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Re: Infant school in the 70s....
A lot of this is memorable to me. I also seem to equate infant school with hazy Summery afternoons and sunny days...I went in the very early 1980s. I didn't learn much, I cannot recall ever having been taught how to write at infants / primary school - i.e. 'trace over this letter 'a' (lower case) and this upper case 'A' and then copy it underneath when you've practiced enough etc' - My Mum taught me at home, the alphabet, how to read, basic maths etc. I am very thankful for that otherwise my literacy would have been rubbish at school and probably still as its the route cause of adult literacy issues today...She used the Ladybird book of A, B, C' to do all that. All I did at my school was waste time - not me personally but lessons were simply drawing, painting, using hands, potato prints, I think we had a tiny bit of cookery, nativity plays - I was one of the Three Kings!
We had many a 'bring toys in day' which my Mum forbade me taking in nice things as other kids would naturally break them out of spite or rough play - at the time I was sad of that but now I'm very glad she used to be that careful. We also played outside on nice days, we had loads of trikes and bikes and my Dad told me he used to like seeing me park the trikes back in the shed at the far end of the playground as he stood at the other end at the gates waiting to collect me...I remember the terapin huts used for hot dinners and packed lunches but I was lucky enough to live down the road from the school so Mum or my Sister would collect me and we could eat a meal at home - which consisted of 'help you grow up food' like mince in gravy, mash potato, tinned boiled carrot slices - bleurgh...lol. Sometimes Mum would let us stay at home afterwards (if she was in a good mood that is!). Otherwise, she'd give us a wash with a flannel to our faces and hands, change our clothes as she felt these places were dirty (lol) and take us back 
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If you didn't have packed or hot lunches you couldn't venture into the lunch hut. Period. We had shaped climbing frames - a green circular one, a blue rectangular one and a red one - but I cannot remember the shape - they were all like trees growing out of the ground. I remember being on one like a monkey and saw my Mum wating for me to take me home for lunch and I slipped and bumped my head on a bar and ended up with a very painful bump so she used a damp dish rag and the now off cooker hob ring which she'd heated up and placed the rag on it to warm it a bit and placed it on my bump - we don't feel that cold packs help bumps and lumps, rather heat as it helps the blood flow more and heal the 'wound'...I remember it was painful - for a 4 year old!
We had Mr 'Egghead' Eastwood ring the bell for end of playtimes and for us to all run back in - well, 'WALK DON'T RUN!' Mr Saunders used to play very competitively with the bigger kids football, and foul them something chronic the blighter! We had a steel band which was well known in the local area, I think they appeared in the local paper from time to time and always had a float on the annual carnival the town used to hold back then - it was once a big event back then, sadly not the case now. The older kids were in it from the upper years. A play one year was 'The Magic Carpet', my sister appeared in the bit set in Denmark or Germany, it was rather funny seeing a bowl cutted Asian girl being some Deutch lass with that traditional outfit on and hat...and no blonde wig doing a hand clap dance...I remember she had on pink lipstick which I hated lol. My Dad, being Dad 'thought it was cr-p'
on the whole and Mum was very glad she didn't go....lol.
We often got taken to the local parks - via a big double decker bus!!!! It was one of those older ones and I remember vividly one being blue on the outside, like a special charter firm. We'd just play in the park all day...and then go home. They once took us on a special planned trip to Brighton and my mate Andy swopped my nice Corgi Mercedes Benz for his Matchbox Fiat Arbarth, we'd both bought them from the same shop and he kept pleading with me for it, so I caved in and when I wanted to swop back he'd purposely scratched the roof...so I couldn't have it back
It was just one big playtime for me back then...and yes, we had naps, mats to sit on, reading time and we could choose books and then swop with someone else after a while etc, we had teachers that hit you if you were naughty still, Mr Saunders thwacking my Sisters arm for being sat on a desk at playtime and her coming home with a swollen arm and Mum going back after lunch with us and going APE with the overly brutal martinet was hilarious when she recounted it to me years later - the kids in my Sisters classroom found it hilarious seeing Saunders get a dressing down - in FRONT of them!
I'd say those years were the happiest of my life. Everything was simple then....
A lot of this is memorable to me. I also seem to equate infant school with hazy Summery afternoons and sunny days...I went in the very early 1980s. I didn't learn much, I cannot recall ever having been taught how to write at infants / primary school - i.e. 'trace over this letter 'a' (lower case) and this upper case 'A' and then copy it underneath when you've practiced enough etc' - My Mum taught me at home, the alphabet, how to read, basic maths etc. I am very thankful for that otherwise my literacy would have been rubbish at school and probably still as its the route cause of adult literacy issues today...She used the Ladybird book of A, B, C' to do all that. All I did at my school was waste time - not me personally but lessons were simply drawing, painting, using hands, potato prints, I think we had a tiny bit of cookery, nativity plays - I was one of the Three Kings!
We had many a 'bring toys in day' which my Mum forbade me taking in nice things as other kids would naturally break them out of spite or rough play - at the time I was sad of that but now I'm very glad she used to be that careful. We also played outside on nice days, we had loads of trikes and bikes and my Dad told me he used to like seeing me park the trikes back in the shed at the far end of the playground as he stood at the other end at the gates waiting to collect me...I remember the terapin huts used for hot dinners and packed lunches but I was lucky enough to live down the road from the school so Mum or my Sister would collect me and we could eat a meal at home - which consisted of 'help you grow up food' like mince in gravy, mash potato, tinned boiled carrot slices - bleurgh...lol. Sometimes Mum would let us stay at home afterwards (if she was in a good mood that is!). Otherwise, she'd give us a wash with a flannel to our faces and hands, change our clothes as she felt these places were dirty (lol) and take us back . If you didn't have packed or hot lunches you couldn't venture into the lunch hut. Period. We had shaped climbing frames - a green circular one, a blue rectangular one and a red one - but I cannot remember the shape - they were all like trees growing out of the ground. I remember being on one like a monkey and saw my Mum wating for me to take me home for lunch and I slipped and bumped my head on a bar and ended up with a very painful bump so she used a damp dish rag and the now off cooker hob ring which she'd heated up and placed the rag on it to warm it a bit and placed it on my bump - we don't feel that cold packs help bumps and lumps, rather heat as it helps the blood flow more and heal the 'wound'...I remember it was painful - for a 4 year old!
We had Mr 'Egghead' Eastwood ring the bell for end of playtimes and for us to all run back in - well, 'WALK DON'T RUN!' Mr Saunders used to play very competitively with the bigger kids football, and foul them something chronic the blighter! We had a steel band which was well known in the local area, I think they appeared in the local paper from time to time and always had a float on the annual carnival the town used to hold back then - it was once a big event back then, sadly not the case now. The older kids were in it from the upper years. A play one year was 'The Magic Carpet', my sister appeared in the bit set in Denmark or Germany, it was rather funny seeing a bowl cutted Asian girl being some Deutch lass with that traditional outfit on and hat...and no blonde wig doing a hand clap dance...I remember she had on pink lipstick which I hated lol. My Dad, being Dad 'thought it was cr-p'
on the whole and Mum was very glad she didn't go....lol.We often got taken to the local parks - via a big double decker bus!!!! It was one of those older ones and I remember vividly one being blue on the outside, like a special charter firm. We'd just play in the park all day...and then go home. They once took us on a special planned trip to Brighton and my mate Andy swopped my nice Corgi Mercedes Benz for his Matchbox Fiat Arbarth, we'd both bought them from the same shop and he kept pleading with me for it, so I caved in and when I wanted to swop back he'd purposely scratched the roof...so I couldn't have it back
It was just one big playtime for me back then...and yes, we had naps, mats to sit on, reading time and we could choose books and then swop with someone else after a while etc, we had teachers that hit you if you were naughty still, Mr Saunders thwacking my Sisters arm for being sat on a desk at playtime and her coming home with a swollen arm and Mum going back after lunch with us and going APE with the overly brutal martinet was hilarious when she recounted it to me years later - the kids in my Sisters classroom found it hilarious seeing Saunders get a dressing down - in FRONT of them!
I'd say those years were the happiest of my life. Everything was simple then....
It was an electric bell which we enjoyed pressing the button 
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