Education, home and abroad

By Anne Dimond

In 1953 we sailed to Brazil when I was 8 years old and we went to Brazil ‘cause my Father, who worked in power stations could get paid more Abroad than in England. We were on the boat for three weeks. When we got to Brazil and moved into our Bungalow in Padroeira just outside San Paolo my parents got my sister and I into a convent day school in San Paulo. We went every day by minibus. The school was American. They were behind us in their education and their spelling of certain words were different still we soon settled down. At 12, I went back to England to a boarding school in Kent. The nuns were strict and I felt lost so far away from home and Mum and Dad. I was there for five years and did not like it and only saw my parents once a year when I went home to Brazil and later to British Guiana. I left school when I was 17, went into nursing met my husband and got married in Guildford. I had Adrian 9 months after getting married and Avril six years later. They both went o St. Michael’s infant and junior schools and then to St Cuthbert’s and Sacred Hearts. They were home for their tea by 4 o’clock and enjoyed their holidays and weekends with David and I. They lived with us until they left home after my experience of boarding school I always said I would never put my children into a boarding school.