I am a parent governor at my old school in Hoo - today I went round there to talk to the kids about what it was like when I went there.  This is what I said : 

My memories of Primary School


It’s funny to be standing here talking about this because it doesn’t really feel like that long ago.  It’s strange when you become a mummy or daddy yourself and watch your children go to school.  And when you meet the kids you went to school with and they’re all grown up with little kids too.   But I still remember what it was like in the old days…


When I came to this school it was two schools :  the Infant school and Primary school.  The centre wasn’t there in those days.


They didn’t mix at all - one summer when I was in the Infant school the kids from the other school came up to play on the field up there next to the playground.  I went and played with my cousin, who was in the other school and got into bad trouble for that.  I remember I had to stand in the corridor facing the wall - which was horrible because the corridor was all dark and scary.


The whole school was much darker and less colourful in those days.


I would have started at the infant school in 1979 - so about 30 years ago.  


I know that when you started at the school you came to look round it first and met your teacher and saw your classroom.  They never did that when I started at the school - you saw your classroom and met your teacher on the first day you started - and it was very scary.


I remember doing times tables and getting into trouble for not understanding the difference between the add sign and the multiply sign - so I had to stay in at playtime till I understood it.  That was horrible.  That was a big mean teacher who did that - I can’t remember her name but she had a rubbery, angry looking face and a big shouty voice.


I also remember we had rubber stamps with clock faces on them and we had to stamp them on an ink pad and put about six on a piece of paper.  Then the teacher would write times on the black board and we had to draw the hands in.


That was another thing - the blackboard.  I don’t think they are used much now but in my day there was one in every classroom.  The teacher used to write on them with chalk and teachers usually had chalk all over their trousers!   


They used to rub the chalk off with blackboard rubbers which were made of wood.   If you weren’t listening in a lesson some teachers used to throw the blackboard rubber at you!!


There were some things about school in my day which you might have preferred - like there was no uniform in this school, you just wore your own clothes.


The trouble with that was your clothes might have been a bit old - or you might have had hand-me-downs from your big sister or brother that were two big - so you might have got picked on for that.  With uniform everyone looks the same so that’s good really.


Also on the last day of term before summer holidays you could bring in toys and games and you just played all day and didn’t have any lessons.


I wouldn’t try asking Miss Tricket if you can do that - I don’t think you’d get very far!


I remember that we all used to get free milk at break times - until the Prime Minister of them time who was called Margaret Thatcher decided children didn’t need free milk anymore and so she was called Margaret Thatcher - Milk Snatcher!


We didn’t have targets like you do and we didn’t get homework.  No homework until you got to the big school.  Expect you might get a book to read.


I don’t remember going on school trips or anything like that when I came to this school.  My little boy Freddie went away with the school last year to Kingswood and you might be doing things like that yourselves soon.  That would never have happened when I went to school - so it wasn’t as exciting.


We used to have assembly every morning and we used to sing hymns like ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’.  The words to the hymns would be on big sheets of cardboard and some children would have to stand at the front and hold up the sheets.


We used to sing ‘Give me oil in my lamp’ - which you might still sing now?


The music teacher who was called Miss Roberts used to divide us up and some of us would sing : 


‘Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna to the king of kings…’


And the rest of us would sing : 
‘SING!  SING!  SING!  SING!’


Then at the end it would go : 


‘Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna to the king’.


And at least one little kiddie would sing an extra ‘… of kings’ and get laughed at.


The last thing I remember was that when I went to school they were very keen on us having healthy teeth.  So a dentist would actually come to the school and we’d have to have our teeth looked at.


Also, once a week a lady would come round with a trolley - and on the trolley were lots of plastic cups filled with pink mouthwash!


When she came into the classroom everyone would groan ‘oh no the mouthwash!’


Then we’d each be given a cup and a strange ritual would take place.


At a certain time we’d all have to drink the mouthwash and hold it in our mouths - expect one little kid would probably end up swallowing it and have to have another mouthwash.  Probably the little kid who did the ‘of kings’.


Anyway, we’d all have to sit there with the mouthwash in our mouths for a few minutes - so the classroom went very quiet.  And it tasted really horrible - no one thought of making it taste of strawberries… it was nasty.


First we’d make faces like this…


Then our faces would be like this…


Then towards the end of the time some kids would start whining and going like this…


THEN the teacher would tell us we could spit it out and we would all spit it back into the cups and the whole classroom would go :  ‘URGH!!!’


And that’s the end of my school memories.