1942

Monoux Club
The evening Club at the Friends' Hall has been continued throughout this term. It is still well attended, although, with the exception of table tennis and billiards, the games provided attract little attention. Nevertheless, there is the magazine library, the new, but well-stocked and very popular Penguin library, the spare tables for working or reading, and the system of chocolate distribution to keep one interested.
Now that the Institute has kindly loaned us too rooms for Saturday evening, the Club has been opening six nights a week. One of these Institute rooms is for the Chess Club, the other for table tennis and other games. This arrangement has solved a pressing problem.
Baptist Church Bible Society
Mrs. Smith, wife of the Rev. A. Smith, minister at the Baptist Church, Etnam Street, is conducting a Bible Society solely for Monoux boys an Sunday afternoons. It is, we understand, well attended by our boys. We congratulate her on the success of this class, and thank her for providing somewhere for the boys to go in their free time.

Pleasant Wednesday Afternoons
A new form of punishment, the work detention, has been introduced this year. It is held concurrently with the conduct detention, the only difference being that in the former the culprit is, as the name suggests, expected to work. The time of detention has been altered from 2.15 to 2.30, the better to make the punishment fit the crime!

Ab Origine.
Last year Mr. Hayes took on the backbreaking job of creating an allotment from virgin soil. He was very successful, to say the least. He had outsize carrots and beautiful peas, and, in fact, did well with everything except onions, which evidently did not like the soil. With the turf he had taken from the top he built a rectangular tump and it was in this that he grew his prize specimen, a marrow plant, It exceeded all his wildest dreams, and from this one plant he got no less than 45 marrows! A record!

School Houses Revived.
The House system has been re-introduced in the School, but owing to our attenuated numbers it was found necessary to reduce the number of Houses from six to four. These are Higham, Mallinson, Morris and Spivey. This reduction was in some cases unfortunate, as boys were put into new Houses even if their old House still existed. In spite of this, the re-introduction of the system has done much to arouse the competitive spirit, and sporting competitions are now in progress.

Morning Milk.
Milk is now supplied six mornings a week instead of only the three mornings at the Grammar School. On the "off-days" the milk is distributed from the Friends' Hall, which consequently becomes rather congested at break. Many of the boys now have their milk more regularly in response to the Headmaster's appeal that it should be paid for once a term. Our only regret is that so many of the people who have paid for milk forget to go and fetch it, or take it at some time after break without notifying the prefects.

New School Societies.
The renewal of the School Societies was in every way welcome. We again have the familiar Dramatic Society and the Chess and Stamp Clubs, but a variety of new interests are catered for in the Agricultural and Architectural Societies and the Vaudeville Club. They have all been great successes, but we would like to see every boy in the School in at least one and prepared to attend its meetings regularly.

School Pianists
When Law left the school at Christmas the office of morning pianist was temporarily taken over by Dr. Whitt, who retained an unenviable position until succeeded by Brown of Va. The succession of pianists proves that it is the piano that is sometimes wrong.

Music While You Work.
Preparation has been continued between six and eight o'clock in the evenings and is now available for all forms of the School. Although the average attendance has been fairly small, an added attraction has been the music provided by the Leominster Girls' Club, which holds nightly gatherings in the School Hall. Even "Waltzing in the Clouds" is poor compensation for the torture of wrestling with a knotty problem in algebra or a particularly idiomatic French prose!

Time Table.
The hours of school have changed so often since we came to Leominster that everyone has his own idea of what they are. Early last term they were arranged to dovetail with those of Leominster Grammar School. When the Grammar School changed from 9.30 to 9.00, the Monoux followed suit and the final times were: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9.5 to 12.35 and 2.00 to 4.40; Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 8.55 to 12.35.

Holidays.
Both at Christmas and at Easter most of the boys went home in spite of appeals from the Ministry of Health. As nearly all of these went by the 7.5 a.m. train from Leominster, a special coach was reserved for them right through to Paddington each time. Various activities were arranged for the handful that stayed in Leominster, notably the Christmas Tea.

Office Furniture.
During last term the furniture in the "office" underwent considerable re-arrangement. Miss Fortescue's desk, formerly beneath the window, has been shifted to face the door to avoid the draught caused by the continual opening, of the window.

Mid Term.
The mid-term holiday last term was Saturday morning, February 21st. There was also another Saturday morning holiday three weeks later on March. l4th owing to the entrance examination for the Leominster Grammar School.

Our Contemporaries.
We acknowledge with thinks the receipt of the following magazines:
Leyton School Magazine, C.H.S.I. Chronicles.