MOST mums and daughters love to do something together, whether shopping trips, fitness classes or catching the latest Brad Pitt movie.
But the activity that Eilish Hill found herself sharing with her daughter Helen was one that she thought she had left behind 27 years earlier – homework.
The mother and daughter from Victoria Road, Barrow, had enrolled on the same English Literature A-level course at Barrow Sixth Form College from September that year in 1996.
Although the 16-year-old Helen had always planned to carry on at school, her 43-year-old mum had only just caught the study bug again after nearly three decades after she ran out of the gates of St Bernard’s RC High School into a job as a clerk typist.
Irish-born Eilish had signed up for the night classes in computing but that was just the start of an amazing academic year which saw her nominated by the college staff for a student achievement medal.
In llege news, in 1991, members of the Sixth Form drama department performed Mad Forest.
Caryl Churchill’s play about the Romanian revolution was praised by staff and parents as the pupils put on a well-attended show.
They tackled the play confidently, unabashed by Churchill’s reputation and if their interpretation was long on intellect and short on passion that would be inevitable for actors of their age.
Also, that year, eight of the college’s top pupils found themselves being presented with the Dennison and Hemsley scholarship award for outstanding performances at A-level.
They received their awards from vice chairman of the governors, Mrs Hazel Charlesworth, who had been a parent governor since 1985.
Winners included Lian Booth, Katherine Holland, Natalie Johnson, Jonathan Maddock, James Boyland, Duncan Millard, Ian Shaw, and Paul Swinglehurst. They would go on to study at various academies including London, Lancaster, Cambridge, and York.
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