Starting School – 1951

I found starting Infants School rather traumatic. I was not quite five years old. I didn’t know anyone. My older sister had already moved up to Junior School and my best friend hadn’t started school yet. I remember spending my first lunchtime crying at the school railings, wishing mum would come and get me.

I never really got to like school at all. I think school was probably one of my first lessons in accepting that some things in life are unavoidable. My very first teacher was Miss Ward. She was a round sort of person and was very nice. She had taught both my older sisters before me, and probably my brothers too, as the Infant School was for boys and girls.

All the teachers were Misses when I started school – they weren’t allowed to be married. Teaching was looked upon as a vocation – much like doctors and nurses – and they were expected to devote all their attention to their work. This changed when I was in the Junior Girls School.

In Infants we ‘play’ learned. We had a shop with all sorts of things in it, made out of salt dough, – and of course, we all had a taste of the lollipops. We were given money made out of cardboard to buy things with. We also had different sized bottles and water to play with which taught us how many thirds went into a pint, etc.. We would collect things from the school gardens and they would be displayed on a ‘nature table’. We also had a bulb vase which was filled with water and a bulb added so that we could see the roots grow and the flower appear. It was a hyacinth when I was in the infants, and the smell was beautiful.

One day a little boy named Donald came into the class on crutches and with callipers on his legs. I think he must have been a polio victim, as it was quite rife at that time. Eventually he was able to walk without the crutches, which made us all very happy.

At playtime we all went into the playground for a while to let off steam. The boys spent a lot of time lifting up gymslips and looking at your knickers, which caused a great deal of squealing from the girls. The toilet block was divided in half and stood in the playground. The boys took great delight in peeing from their side over the top of the wall onto the girls, so you had to be quick when you went in and out, and hope that you didn’t get caught.

I could read before I went to school. My father had taken me to join the library, and in order to join I had to read to the head librarian, Miss Seeds. When I say I could read, I meant that I could work out and say the words. It wasn’t until I was seven and had just started the Junior Girls School that the penny dropped and I realised that what I was reading was a story. I’ve been reading stories ever since – when I was a child often using only the light from the crack in the door when I was in bed, and supposed to be sleeping.

I got a watch from my godparents that year, as I had learned to tell the time. Looking back, I must have been quite a bright kid, but school never made me feel that way. I always felt like a mediocre student and did my best to blend into the background.

Assembly was held every morning in the school hall. I don’t remember much about the reason for the assemblies. Judging from later years there would have been prayers and a hymn probably, and then school notices. There was an upright piano in the hall with three different sized brass claw bells on the top. The back of the piano was covered in hessian with the Three Wise Men riding their camels sewn onto it – all made out of felt. I think I remember this so well because, being infants, we were at the front of the assembly and I probably spent my time in there studying it.

School dinners were provided each day for anyone who wanted them. The cost was 6d per day. You took your 2/6d on Monday which paid for your week’s dinners. We always had school dinners as it was too far to walk home at lunchtime, and my dad went home and had his cooked meal in the middle of the day, which meant mum didn’t have to do us a cooked meal. We generally had something on toast for tea. I didn’t mind school dinners, except for the mashed potato, which was always lumpy. The puddings were yummy and I loved school stew which was so thick you could stand a spoon up in it. We were also given a third of a pint of milk every day at morning recess. I think it was to ensure that kids got calcium for growing bones after the restrictions of the war. I don’t think they do that anymore.

When I was seven I moved to the Junior Girls School to start the second stage of my education.

Advertisement