I lived at home with my Mum and Dad, I had two older sisters but they moved out soon after I was born. My Mum didn’t work, she always looked after the house and the children and my Dad was made redundant when I was young. He started a new job working on Stagecoach buses. We didn’t have a lot of things when I was young. We lived quite a simple life. I remember being the last child to have a colour television, we never had a video player, we never ate out or had takeaways. We always holidayed in the UK.
My sisters had attended the local primary and high school and neither them or my parents were happy with the education they had received, and they didn’t want me to go there.
My Dad had attended Daniel Stewart’s College in the 1940s and my parents wanted me to go to The Combined Junior school Mary Erskine and Stewart Melville as it was known then. I remember going in to sit a test when I was only four years old. I must have done well as I was awarded an Assisted Place. I started in 1980 when I was four years old. I stayed at the school until I finished sixth year in 1994 aged 17.
I have only happy memories of school, my Mum said it was the only school when the girls had cried upon leaving to go to their next venture. I loved going to school, even though it was a long journey there and back. I left on the public bus at 7:20am looked after by older other school children and quite often we didn’t arrive until 9am. Getting home took hours as well, usually I wouldn’t get back to my house until around 5.30pm. It was a long day for a small child.
After I left school I realised that not everyone was as lucky as I had been. They told terrible tales of their school life and what it was like, and I soon recognised that my school life had been much happier, and I had had many more opportunities than they had been fortunate to have. Most children learnt either French or German at school. I had learnt, French, Latin, Classical, Gaelic, Turkish and Spanish.
I enjoyed the sciences, and Maths. I still love Maths. I also enjoyed art and photography, and the Enterprise Module I did in Sixth Year, which I am sure was my first love of being the boss and planning everything meticulously and the financials.
After leaving school I went to University in Essex, to study a degree in Horticulture. Every girl in my sixth year went to university. I then worked at two local authorities in the Parks Department before settling in Canterbury City Council for many years as the Senior Contracts Manager. I was in charge of grounds maintenance, refuse and recycling, street cleansing and public conveniences, minor works and building maintenance and enforcement.
I reached the top of my career in 2019 when I took the role of Director of Commercial Operations at East Kent College Group. This was my first venture into education. I ran 19 separate business ventures which were wide ranging from Early Year Nurseries, cafes and refectories, sports centre, an award-winning restaurant and the highest scoring hotel on trip-advisor in Kent, The Yarrow. I had 170 staff members working under my directorate. It was my dream role.
This is the success that former students can obtain from ESMS.
I am still working in Education, in finance at a Junior School, which is a role I have taken to spend more time with my autistic son, and while I search for my own business to purchase. I also am a landlady and own several houses which I rent out.
I still have my best friends from school, whom I have known for 40 years, one from my class and one from my long bus journeys. We made lifelong friendships at MES.
I have had a very successful life and I do believe it stemmed from the opportunity I had to attend such a great school. I can’t imagine what my life would have looked like if I had not been so lucky as to gain a place at the school.
