IOCO School

“When I finished school, there was about three things at the time that I finished school that a person, a female could do, and that is she’d either go in for teaching, nursing or be a stenographer. So I went in for a stenographer and to get that education I had to travel by bus to Vancouver by the week and back and forth. And I went to Sprott Shaw Business School on Hastings Street then.

“We cheer the dear IOCO a small and friendly school, Oh! See the GOLD and PURPLE, our bright and shining jewel. We work to help its progress, and raise its standards high, HOORAY . . . HOORAY . . . IOCO, We’ll never let you die.” - Composed by Mr. Edmund Benville, Teacher circa 1960

In the later years, they had a “S.H.A.F.T. Program, for teenagers who are having problems. They had the bottom floor, I had the top floor. Now this is only the last couple of years that I was teaching, but they gave me three, they had four rooms on a square with like a hole in the middle, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in the old school but anyway… So I used one room as a quiet room, one room with activities, you know, toys, bricks, all the big stuff. And the other room as a music room and sort of like a little gym, the fourth room, the school board used as storage.”

“Once you were married, you no longer worked. That’s why all the teachers had to be single up until at least 1935.”

“I went down to Ioco for grade 6 or 7, I can’t remember which it was. I think grade 7 it was. I went down there for grade 7. It had four rooms and four teachers down there. Plus you had training program where the boys came up once a week for woodwork and drafting. And they had one (a class) for the girls for cooking for the first half of the year and the second half was sewing.”

“The small group attended school in Port Moody until June 1915. A one room building, financed by subscription and built by volunteers, located on the west side of the small area directly South of Ioco townsite. Was opened as Ioco School,
The first teacher was Miss Wilks. Miss Florence Hailey taught for a few semesters (Mrs. Dick Runnels).
Miss Hailey resigned and was replaced with Maud Kneeshaw who taught until her retirement about 1930.”

“The home Economics class was Called “Domestic Science” at the Ioco School.”

“I went down to Ioco for grade six or seven, grade seven it was. I went down there for grade seven. It had four rooms and four teachers down there plus you had manual training, boys came up once a week for wood working and drafting and they had one for the girls for cooking for the first half of the year and the other half was sewing.”

“I began school in 1928 at the age of 7 years. The school consisted of four rooms: one room served Grades 1, 2, and 3; another served Grades 4, 5, and 6 and one served Grades 7 and 8. My teacher in Grades 1, 2, and 3 was Charlotte Wilson. Then I passed to Grade 4, they moved Miss Wilson to room 2, so I had her for a teacher for another three years. In Miss Kneeshaw’s room we were marched around the room every morning to Colonel Bogeys March to ”clear the cobwebs from our brains”, she said. For our exercise classes, we were marched over a bridge on 1st Avenue to the Hall on 4th Avenue. We all had to wear black bloomers and white tops (I hated them). We were taught badminton after school also in the Hall. The latter was the important room as we wrote government exams in Grade 8. Our teacher, Maude Kneeshaw, would give us extra tutoring as she loved to have some Gold Medal winners and did, many times. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the smart ones and only came fourth, but still not too bad out of a class of 18 or 20. Each class in the school had at least 18 to 20 pupils. The last room taught Grades 9, 10 and 11. My teacher, Gay Swencisky, was also a good teacher. Latin was her thing. Miss Swencisky was a good badminton player.”

“There was a girls and a boys basement in which we played in inclement weather. We lined up down there for the start of school by grade. A gym was built in 1959 and our teacher Mr. Benville made up a song to thank the Coquitlam school district.
The strap was still used and we were in fear of it.
To get the bus home we lined up at the top of the school driveway and when the bus came ran down to the curb yelling bus …bus to try to be the first in line.”