On April 1st. 1947 the  Committee for the Education of Poles in Great Britain was born, it's task was the administration of Polish education at all levels in Great Britain. By 1949 there were 16 nursery schools and 34 primary schools with over 2000 children that resided  in National Assistance Board camps/hostels scattered through out the UK. The Committee also concerned itself with adult education teaching English language to all in the camps who wished to learn. In Northwick Park Mr. Lewicki, who was fluent in English, led  classes for adults and although it was difficult for people in their 40s and above to grasp the language most able bodied people attended and in time learned enough to get by.

At the age of five, with a handful of older children, I was sent to the local village school 2 miles away in Blockley. To get to school we had to go through fields of grazing cows on the Northwick Estate and, being youngest, I could not keep up with the other children as we ran across the fields, sometimes followed by the inquisitive cows. The first few weeks at school was not a happy time for a five year old that was suddenly thrown into a strange environment, not speaking or understanding the language, but as children we coped much better than the adults and within a few months we picked up enough English to get by. Within those few months a Polish Junior school was opened in the nearby camp of  Spring Hill Lodges and so we were taken out of Blockley  and sent to the Polish school in Spring Hill.

With the influx of hundreds of D.Ps. and their children the Polish Junior school was transferred to Northwick Park, and I went back to Blockley Girls and Infants School (Documents can be found in the Gloucestershire Record Office Ref.S52/2). The headmistress of Blockley school was Mrs. D. Yoxall, and I remember her well. She was very strict but fair, and a very good teacher. Over the years I kept in touch with Mrs. Yoxall until her death some years ago. Between the age of five and nine I changed school three times

The Polish School  moved to Northwick Park from Spring Hill  about 1951/ 1952  All the children from Spring Hill Camp were bussed to school  to Northwick by a local bus company  "George Rouse" from Blockley.

In the mid fifties when I became a teenager our generation was sent to a local secondary school. The clever ones went to the grammar school in Chipping Camden. The rest attended Moreton in the Marsh Secondary Modern school and unlike today when we go to so much trouble to foster a multicultural society, speaking Polish at school was strictly forbidden and punished. As Moreton was about five miles away we had buses taking us there. At one time there were nearly two bus loads of pupils  being picked up outside camp gate 1.

World War 2 interrupted higher education for thousands of displaced teenagers and young people. In Britain the Polish Government in Exile set up boarding schools, also run by the  Committee for the Education of Poles in Great Britain, for those that missed out. These were set up in disused camps around the U.K. and all teenagers and young adults were sent away to these schools to learn English and catch up on their education, returning to their families for  Easter, Christmas and summer  holidays.

On the 30th of September 1954, having achieved the task for which they were appointed on April 1st 1947 by the Minister of Education under the Polish Resettlement Act of 1947, the Committee for the Education of Poles in Great Britain laid down the responsibilities that had been entrusted to them.