to written word.

In a yesterday's post in which I described my time at the Mombasa European Primary School, I quoted my mother's story about my being enrolled by my father, who gave my age wrong, resulting in my being placed in a higher class, much to my distress. All my MEPS reports have my name as 'Jonathon', so it seems likely that my age wasn't the only thing my father got wrong.

The second page of Mrs Dalgleish's report states that I had 'gained in confidence'. Again, a teacher has put her finger on one of my weaknesses, a lack of self-confidence. The report also  records that I was awarded the Progress Prize - a photograph of me receiving the prize at the end of the term is also in yesterday's post.