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Infant school in the 70s....

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  • Infant school in the 70s....

    Another thread sparked off some memories of infant school and the carefree times we had then, here's what I remember about mine (kind of in the same vein as the "lived" video in this forum):

    Sitting on the carpet in the mornings for a story while someone drew shapes on your back or played with your hair (it was the 70s so it was long). Having a small plastic pull out drawer with your name on to put all your pens (pencil cases) and books in with Aniseed balls. Pull out racks for all the coats and wellies in winter and the fun of diving into the line of coats (then getting told off). Spelling books with pictures then being given the "grown up" one without pictures when you were good enough at spelling (I got mine after spelling Action Man correctly on my own). Reading the "Red Books" i.e book one, book two etc with the photo stories in. Then upgrading to the silver and gold books. Friday afternoons where you could play with toys you'd brought in and each other's (I remember playing with someone's Play People roadworks set). Sitting in a line along the corridor waiting for lunch then getting to the front and going in pairs to the counter to get your lunch. Rice pudding, semolina, jam, custard. Singing hymns in assembly and watching "Children's Film Foundation" films at the end of terms. Christmas plays. School fates when the whole hall smelt like Sawdust from the lucky dip. Decorating the assembly hall to match whatever big event was coming (xmas, halloween, easter, Guy Fawkes night, harvest). Bringing in tins of fruit cocktail or soup that had been in the cupboard for years (or pampass grass) for the harvest festival and going home with proper fruit. Making "miniature gardens" or "decorated eggs" for the easter fate and being chuffed with a "commended", a "highly commended" was like winning the pools. The library where Thomas the Tank engine seemed like the only books they had and it smelt nice and always felt warm, which was handy as it was where you always ended up when the heating broke down (if your parents were at work). Playtime in summer when you're allowed on the field and get balls, hoops, beanbags and ropes out of the coloured baskets to play with. Chasing hoolahoops around the playground. Sports days go-kart races. Sitting on black squares in the assembly hall when naughty. Painting, with your hands. Afternoon naps. Free milk.

    Was your's the same?

  • #2
    Re: Infant school in the 70s....

    Mine was more or less the same but I'll add... Money Tins usually with some tobacco name on it,then a label with your name taped to it,coat pegs and locker with a matching picture on,so you knew which was yours,mine was Red riding Hood.Getting a badge and a home made card,when it was your birthday,taking in sweets to share ,because it was your Birthday.Painting on the windows in the classroom. Making Christmas cards,calanders and decorations, plasticine,gum paper,glitter,glue and scissors, oh and those funny stationary pins that meant paper puppets could move at the joints!!Doing P.E in nothing but knicker and vest.Ropes to climb,benches used as slides and balance beams,and great big green rubber backed mats.
    Prayers at Lunch and home time,hands together eyes closed, and at the end of the day, putting your chair up on your table, now shhh quietest table gets to go home first.There goes the Bell.Mum waiting on the playground.
    Last edited by sixtyten; 02-08-2007, 18:42.
    Heather

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    • #3
      Re: Infant school in the 70s....

      I think you two have just about got it covered Brings back a lot of memories
      The only thing to look forward to is the past

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      • #4
        Re: Infant school in the 70s....

        LOL I Could of gone on and on once I got started
        Heather

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        • #5
          Re: Infant school in the 70s....

          That goes without saying
          The only thing to look forward to is the past

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          • #6
            Re: Infant school in the 70s....

            Visits from the school dentist; hating being an angel in the Christmas play every year (I had long fair hair that my mum did in ringlets); the "shop" corner with empty packages and tins, and one time we actually had real vegetables; the date written up on the corner of the board; the Monday ritual of collecting dinner money; black plimsolls; spelling notebooks, where the teacher would write the word you needed, and you were expected to look it up next time; powder paints and clay; making peppermint creams; growing lettuce in the school garden, and the whole class eating lettuce sandwiches when it was ready to harvest; portable classrooms; the best behaved kid getting to call the register on Friday afternoons; buying luminous armbands to wear in the winter for road saftey; kerb drill
            The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.

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            • #7
              Re: Infant school in the 70s....

              Things that remind me of that time....

              Huge metal jugs of water on school dinner tables - always with manky bits floating in it.

              Our crayons were kept in pipe tobacco tins, until I was older always thought Gold Block made crayons. lol

              Watching school TV - Look & Read, Watch, Words & Pictures, Seeing & Doing on the TV with pull out plastic to stop window reflections - and having to be there at the specific time 9.52, or 10.43...before video.

              Rollerskating in the summer lunch break.

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              • #8
                Re: Infant school in the 70s....

                Aww those were the days, free school milk in a little minature bottle, and if you were good in the morning the best behaved got the spare hot curdled one in the afternoon, playing with the sand or water on hot days, playing two ball in the playground or acting out the eurovision song kisses for me!!! being a staff dinner girl (never realised it was child labour for free!!) and entering the staff room that stunk of coffee and tobacco, reading topsy and tim books, growing water cress and being forced to eat it in a sandwich YUK, being checked for nits, dressing up and playing in the wendy house, fingers on your lips if too noisy or standing in the corner with your hands on your head, making clay models and painting them, making paper chains to decorate the classroom at christmas , bringing in food for the christmas party where your head master dressed as father christmas!! prize giving... where you won a book about dinosaurs for doing so well, golly i could go on and on... wouldnt it be lovely to go back just for one day???

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                • #9
                  Re: Infant school in the 70s....

                  I remember, even though I wasn't quite 6, sitting in the dining area and having the big telly wheeled in (you know, the one in a wooden cabinet with the doors) and having the moon landing coverage on.

                  Also

                  Having a magician in on the last day of term, winning a sweet for taking part in some trick and being told not to eat it 'til I got home because it'd turn me into a dragon! It lasted until we were back in class!

                  Cutting polystyrene with those things shaped like a slingshot with a hot wire across the top.

                  Being in the rush to get the (limited) orange drink in the little milk bottles.

                  Taking the two 'tests'. Counting to 100 and tieing a shoelace. You could do them whenever you felt able and. if successful, your name would go on the list.

                  Getting books from the Chip Club.

                  Sitting on the grassy bank just outside class on a warm sunny day and having to count cars.

                  Having Robert Nixon run up to me in the playground and declare that I picked my nose because he couldn't see anything up there!

                  Yep, I'd love to be able to just pop back for a while and take it all in again. About '71-'72 would do me.
                  Last edited by Wil; 10-08-2007, 11:10.

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                  • #10
                    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!!!
                    If eight out of ten cats prefer whiskas, do the other two shave or wax?

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                    • #11
                      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!

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                      • #12
                        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
                        sigpic

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                        • #13
                          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.

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                          • #14
                            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.
                            The Trickster On The Roof

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                            • #15
                              Re: Infant school in the 70s....

                              Your post made me smile, Richard.

                              Originally posted by Richard1978 View Post
                              ...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.

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