Primary school during the early 1980s

[Arran]

20. Very few kids had any English, maths, and science study books to use at home. I’m under the impression that books in these subjects at primary school level were very rare back in the 1980s, although O Level and CSE revision books for secondary school students were mainstream.

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[Arran]

Families were on average materially less well off (such as having one black and white TV, no phone, video recorders and microwaves were expensive luxuries, kids not having a bike etc. – but there was less poverty and inequality. Foodbanks were unheard of and far fewer people had in-work benefits,...

[Arran]

Here's an interesting one...

A friend was learning about the Ancient Greeks and Romans at primary school. By co-incidence Ulysses 31 was being shown on CBBC although his teacher was not aware of it at the outset....

[Arran]

What exactly was the sit on the carpet until home time all about?...

[Arran]

Asperger Syndrome was not known about in Britain until 1991 when Hans Asperger's papers had been translated into English by Uta Frith who then published a book on the subject.

Students with Asperger Syndrome in the 1980s were generally deemed to have behavioural problems because they were...

[Arran]

If a school had lots of students who followed a particular religion then it was more likely to offer special diets. It wasn't always the case as menus (along with procurement of food) in some LEAs were centrally controlled by officials and councillors who were ignorant of dietary requirements or unwilling...

[Arran]

16. Many students knew the meaning of work to rule as strikes and industrial action by teaching unions was commonplace.

17. Schools produced multiple copies of documents using thermofax copiers and stencil duplicators before they had photocopiers. Many secretaries used mechanical typewriters...

[Arran]

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Even in the 1970s it was common for different teachers to teach certain subjects such as PE or music. When I was in KS1 I didn't have a timetable, apart from a few lessons, and my class teacher taught almost everything. When I was in KS2 I had a timetable for the entire week,...

[Arran]

There wasn't really any national curriculum prior to September 1988. Some LEAs had standardised curricula in core subjects and standard textbooks for subjects, but others allowed individual primary schools to arrange their own curricula and select their own books and resources.


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[Arran]

I have been informed by people who attended primary school during the early 1980s that they were barely any different from primary schools in the 1970s. The major reforms to primary school education didn't take place until the late 1980s. The most prominent differences was the introduction of new technology...

[Arran]

The IBA was opposed to both Westward and TSW having the west of England subregion because of the potential that a large number of viewers in south Wales would point their TV aerials at the Mendip transmitter and watch Westward / TSW instead of HTV.

[Arran]

Both Westward and TSW wanted the west of England subregion as they thought the south west region was too small and covers less than half of what is considered the south west of England.

One of the companies that bid for Wales and the west of England ITV region in the 1991 franchise round...

[Arran]

You got biscuits back in the 1980s?!

They never had any biscuits at my primary school....

[Arran]

The Borders ITV region was a kludge resulting from the Caldbeck transmitter serving both Cumbria and D&G. It could not sensibly be incorporated into either the north west or central Scotland ITV regions. STV originally wanted the Selkirk transmitter but the Borders region would be too small without...

[Arran]

That's because primary schools now serve semi-skimmed in cartons and charge parents an extortionate price for it.

Milk only cost £3 a term at my primary school back in the 1990s for reception class to Y2 kids, so almost every kid had it. The school always had a massive collection of pound...

[Arran]

STV had two competitors in 1980. It was potentially vulnerable due to concerns about the low quality of its programmes.

In the 1960s it was joked that they only broadcast westerns and commercials.

Grampian was unopposed. They had come up with a winning formula for the company...

[Arran]

Southern Counties TV was the company run by Gerry Anderson who created Thunderbirds. I think there were concerns that the team behind it had no real connection with the south east ITV region and it was unclear why they had even picked that particular region.

TV South and South East was...

[Arran]

Yorkshire was generally doing well in 1980 and had one weak competitor.

Westward losing was almost a foregone conclusion as their management was in a state of civil war. Their second competitor was called Westcountry but it was a completely different company from the Westcountry which won...

[Arran]

They had the small sized bottles of milk at my primary school in the 1990s after Margaret Thatcher had left Parliament. I have known people who had cartons of milk back in the 1980s, so the bottles may have been localised.

The teachers were more modern though....