times when certain opportunities are presented to them. Failure to take the opportunity means loss for ever in the great majority of cases. It seems to be that in this life one of the things we have to learn to do is to make decisions for ourselves in 4th and 5th year we decide to work hard or go under. I do not accept the plea that Ordinary Level is a difficult examination to pass in 5 subjects it is not. No boy or girl who really works and has his or her mind on the job should fail 1 have a high regard for their ability if they will only use it. The facing of facts is something which I believe we as a nation are not doing at the moment. Let those who are at school learn that schooldays are a preparation for life afterwards: let them learn to face situations in school with courage and to make decisions which for the time may bring discomfort in one form or another. A Day in the Life of. . .Greenford High School (previously, Greenford County Grammar) 'I ltcformer Stella Davies. pupil at the school 1953-1960, on July 24th 1989 wrote a few thoughts:- The year is 1959. The month is August another long, hot summer rather like now; but perhaps not quite so stifling. I am wheeling my bike, rather laboriously, through one of the zig-zag, red brick structures that form dual side-entrances to the school premises. These have not changed at all, by the way,. during the years that have since intervened.) I take the left-hand side, Girls' way in, that leads straight up into the girls' playground. The sexes were, perhaps, more strictly segregated, in those days, than they are now; though Greenford was even then a mixed school of long standing; and had, in addition a reputation for being more 'liberated', in that respect, than most. On the left side of the girls' playground, and forming part of the eastern boundary to the school as it was then, are a set of lean-to, corrugated iron roofed cycle sheds. A wire fence ran behind these, from a point further up, down to the main road; railing off some waste ground, as I remember it, that ran right down to the 'Hare and Hounds' premises, further down the road. I am not even sure, at this distance of time, whether the short row of houses that now occupies the space between the school and that pub, which had such a dissipated, out-of-bounds aura about it then (and it was, really. out of bounds, as was the faintly sleazy cafe across the road, name long-forgotten, every trace of whose identity is now long erased, where daring pupils used to gather, in those far off days, when the ballad era was just faintly beginning, to pass into Rock 'n Roll and it was infinitely exciting to play the juke box, drink rather lukewarm, Espresso coffee flavoured by illegality and pretend to be American, as almost all our teen-idols were then. . .) As I say, I do not remember whether that row of houses was even there at that time. There were too many other, exciting things to take notice of. . . But Rosedene Avenue certainly was opposite. A boy in my year who was frighteningly good at Maths while I was a total dunderhead lived there. Funny how that kind of thing sticks in one's mind, after all these years! 1 put my bike rather hurriedly into the cycle-sheds: behind which, a narrow path curves up, beside a now non-existent, large, oval flowerbed, carefully tended by the school gardener, and leads along a rather picturesquely shady tall hedge that, along with the inevitably accompanying wire fence faces the two huts that then served as the only two outlying classrooms; and continues that upward boundary, leading to the playing field. None of the present additional blocks were there then; neither were the attractive garden areas and walkways to the east that now extend, in a most pleasant way, the area of the school. . . It is now just gone a quarter to nine. In previous years, I would have been in a tearing hurry, as the official time for entering the school premises was twenty to nine; and vigilant prefects stood at both east and west entrances to intercept latecomers, and hand out the inevitable detentions: red for really bad, i.e. premeditated and rebellious 'crimes'; blue for just plain, ordinary haphazard sinners like myself. But both involved staying after school, which I didn't like: not writing out interminable pages from old, boring text-books, anyway. . .(I wonder if the same system still prevails?). . . But now I had no need to hurry. For one thing, exams, mock A Levels then, for me, were over; inducing a more leisurely climate in the school. For another, just six months ago, I had been made a prefect myself. This, plus just being in the Lower Sixth Form, exempted me from some of the more tiresome, at least, school rules strict time-keeping among them. Accordingly, I sauntered through the swing-doors, hailing friends on duty as I passed, and down the beeswaxed corridor, dark after the outdoor brightness with the lackadaisical air of one of the privileged: one of the new school elite... (In those far off grammar school days, every member of this school was, in fact, encouraged to consider him or herself as part of some vague, unspecified, shadowy elite. . . This was after urgent sorting of textbooks, some desultory chatting, and perhaps a snatched cup of tea or coffee in the prefects' Room, which contained a gas-ring. (The Prefects' Room, in those days, was that designated by the present B12 on the current school plan, which I think is now used as the Maths workroom/store.) It was and, I presume,. still is large enough to accommodate a long, wooden table running down the centre of the room; some rows of shelves, for our books and other possessions and about a dozen armchairs, plus one sofa. These formed the stage for many lively debates and sometime, even some scuffles. . . But of that too, more later if there is time. . . Assemblies at that time were always headed I suppose, appropriately, by the Headmaster then Mr James, I do not suppose it will hurt, after all this lapse of time, to pass on a rumour at that time current about this probably very worthy individual. Because he so seldom appeared out of his study apart from official functions, like these assemblies, and the then, annual, school Dance, plays and concerts etc.; the unkind tale had it that he was secretly senile; and that the school was in reality run by his very efficient, even commanding, then Senior master (today, we would call him Deputy Head, I suppose?) - Mr Sheldrake. Mr James was, in fact, a retiring personality: but one comment he made about me, personally, when I was entering the Vlth form, convinced me of his inner perspicacity, for evermore. (It would not be appropriate, or relevant, to pass that on here . . .apart from the fact of its being fairly uncomplimentary to me!) Miss Drayton then Senior Mistress (feminine Deputy Head and representative of the Girls' side of the school) was another school character. She could look a bit grim (often, she had to!); but was in reality very good and kind. She always led the singing of the hymns in the then compulsory, daily School Assembly, in a stern. uncom- page 55