MEMOR I E S O F DUCKS
Last summer, DUCKS celebrated its 20 th anniversary. During the celebrations, Mrs Ann-Christine Andersen , its first Head, reflected on how passion and determination saw a group of seven children aged from three months to five years develop into a thriving Kindergarten and Infants’ School.
I t’s hard to know where the DUCKS story starts. It might have been the day that my son saw a picture of Table Mountain hanging in the Dulwich College Sanatorium and asked Abbie, the nursing sister, what it was doing there. She explained that she had once worked in Cape Town. He had grown up there, he told her, and thus I came to know and befriend Abbie Simmonds-Abbot. The actual seed of DUCKS was planted unknowingly in 1991 when Abbie was asked to look after the baby son of a member of the teaching staff. Inevitably, the news spread and in the days that followed, staff began clamouring for childcare. So, Abbie and I looked into the viability of setting up such a facility. As luck would have it, there were two rooms available in the Sanatorium. We applied for the necessary permissions and in due course Southwark Council’s Education Department approved the establishment of a day-care nursery for seven children aged between three months and five years. The Master gave his approval. The first, unforgettable school day was 21st April 1992. Babies, buggies and toddlers were given into our care, both boys and girls – the first girls to attend the College. A new age was born. Schooling at DUCKS was to be fun and learning was through play. As it became public knowledge that there was a nursery at the College, we found ourselves facing a growing demand for places – bigger premises were clearly going to be needed. Luck was with us again. The College had taken over Eller Bank, a large house and spacious grounds.
It was agreed that we could use the facilities on condition that we removed all traces of our presence to permit College events on Wednesday evenings and at weekends. It was a good thing that we learned to share because, with steadily growing demand, it wasn’t long before we needed yet more space. We got permission to expand into the cricket pavilion. This wasn’t ideal, but we managed, sharing the rooms with the Dulwich College cricketers and the Northwood bowlers. That was until a cold evening in February 1997 when I received a phone call to say that the pavilion was on fire. I arrived on the scene to find a raging inferno. By the time the firemen had doused the flames, little remained. The few books and toys that we retrieved from the ashes served as a reminder of that day. I was touched by the subsequent help and support of the people around me. In the event, the fire was a blessing in disguise: the children’s education continued without interruption and the new purpose-built school was designed to be extended as the school grew in size. By the time I handed over the reins, the children’s numbers had grown from seven to 220. At my farewell I had the privilege of having the hall named after me. As I look back, I recall leisurely summer barbeques, games of cricket with the children on the lawns, picking roses to make posies for their parents and the views across the great playing fields of the College to London’s distant towers and spires. These memories will be with me always.
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