Cholomendy

Liverpool Education Authority had an outdoor centre at Cholomendy in North Wales. where you could take parties of children for a week at very little cost. In cases of hardship, the pupils would go free. The Authority even arranged a Cooperation bus to take you there for 60p per pupil return.

Roger, the new Head of Department, had taken parties of children to Cholomendy many times. At West Derby, where Roger came from, they had a policy of taking all the first years there for an induction week. Children, who had come from different Primary Schools got to know each other and make friendships  that would last through their time in Secondary School. 

Since we couldn't take children from Anfield in term time,  Roger decided we'd take them during the first week of the Summer holiday. We established this pattern for a number of years and ended up taking some of the boys several times.

The groups we took were carefully selected to include children who would benefit from a week's holiday rather than those who would traditionally have been taken away by their parents.

Roger already had extensive knowledge of the area and good relations with the staff at the camp. He was therefore able to put together a plan of activities for the week designed to  keep the children busy.

It was always difficult on the first night to encourage excited youngsters, who were not used to being in a dormitory of 30,  to get to sleep. So on the first full day, we'd take the boys on a long walk to tire them out in the hope they would sleep better the second night. It worked for me, I always arrived back at camp shattered. The boys, on the other hand, would complain of tiredness during the walk and then ask for a ball to play a game of soccer when they returned to camp.

One of our regular trips during the week was to the quarry at Cefn Mawr. We'd spend the morning briefing the children about Cefn Harry who Roger explained was a Welsh terrorist that frequented the quarry with a gun; determined to wipe out English visitors.  The boys  were instructed to follow Roger and watch carefully for a sign he would make if he spotted Harry. I was amazed that streetwise 15 year old Scousers fell for that story.  It was hilarious to watch 30 boys drop to the ground the instant Roger raised his arm. Years later one boy even asked me if Cefn Harry was real or whether we'd made him up. I didn't have the hear to tell him the truth.

Another activity which proved popular with the boys was dissecting owl pellets. I never really understood how Roger was able to find so many of them so quickly but he did. The boys would then spend hours carefully teasing out all the bones from the fur to find out what the owls had been eating which was always mice and shrews.

One year, the warden at Cholomendy knitted Roger and I knee length multi-coloured cardigans, which we wore whilst we were there. On Sundays the children's parents visited the camp to make sure their offspring were OK and to bring them food parcels in case they were hungry. Spotting the pair of us with long hair, beards, sunglasses and our multi-coloured coats, one parent asked, "who are those two hippies?" Once they'd been told we were the teachers, Roger and I  had a hard job convincing the parents to leave their children in our charge. 

Roger and I didn't get a lot of sleep during the weeks we'd spend at Cholomendy. The pair of us would stay up until 2am playing cards whilst we made sure the children were all asleep. Then we'd get up at 6am to go fishing on the River Alun which ran though the bottom of the camp. With a few trout in the bag, we'd return to the dormitory to wake the children up at 8am.

The routine first thing was to clean the place until it was spick and span ready for inspection by one of the wardens. Beds had to be made perfectly without a crease in the sheets, clothes had to be neatly folded in lockers, shoes cleaned and the floor swept so you you could eat off it. Each day they would be given a mark which would always start at 6 out of 10 and gradually get better as the week progressed. You would not believe how competitive those children could be. Anybody who let the side down was thoroughly admonished by the rest.

The times we spent at Cholomendy were good for both us and the boys in our charge. I don't think I could do it now though!