Mobile Classrooms

[Austin Maxi]

I don't know if any schools still use them these days, but when I was at school in the '80s, we had 7-or-8 mobile classrooms, and I remember they were in common useage at schools all over the place.

Usually grey oblong buildings with a row of six windows along each side, windowed double doors up some steps at the front, and a blackboard at the back where the teacher usually sat at a desk. These classrooms were often freezing in winter months until the heaters were turned on, but often a strange musty smell would eminate from the aforementioned heaters which you never got in normal classrooms.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

There was one at my high school but I never had any lessons in it. It was taken away half way through my 5 years there and by the time I left they were closing a wing of the school to use as a community centre. Not enough classrooms to too many in a very short space of time!

[Marine Boy]

Re: Mobile Classrooms



The most common types were called 'Elliotts'. We had two at primary school and three at secondary. They are still used at the school where I work at the moment. I think ours are about thirty years old but were never really meant to last that long.

[yates9192]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

we had 2 in our school in the 80's..and the kids nicknamed them FISH TANKS....even the teachers started calling them this...like you said very cold in winter. we used to wear are coats in class.

[Richard1978]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

My first primary school had one for the first year infants. I remember the heating was powered by large Calor gas cylinders that had to be replaced every few days.

The toilets were the only full size ones available to pupils in the whole school, the others were undersized for even a 7 year old.

Years later while at secondary school I had a term of helping out at a local nursery school one lesson. This had a mobile classroom almost exactly the same as the one at my primary school & brought back many memories, long before I started to be nostalgic.

By secondary school had a few mobiles, the heating broke down in one & we had to have portable gas heaters brought in to try & keep them warm.

[sf1378]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

The most common types were called 'Elliotts'. We had two at primary school and three at secondary. They are still used at the school where I work at the moment. I think ours are about thirty years old but were never really meant to last that long.

That whole pic reminded me of Oxford Road Primary School in Reading when I was a kid....at the far end of the playground was one just like this, and the playground markings....I remember these, they usually were damp by the time I went to another school and they smelt of mold in winter too....

[darren]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

when i was at primary school in the late seventies i can remember 3 mobiles classrooms.
in secondary school we had none but in my last which i left in 92 i think we had 3.
they where white and the door was at the front not on the side but the door is at the front end.

[stuckinthe80's]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

My Junior school had 2 in the mid to late 70's. Think they were still there till about the early 90's. Hated having lessons in them. They were really cold in the winter and had a really strange smell in the summer. Not BO I have to say! Lol

[battyrat]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

My primary had four or five of them back in the 70's.Two seperate classes like the grey one in the photo and two or three joined together which had that red wood stained planks on the sides.The two end ones were the classes,but the central one became the cloak room and toilets for the two classes at either end.One of these huts as we called them was my class when the dutch elm tree disease struck,and we all had to go outside and watch the tree next to the hut being felled.Must of only been about 20 foot from that massive tree.So much for health and safety back then,lol.Halloween all the windows became decorated with coloured tissue paper pumpkings, bats,and witches,etc.When My brother and sister went to the same school later they had obtained a few more of them,and had them arranged around a square.Had a couple in my secondary school as well.For some unknown reason they had one of these huts well separated from the rest of the school where it stood on its own,almost in quarenteen.We used to get under it to hide out and have a smoke.There was a little hatch under it which we used to hide fags and things in.Never found out what this tiny hatch was for as it seemed to serve no purpose,but useful for those of us that did not want our fags found and converscated.

[darren]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

My Junior school had 2 in the mid to late 70's. Think they were still there till about the early 90's. Hated having lessons in them. They were really cold in the winter and had a really strange smell in the summer. Not BO I have to say! Lol

Hard ti believe mobile classrooms where around for so long.
When i was in them i didnt feel like i was in school.
even though i knew they where part of the school i somehow felt being in a mobile i was in a different school.

[jb7]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

yea my High School had 2 of them, way back in 87 I think during the Summer before I started there, there had been a fire started deliberately on a row of classrooms extended out behind the school a bit. Therefore demolished and two mobiles in place, LOL I always thought they were cool. thou waiting in the cold outside anytime it had been, for the teacher to arrive wasnt great! LOL

[FLYING SAUCER]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

We had a couple too, at my secondary school (back in 1977) I think the correct name for them was Terrapin Huts, they always reminded me a bit of 1950s cold war stuff!

We used one for our rural studies, and the floor was a bit rotten in one!

[darren]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

We had a couple too, at my secondary school (back in 1977) I think the correct name for them was Terrapin Huts, they always reminded me a bit of 1950s cold war stuff!

We used one for our rural studies, and the floor was a bit rotten in one!

went pat my primay school today they still have their mobile classrooms.

[shilton dipper]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

We have mobile classrooms where i work..........have to say thankfully I haven't had to work in them in the 9 years I've been on the staff . o O ( phew! )

[darren]

Re: Mobile Classrooms

hard to believe schools still have mobile classrooms.

but they are good alternative to normal classrooms.

i prefered mobiles to normal classrooms myself.

for one thing they are not made of concrete and mobiles are easy to move.

shilts you will be working in a mobile this week i sense it.

in my last school we had one which sat on the grass between the car park and the all weather pitch.

We have mobile classrooms where i work..........have to say thankfully I haven't had to work in them in the 9 years I've been on the staff . o O ( phew! )