I had failed an earlier exam at the age of 11 and so took another to get into Elliott. I can't remember which form or teacher I had, although I think he was an English teacher. I do remember the Head Master and assembly in the Main Hall (how different it was from the primary school going from room to room for different lessons). I remember a few names, my first boyfriend especially.

I think because of the change at the age of 14 and the distance from school as I lived in Notting Hill which meant a walk to the station, then the train to Putney Bridge, the Bus from there to the Green Man and the walk to the school. It didn't take long for me to get bored and not want to go to school. I did believe I didn't like school so decided I would bunk off. A good time to start was with the winter snow on the ground, freezing cold, not weather for travelling. But it was no good asking my mum if I could stay home, as she wouldn't hear of it, so I had to take on myself to plan my day. Leave home normal time get round the corner hide behind a wall watching for my mother to leave to take my younger brother to school and she wouldn't be back till after work about 3 pm. She would come in doors at that time just before going out again to collect my brother. So 3 pm. was my time for crawling under the bed she had gone.

I don't think I ever told my mum but when I think back I wonder what time I would have got home from Elliott because, I can’t remember going out of the house again to arrive home from school maybe later.

The second time I bunked off started much the same as the first. Back indoors after mum had left, but this time I wrapped a bandage around my ankle and waited till mum came in at 3 pm. "What are you doing here?" she said and I replied "I fell down the stairs and had to go to the nurse and get it bandaged" (those concrete stairs that we walked up and down so many times a day). Anyway I had to get my ankle dressed every day for a couple of weeks, until one of the boys from my class Allen Througood, knocked on my door one evening to ask what was wrong and why I wasn't at school. My mum said "She fell down the stairs". At that point the game was up and my mum marched me back to school.

The funny thing is one of the lessons was shorthand and typing and I was always top of the class for shorthand, even though I may have missed a few lessons. It was shortly after this that my mother took me out of Elliott and I then went to Cardinal Manning in Ladbroke Grove I don't think I stayed there very long before begging to leave school and go to work.

Bridget (Case) Bryne attended the Elliott between 1957 and 1958