Westfield Junior School pupils and staff mentions in the News and Sports Mail, March-April 1977

This is the final instalment in the year-long coverage of Westfield Junior School's pupils, staff and school matters in The News and Sports Mail from 1 September 1976 to 31 August 1977.

April 1977's copies held at the British Library are microfilmed and it's taken much longer than anticipated to scan all that month's issues.
Having said that, little was reported during March and even less during April on anything connected with Westfield Junior School. April's issues extensively covered the newspaper's centenary celebrations including special supplements.

In March, Westfield's gymnasts made more news ...

 

The News, Thursday 17 March 1977.

 

Six girls from King Richard School won the Southern Region final of the National Schools Under 13 Gymnastics Team Championships at Eastleigh, versus Westfield Middle School.

Westfield Middle School, back row, left to right: Carla Thompson, Julie Moody, Michelle Lucas, Tyree Smallwood, Sarah Smith, Julie Bowler, Wendy Elford.
They were managed by Mr I. Davis (Idris Davis).

Of those, Sarah Smith and Julie Bowler were in my year group who left Westfield in 1977, all the others were in the year group below.

 

  

The News, Tuesday 22 March.

 

   Donna Hillyer won the girls' cross-country race in the Hampshire Middle Schools' Championships at Southampton Sports Centre.

 

Chipper Club's 12th birthday celebrations for March-April 1977: Patricia Ahearn, Brandon Cherry, Michelle Lucas

Westfield Junior School pupils and staff mentions in the News and Sports Mail, May-June 1977

Apologies for this being out of sequence, this was because the first two weeks of May's issues are now only available to view on microfilm and the rest print only; compared with the print version, it's taken much longer to scan the microfilm for the two weeks that were covered.

Westfield Junior School made front page news on Thursday 16 June after a burst water main in Jubilee Avenue sent a torrent of water and mud into the classrooms.

I decided to separately photograph the accompanying photo (below) in order to identify individuals more easily.

 

Pupils and staff cleared up the mess, the only people so far identified in this photo are:

Fellow year group pupil Neil Gray in the centre of the photo holding a wide black broom, recognised by his hairstyle, facial appearance and sleeveless jumper.
Teacher Miss Capp, identified by Kevin Miller, in black dress standing near the classroom door.

 

At the time I cut out the above photo from our family's copy of the paper, but threw it away about two years later. I definitely knew Neil was in the photo (and marked it as such on my copy). In 2001 I tried locating the article and photo at the former British Library's newspaper library in Colindale, London, but somehow missed it, however it was again re-discovered in late October this year. 

 

 

In The News, Saturday 25 June, the school was mentioned as a result of a fundraising effort for the British Heart Foundation.

Kevin White, who attended the school's special unit and teacher Roy Smith showed off their trophies.

 

 

Donna Hillyer continued her athletics performances finishing 3rd in the 1500m for Portsmouth Atalanta in an Athletics League, Division I match at Chelmsford, reported in The News, Tuesday 24 May.

 

Chipper Club's 12th birthday celebrations for May-June 1977: Samantha Brown, Sarah Smith