Vi Huse
Vi Huse has lived in the Miles Platting and Ancoats areas for thirty six years. She has two grown up children, who both attended Corpus Christi School when they were younger.

Vi has worked voluntarily at Corpus Christi for approximately twenty years.
“It gets me out of the house and keeps me out of mischief,” Vi told us with a twinkle in her eye.

Corpus Christi closed last July and amalgamated with St Anne’s School in Ancoats, moving from Varley Street to the St Anne’s building in Carruthers Street. The new name for the school is Corpus Christi with St. Anne.

Cutting, glue-ing, stencilling, guillotining and colouring for classroom displays, all take up a teacher’s valuable time. With Vi there to help, the teaching staff can concentrate on teaching the children.

The workload is often quite heavy so Vi gets help from her friend Margaret Murray, who many know as the nursery’s dinner lady.

Vi showed us her Cinderella wall display. The dress was made of satin placed in swathes. It was very effective.

Another of Vi’s talents is the ability to find missing items. Whenever a stapler or paper-punch goes missing, it is usually Vi who tracks it down.

We asked Vi about her hobbies. She has many! They include reading, local history, knitting, needlepoint, tapestry, pin-art, embroidery and watching T.V.

We remarked on her artistic streak, and with the now familiar twinkle in her eye she said, “Oh yes, I’m very crafty! I’m working on some needlepoint. I’ve just bought a new frame to work on. My old one collapsed! My son mended it once but it collapsed again!”

We asked her about pin-art, as we hadn’t heard of it before.
“You have special small, straight pins with different coloured heads, and you arrange them by pushing them into polystyrene shapes, oval or round. They look like ‘Faberge type’ jewels. They are lovely to give as gifts.”

We asked Vi to tell us about a good thing in the area. “Well, it has to be the people of the area. There was a big campaign a few years ago, to keep Ancoats Hospital open. I know people who did a sleep-in overnight as part of the campaign. It’s due to those people fighting so hard that we still have the Ancoats Clinic and the out-patients department there.”

We spoke to a few members of staff regarding the voluntary work Vi Huse does in the school. Here is what they said:

“Vi has worked voluntarily at the school for many years. She has seen staff and children come and go. I know my teaching staff greatly appreciate the work she does.”
A. Sowerby, Head Teacher.

“She should have a gold pot for all the work she does here.”
Marion.

“I’m glad Vi is going to be featured in the magazine. She deserves a pat on the back.”
Sheila

“I don’t know how the teachers would cope without help from Vi. They would probably be here till midnight preparing displays.”
Chris