Infant school in the 70s....

[kazboot]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

I certainly recall the little milk bottles - admittedly we're talking 1960s - and the biscuits which were 'Lincoln Creams', later called 'Lincolns'. Are they still sold?

I don't drink milk now. I developed a real problem with the smell.

Ooh I remember Lincoln Biscuits. I don't think I've seen them for years.

[Richard1978]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

My parents have still got a copy of Tootles The Taxi at home.

One thing I remember about assemblies were when one class would put on a play & all their parents & pre-school siblings would be invited to come along.

Almost everytime there would be someone's baby brother or sister crying throughout the whole thing.

[Derekflint]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

I had a little canvas satchel when I started school. I loved that bag.

Assemblies. Yuck! Even worse when it was your class giving it.

[branny]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

I was fortunate enough to live on the same street as my infant/junior school so never had to endure school dinners.

Abiding memories are Peter and jane books, Tootles the taxi (like thomas the tank engine but with motor vehicles). Gumdrop (about a talking vintage car). Local police officers coming in to do safety talks. A road safety booklet featuring a clown kneeling at the side of a zebra crossing and looking like he only had one leg, which a boy in our class duly christened him. Going swimming (when the cubicles were around the pool). The anti vandal posters campaign (vandal maimed, vandal electrocuted etc). Bring a toy buy a toy. These interlocking transparent plastic squares that you couldn't really build much with. The green gym mats with the underside that reminded me of a crumpet. The inverted v climbing frames on wheels (were they as big as they seemed?). Taking the empty milk bottles back to the local cake shop (always rewarded with a free cake). Pump bag with your name sewn on. Annual reading test in the headmasters office. It took me years to get grotesque right.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

I certainly recall the little milk bottles - admittedly we're talking 1960s - and the biscuits which were 'Lincoln Creams', later called 'Lincolns'. Are they still sold?

I don't drink milk now. I developed a real problem with the smell.

[Derekflint]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

Although I went to Infants School in the sixties, many of these memories are still the same as mine.

I remember loving the warm mini milk bottles and the paper straw going soggy too quick to drink all the milk through it!

Tuc time also when I could buy my beloved Potato Puffs!

We had metal beakers at school mealtime with great colours. I was a server in my last year at infants and remember everyone wanting the chocolate custard skin. Could never remember who had it last!

Squidgy school chips! Yum!

Hated milk when I was a kid. One time I spilt the bottle in my lap - ended up standing behind an open cupboard door in my pants while me shorts dried.

School chips had a different taste too. Made them a bit of a treat!

[kazboot]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

Although I went to Infants School in the sixties, many of these memories are still the same as mine.

I remember loving the warm mini milk bottles and the paper straw going soggy too quick to drink all the milk through it!

Tuc time also when I could buy my beloved Potato Puffs!

We had metal beakers at school mealtime with great colours. I was a server in my last year at infants and remember everyone wanting the chocolate custard skin. Could never remember who had it last!

Squidgy school chips! Yum!

[Richard1978]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

Here's one:

The toilet paper that had the same consistency as tracing paper! Yay! The moment it was folded it formed an edge just shy of a razor blade.

Somehow I forgot that, very painful to use.

[Derekflint]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

Here's one:

The toilet paper that had the same consistency as tracing paper! Yay! The moment it was folded it formed an edge just shy of a razor blade.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

Your post made me smile, Richard.

...The Ginn series of Reading Books which went right from the basics upwards.

There is a box of those in the school where I work and they are still used.

...School sports days when you had to sit on the field all day. Often with Mums & Dads races at the end, & was it a rule that at least one Dad had to fall over half way through.

The small crowd of boys who would suddenly appear around any girls practicing handstands or other low level gymnastics in skirts.

Those parent races were so competetive, especially the Mums!

Don't recall the boys gathering around the girls in the infants, but it happened in my junior days. Things have changed though. Where I work, all girls in skirts have to wear shorts when doing handstands, even at playtimes, which I suppose is reasonable. Oh for more innocent days when no one had to worry about this kind of thing.

[Richard1978]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

I could be here all day with memories of infant school, I didn't start until 1982 but many things mentioned here were still around then.

Some things that come to mind.

The Ginn series of Reading Books which went right from the basics upwards.

Only the Reception Class (who had classes in a mobile) having full size toilets, when the rest of the school had to use ones far too small for the average 6 year old, let alone someone who was 11!

Lunchtime servers, juniors who sat on each of the infant sittings to keep an eye things.

Having end of term "Bring a toy or game in" day.

Another end of term treat was being allowed to watch an hour or 2 of compiled cartoon shorts in the school hall on a video.

Having someone's Mum come into school to teach how to do something craftwise. My Mum showed how to make a swan out of a bar of soap, some gauze & a pipecleaner.

Having a "Busy Box" of activites, some of the boys (including me) used to cheat by looking through the cards until we found the one that said "Make a garage out of bricks"!

Being allowed to play on the field in the summer on dry days, & if you were unlucky being thrown into a patch of nettles.

When it was someone's birthday the teacher would bring out an old biscuit tin decorated to look like a cake, & whoever it was could blow out a single candle.

Making Christmas decorations your Mum would still use each Xmas until you were in your 30s.

School sports days when you had to sit on the field all day. Often with Mums & Dads races at the end, & was it a rule that at least one Dad had to fall over half way through.

The small crowd of boys who would suddenly appear around any girls practicing handstands or other low level gymnastics in skirts.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

I've really enjoyed reading these posts, many of which brought back tingling memories, even though my infant school years were actually in the sixties - I started junior school in 1970.

[rossobantam]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

some great shared memories in this thread so far (I tell my kids - when they say they 'hate' school - that one day they'll wish they were back there; the future is all work, bills, and getting old. They don't believe me when I tell them they're living the best days of their lives right now)

kiss chase I always seemed to *ahem* trip over and let the girls catch me. Clumsy boy

let me see now,what else: dinner ladies checking you'd washed your hands properly before dinnertime
Nativity...I remember playing the donkey (and let me tell you, Mary WASN'T a small girl).. we did it every year for the nearby airbase, Finningley)
also at Finningley we did a sponsored walk each year, around the taxiing runways..., wide tarmac stretching for miles !
Stig of The Dump being read to us
Playing on the 'monkey bars' in the playground
Having huge battles on the field...our lot being a squadron of Spitfires, arms outstretched, engine sounds roaring aplenty, versus the other mob, in their Messerchmitts..fabulous
Memories of the first black person I'd ever seen in the flesh (well I was 6, and it was 1971, living in the countryside...Sharon Green, in my class. She was lovely
now a scene straight from 'Kes' a la Brian Glover...Mr Robertson, Headmaster, didn't just referee, nooo he always played footy with us in PE..he was 6ft plus, and I vividly remember running slap into him..oww
Loved those mini milk bottles, & alwasy tried to be the one who got the leftover warm ones whilst waiting for the bus home
Learning 'bases' in maths..yuk!
Music lessons..yuk...I always pretended to be playing the recorder
Miss Tomasi learning us French (aged 6 don't forget!)...still remember so many of the 'basic' words we learnt...soldat,pupitre, regle & so on
Yes those huge metal water jugs on each table, and the metal rectangular food servers..mmm fish fingers chips & peas

[Derekflint]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

The whole classroom running out and playing Kiss Chase. Remember bolting straight for a tree and climbing up into it thinking I would be 'safe'.

Rustle of branches. Mwah!

[koukou]

Re: Infant school in the 70s....

Sponge puddings with either pink or brown custard. Juice and a biscuit at break time. The water 'sandpit' where it was a huge trough filled with water with windmills and things to poor it through. Doing PE in your vest and pants.... and in my junior school if your vest and pants had the days of the week on the had to match! Apparatus at PE time: ropes, cargo nets, horses, mats and more hoola hoops than you could shake a stick at. Learning to play instruments for the first time. I had a tiny little violin, I can still remember it now. Janet and John books. Being either an angel or the back of a donkey in the nativity.. I never got the leading roles!! The spare clothes cupboard, full of pants and clothes in case anyone 'had an accident'. Sitting on Mrs Bamford's knee at story time..... so many happy memories. Infants ruled. I fancy some tapioca now... not had that in may years!!!