Crumlin school steps back in time to mark centenary (From South Wales Argus)

Crumlin school steps back in time to mark centenary

4:31pm Wednesday 20th June 2012 in News By Charles Booth

PUPILS and staff celebrated the centenary of Crumlin High Level Primary School with a week of events including a march to the town centre.

The school was built in 1912 and opened on June 15 of that year. Originally the school was in Crown Street in Crumlin which opened in 1885.

Mynyddislwyn School Board moved the pupils to the school now on Commercial Road and there were 217 pupils aged 5 to 14. Today the school has 180 pupils.

To celebrate the centenary pupils and staff dressed in clothes from the early 20th century, which included long aprons, flat caps, mop caps and waist coats for the men and boys.

Each class learned about what their fellow pupils would be doing a hundred years ago.

On Monday and Wednesday of last week they had lessons which would have been taught in 1912 and the children wrote with chalk. They also played games such as hopscotch, whip and top and skipping. Pontypool Museum loaned the school old toys which the children drew.

On Tuesday the school went to St Fagans Museum and the head Catherine Mansell took a lesson with the infants in an Edwardian classroom on the site. On Wednesday pupils ate what pupils a century ago would have had, with roast dinner and roly poly pudding on the menu.

This week on Monday the children and staff marched through Crumlin in costume to mark the centenary. Former pupil Jack Woodford, now 92 also visited the school and former teacher Ray Edmunds who taught there in 1951 also spoke to the children.

The school still has a log book from the year the building opened which mentions that the old school in Crown Street had to close in April because of a coal miners strike in the village. The school of today has High Level in its name because it was near train station of the same name. There was another station called Low Level but both stations are now closed. At the time, the children could see the trains going over the viaduct when they were in class.

In the hundred years since opening a few famous pupils have gone to the school including Andrew Major from Goldie Lookin' Chain and Dai Hayward who captained Cardiff RFC and played for Wales in the 1950 and 60s.