Old girls 'on board' to honour ex-pupils

FORMER pupils are trying to trace a series of missing honours boards from their old school so they can be given pride of place in its £15 million new building.

Thistley Hough High, in Penkhull, is due to move into its new home after Easter and will also be marking its re-launch as an academy school.

But staff and ex-students are keen to ensure its rich heritage is not forgotten and so decades of 'old girls' will be remembered with the wall of honour in the school foyer.

They already have some of the boards, which chronicle the achievements of pupils who went on to top universities and colleges or secured scholarships.

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But a number of the wooden plaques – believed to date from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1960s – are missing.

These are thought to have been given to former students at a reunion event some years ago. Angela Caton, from Basford, attended Thistley Hough from 1964 to 1970 during its days as a girls' grammar school.

She said: "It is fantastic that the school is moving forward, but this place has so many memories that we cannot help feel a little bit sad.

"We all aspired to have our names on the honours board.

"I never did, but I can remember the names of the girls on the honours boards with reverence and we would like today's students to have the same high aspirations."

Like many of the old girls from the grammar school, Angela went on to become a teacher herself.

She has joined forces with former pupils Rose Astbury and Susan Taylor, who both live in Trentham, and Pat Leese, who lives in Stone, in the search for the awards boards.

Pat, now aged 74, said : "We would be delighted to find them."

She is also chairman of a group organising a reunion on March 23, which is expected to attract 150 people.

Pat said: "I was born in 1938, the year when the school opened. I still have fond memories of the place.

"The school had a lovely, safe feel. But you knew you were there to learn and it was very strict."

Headteacher Holly Hartley is also keen to preserve the school's heritage.

And she plans to continue the tradition of adding names to the boards to mark the successes of the latest generation of students.

She said: "Our current students love meeting and talking to their forebears and learn so much from their memories and example."

Anyone with information about the missing plaques can call the school on 01782 418500.