Welcome to Rushlight
The Belfast Magazine's
Message Forum


Please feel free to join the message forum discussions.

General Forum
This Forum is Locked
Author
Comment
St Mary's Primary School Beechmount

As a past pupil of St Mary's. I have fond memories of my days there. Came upon your site before and was delighted to read some names I remembered
Have been trying to trace the name of a reading book I had read at school Lots of people seem to be looking for the same one Now I feel I,ve cracked it The reading book is called The Happy Venture readers ,Book Four. The particular story was called THE NASTURTIUMS THAT WERE TOO PROUD FOR THEIR BOOTS. It was a story about the flowers growing over the roof of a house and everyone thought the house was on fire I hope this helps anyone who may be interested in that story

Re: St Mary's Primary School Beechmount

The nasturtiums story was in Happy Venture Readers and I think it was Vol 3. The man in the story who grew the flowers was called Ben. Happy Venture was an imprint of Oliver & Boyd and the original of Dick, Dora, Fluff & Nip. They were written by (Sir) Fred J. Schonell an Australian(Queensland)educator and his wife. His other reader series, Wide Range Readers were popular in N.I. schools. Happy Venture readers catered for children between 5 & 7. They are still in print.

I imagine the reader you had came with a yellowish cover. It was an observation by teachers that children who struggled with spelling could nevertheless, always correctly spell 'nasturtiums' which was probably Sir Fred's intention.

Hope that helps with your query. TOM

Re: St Mary's Primary School Beechmount

my cousin was a teacher there in the 1930s

Re: St Mary's Primary School Beechmount

Hi,
I remember this story from a book i had as a child. It was an old book then passed down to me. Apart from the nasturtium story i seem to remember a story about a family on a train i think going to the seaside. They were singing 'The Grand Old Duke of York' on the train. (Sorry, the fog of time....) Does anyone know if these two stories were in one book as i'd love to find it again.
Thanks

Re: St Mary's Primary School Beechmount

Living in Perth Western Australia, left Belfast in 1969, just remembering and seeing what happened to St Mary Primary School, Falls Rd and seeing if I can see some old friends.