Some travellers return

During the first months of the war very little seemed to happen. There was no invasion, and few air raids. Many children were homesick, and their parents missed them. So some of them began to return to London.

 

By early 1940, of the 234 children who had been evacuated in 1939, only 171 remained in Aylesbury.

 

And long before Christmas 1939, arrangements were being made to open an emergency school. To begin with there were around 30 Cass children back in London and with no school to go to, so the trustees decided they could join the classes being held at a neighbouring school building. But by the spring, more had returned and all the necessary plans were made for the Cass school to re-open – teachers were appointed, posters went up and classes began.

 

But a few weeks later the Battle of Britain began, and the emergency school was to be short-lived, as many children left London for a second time.