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Dorothy H Willis: an enterprising headmistress

I recently came across this cutting from the Brighton and Hove Gazette from the early 1960s which featured Miss Willis, Headmistress of St Michael’s.

Comments about this page

  • I left school a couple of weeks before this article was published. The educational rot certainly set in from the late 60s onwards, and my grammar school was closed in 1970 to become part of a comprehensive, which is now being rebuilt to become a ‘college’. The educational standards were never at any point maintained in the new school, and it was a tragedy for all concerned including the teachers. How could that have been an improvement for aspirational working class students? No wonder private establishments, such as Miss Willis’s, have taken the lead in recent years.

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (04/10/2010)
  • I’m sorry to say so but she looks remarkably like Michael Winner! Do you think they could be related?

    By Neil Underhill (04/10/2010)
  • Have you got a ‘Death Wish’, Neil?

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (05/10/2010)
  • Calm down dears!!

    By Alan Hobden (07/10/2010)
  • It is Michael Winner’s twin sister.

    By Julie Annets (09/10/2010)
  • In my child’s mind, Miss Willis was always confused with Queen Victoria. I must have become one of her “20 pupils” around the time that this article was published or soon after. I remember nothing of Anthony Willis, and the scheme to accept pupils to age 13 came to nothing.

    By Paul O (24/07/2011)
  • I have read several comments on various pages about the abolition of Grammar School and Secondary Modern Education, firstly the 11 plus was a blessing and a curse. Having been a Secondary Modern boy, the word Comprehensive had not been invented then, I found from my time at School in Brighton and London that there were boys and girls who had done extremley well at Junior School and passed the 11 plus but then could not keep up with the pace of the Grammar School and likewise there were boys and girls who had failed horribly who suddenly started to catch up and pass the 13 plus and get offered a place at Grammar School. Youngsters who could not keep up with the Grammar School pace were often placed in the A Band of a Secondary School and carried on with the Grammar School Curriculum but at  a slower pace.                                                     

     

     

    By John Wignall (02/08/2016)
  • In reply to Stefan Bremner Morris’s comments, I’m afraid I wholeheartedly agree with everything he says. The ‘Tripartite ‘education between 1945 – the 1970’s was by no means perfect but compared to the educational standards of today under the comprehensive system it delivered far higher standards across the board. The comprehensive system although well-meaning has proved to be a disaster as the UK’s educational standings on all levels has collapsed from once being amongst the highest standards of education in the western world.
    In response to John Wignall’s comments, yes there were aspects that didn’t work perfectly but as a former pupil of a secondary modern school, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world, we all left school very well equipped for what life would bring.

    By John Summers (26/11/2022)

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