Janet Neilson

It was a huge pleasure this week to interview Janet Neilson, former school teacher in Swansea, who talks about her educational background and the differences in career advice given in those days compared to today as well as about her parents’ military experiences during the Second World War and about the days when married women were not allowed to teach.

Janet was a junior school teacher who specialized in music and she tells us how she made sure her pupils were good readers. We learn why Janet went into teaching and worked as a piano teacher and we learn why she thinks the National Curriculum is one of the worst things that could have happened.

We find out about Janet’s earliest memories, including her time in the Girl Guides, and learn that she didn’t have a TV before 1962 but listened to Children’s Hour on the radio, but was mainly into classical music. She also sang in the Swansea Philharmonic Choir.

Janet talks about the teachers who inspired her, the change in pastoral care in education over the decades, her apprehension about how it is too easy to get into university and what she personally gained from having a grammar school education. We also discuss whether going into school education was a vocation.

She explains why she thinks Religious Education is a ‘Cinderella subject’ and we learn about her work in framing the school RE curriculum and how she has been studying the Swansea Hebrew Congregation for over 40 years. Janet talks about her experience of studying Religious Studies as a mature student and being classed as a disabled student and the way technology has evolved over the last 20 years.

Janet remembers being beaten up on her first day at school and we share our experiences of school bullying and talk about the inability to call teachers, even several decades later, by their first names. Janet also tells us about the letter from one of her former pupils which she would like to be read out at her funeral.

In the final part of the interview Janet tells us why as a teacher she was ‘strict, firm and fair’ and we learn why she is a looking forward type of person but, through her interest in genealogy, a looking back sort of person, too.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Janet Neilson and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.