The start of the school year was delayed until mid-April, due to an outbreak of poliomyelitis that swept the country. In light of our current circumstances, it feels right to reflect on our past experiences...

In a pre-internet era, the Correspondence School used to regularly broadcast a short lesson on the radio, for students who lived in remote areas. This amounted to about 40 lessons per month. Once the country’s entire school roll became confined to home by the polio epidemic, the Correspondence School had to step up to provide 40 radio classes every week.

Past students and teachers recall how the lessons were also sent out in green canvas envelopes, to be completed and returned to local schools, where teachers sat in empty classrooms to mark them.

Because polio affected children more than adults, the entire population was not in ‘lock-down’, although children were confined to home and all public gatherings were cancelled. Families who were unlucky enough to have a child contract polio however faced the added stress of quarantine.

Ian Thomas Young Johnston O.B. 1925-29...

"In 1925 we had this big infantile paralysis epidemic and we never started school until April. My introduction to secondary school was by correspondence. It used to be posted to us and we would need to post it back. In those days it only cost pennies or tuppence.”