MORE THAN 30 YEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1935, Page 9

MORE THAN 30 YEARS

MISS LAURA MYNOTT’S RECORD. LONG FAMILY ASSOCIATION. Probably no well-known Taranaki surname has been longer connected with the West End school than that of Mynott. Among the. 62 foundation pupils enrolled by Miss Lydia Shaw, on June 9, 1884, was the late Harry (“Simon”) Mynott who afterwards . distinguished New Zealand, his. school. and hitmelf as a member of the. 1995. AU Blacks. He it was who inaugurated. a. family . association with West. End that was to last, with several small. intermissions, for 43 years. He. was. followed by . a brother, and in 1893,. .his sister,. Miss Laura E. Mynott joined the staff as a pupil-teacher for a short period, but returned some years later. to . remain . as . infant . mistress till 1927. In the aggregate Miss Mynott taught at the school for 32 years and, though now retired, she continues to take an active interest in it and is a member cl the jubilee committee. Miss Mynott started as a pupil-teacher at the Central school under Mr. Hector Dempsey in 1891. At the end of the fol-

lowing year, however, she arranged. an exchange with Miss Emily Rennell, a pupil-teacher at West End. Completing her training under Miss Shaw in 1894, she performed relieving duties for two years at Fitzroy, Central, Inglewood and Egmont Road. ’' ' In 1895 she was at West End once more, this time for three months during the illness of Miss Fanny Smith. In July, 1896, she returned in a temporary capacity to take the place of Miss Smith, who then was seriously ill. The following January Miss Mynott’s position as infant mistress was made permanent and she began a career that was to last for 30 years. Arriving when the school was a building of two rooms, in which 100 pupils were taught before they were sent on to Central, Miss Mynott saw the roll increase to the peak of between 500 and 600 and the building enlarged and finally removed from St. Aubyn Street to the present site. She served under four head-teachers, from Miss Shaw to Mr. J. W. Thomas and attained a reputation as a teacher that extended far beyond New Plymouth. Many hundreds of men and women scattered throughout the Dominion today owe a great deal to the skilful and sympathetic teaching they had from, Miss Mynott, and it was a fitting climax to her career that -upon her retirement the Taranaki Education Board should have placed on record its high appreciation of her services as “a distinguished -member of the teaching profession.”