South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 26 December 1942
Senior Pupils Make Toys For Infants
Mexborough School Stocks Father Christmas’s Sack
Two pupils, Betty Sharpe and Donald Browning, putting finishing touches to some of the toys under the supervision of Mr B Lees (woodwork master).
Boys and girls at Dolcliffe Road Senior School have proved themselves masters of the art of making and mending. Exhibited in the school hall last week with some fine examples of their work – toys which any shop would have been proud to display, made specially for children in the infant schools.
A few months ago most of the materials they use could have been found on a scrapheap had not the Dolcliffe Road scholars have other ideas for their salvage. They arrived at school with old carpet sweepers, odd pram wheels, treacle tins, brush tails, draughts, and many other unwanted articles and speedily converted them into 3 feet long engines, assorted running animals, stuffed dolls, trains complete with trucks, jigsaw puzzles, milk trolleys, wheelbarrows, sack trucks and a seesaw, which are only a few of the different toys they made. Scholars were very grateful for pieces of wood, given as “firewood” by two local firms. In all there must have been toys worth about £100.
When a “Times” reporter visited the school the practical department was a hive of industry; sounds of sawing and hammering proceeded from the woodwork room, where weight scales and tanks were in the making, and the smell of Christmas cake pervaded the air in the cookery room.
For the perfection of the toys credit must be given to the woodwork master (Mr B Lees), whose ingenuity as no limits, and who has been the mastermind behind the tie making, and also to the handicap mistress (Mr D Mellor), was been responsible for the realistic stuffed toys and other articles made by the girls.
Mr Lees said that the toys had been made in woodwork and handicap lessons in the summer term, with the exception of a short period when the potatoes grown on the school’s 1 acre garden were harvested. It had been designed with an eye to safety, there was no danger of injury from sharp corners or protruding wheels on which children would be likely to fall.
Perhaps some parents do not fully realise what initiative is shown in practical lessons by children in schools today, for those who saw the toys which were exhibited seem surprised to find them easily ranking in quality and workmanship with those of professional toymakers. Incidentally gardening, hind work, woodwork and domestic science are not the only practical things of which Dolcliffe Road scholars excel, for they keep half a dozen chinchilla rabbits (under the supervision of the headmaster (Mr D Rogers), one of which has won prizes in shows. Their spaces pitch pine butchers have been made by the boys from all school deaths stop there are also two mice, which, it has been suggested should be read by the girls. Altogether, pupils at the school have a very busy times and have much to show for their labours.