Shiregreen,Winkobank ,Ecclesfield

[tara]

nadine .

were you at wincobank junior school in early 60s.

remember the girls knitting class.

i think i know you.

[timo]

Tara, Im 4 years younger than Nadine, but also went to Wincobank First School in the early 60s. Do you remember any of these lovely teachers; Mrs Hepworth, Mrs Hetherington [delightful, professional Scot, always in a kilt], the kindly Head, Mr McCauley, Miss Booker [humorous young teacher-great with kids], Miss Challoner [related to the Ingle family, of boxing fame] ? I remember these early years with great affection, although I wasn't in the knitting class you mention!

[Yorkie]

Excellent reading.

[tara]

Timo, the only one i remember from your list was the head then mr mc cauley.

our class was situated in the bottom hall(which isnt there now.)

our teacher was mrs wild.

and i remember across the hall was mr flannery's class.

i remember our class doing a play of a circus in front of the whole school, and our outfits were made of crepe paper which inevitably

tore apart during performance.

 

i also have that book shiregreen wincobank and ecclesfield memories.

 

little malc-

 

is the first addition still available-

[timo]

Tara,glad you remember McCauley; he was a lovely man, very kind to the children as I recall. I think Wild was before my time. I remember playing British Bulldog in the playground in plimsoles, the big classes that were always fun [although in retrospect they should have been smaller], and the appalling food; greasy chips, lumpy mashed potatoes, and lukewarm Semolina.Ugh.

[tara]

i remember having a crush on someone called paul oglesby. who was older than me.

remember watching him play football in the boys yard.

 

also remember the yummy chocolate teacakes cheese biscuits and potato puffs that were on sale at break .someone came round with them in big boxes.

[timo]

Tara, I think your "dream boy" was the son of Frank Oglesby, the grocer on Fife Street.

[tara]

gosh i never knew.

 

i remember he had a brother ,cant remember his name but paul was slim and his brother was well built.

[stevo]

Originally posted by timo

Do you remember any of these lovely teachers; Mrs Hepworth, Mrs Hetherington [delightful, professional Scot, always in a kilt], the kindly Head, Mr McCauley, Miss Booker [humorous young teacher-great with kids], Miss Challoner [related to the Ingle family, of boxing fame] ? I remember these early years with great affection, although I wasn't in the knitting class you mention!

 

 

I can still recall my very first day at Wincobank school. I cried! Mum walked out of the classroom and I ran after her. My memory is vague when it comes to remembering the teachers, however it may improve with prompting. I can remember there was a lower and upper building. I started class in the upper building. Walking between the two buildings, there was what would be an entrance foyer with tables containing various activities. For instance one table (they were more like big trays on stilts) contained water, one sand, possibly one with sawdust.

 

Turning left, as you entered the foyer was my first classroom. I don't recall the teacher's name( I think it could have been Mrs Hepworth - in fact having reviewed and edited this post already, I'm almost sure it was) , but it was a female teacher. Next door (on the right) was Miss Etherington. I remember Miss Etherington well. As you say Timo, a delightful, elderly (or so it seemed at the time) Scots lady. Very polite and pleasant, she made school feel very welcoming. There was a play post office in Miss Etherington's class. There were also toy cars in there, which I always had my eye on. I think there may have been another class room at 90 degrees to Miss Etherington's room. Then there were the cloakrooms and wash basins.

 

There was another classroom, between the upper and lower buildings, where we were given Holy water by a male teacher, who nicknamed me 'speedy', as apparently I was slow to react to him. I recall having a sore throat that particular day. Having taken one sip of the water, my sore throat was gone the following day. I was sure it had cured me!

 

The hall in the upper building, I think doubled as a classroom. Looking at the blackboard, there were large windows to the left and on the left, a window at high level, overlooking the roof of the rest of the building. I learned 'left and right' in this room, by always remembering the large windows were 'left' and the smaller high window was 'right'.

 

I can remember Richard Hall's dad produced a marvellous race horse scene on paper, which Richard brought in to school. We were asked as a class, to bring our own 'equine' drawings into school the following day. I thought if Richard's dad can do that, then so can my dad. The next day, when asked by the teacher to produce my effort, he was presented with a selection of measly stick drawing horses!

 

My first few days at school confronted me with the terror of play time. I rmember clinging to the edges of this great expanse of termac, where the other kids were charging about in all directions and I was petrified of getting knocked over. I spent much of the time in those early days looking out of the iron fencing on top of the wall adjacent to the road, just wishing I was home. By the time I had moved to the lower building with the big kids, I found myself in the lower playground, full of confidence and playing games such as driving imaginary cars with Alan, whose surname eludes me.

 

Having aged a little, possibly to about eight years of age, I moved to the lower building. It was in this building where I learned that although there were 12 pennies in a shilling and 240 pennies to a pound, there were also 100 pennies to a pound. Decimalisation struck terror into our young hearts, but it didn't take long for me to realise that although my Potato crisps were going to cost me more, this new fangled system was easy!

 

Having moved to the lower building, I remember how tall the 'old' kids were compared to us. They were about ten years old! There was a large hall in the centre of the lower building with ( I think) two classrooms at either end. My class was adjacent to the top playgorund, (nearest to the canteen) and I think my teacher was Miss Booker (I think!). Whoever she was, she was an easy going lady, but for the first time ever at school she was to lay her hands on my derriere. She gave me my first smack.

 

I was playing some sort of educational board game (one of the other players was Andrew Glaves and he grassed me up!) and getting most of the answers right, because unknown to the others, I had played it on a previous and recent occasion. The other players got miffed at my success, so Andrew told the teacher I was cheating. Without any chance to explain, she hauled me up from my chair and gave me one smack. It didn't hurt physically, but I recall feeling very annoyed at such unjust treatment. That was the point in my young life where I began to question whether adults were always right and was honesty the best policy after all?

 

The canteen was above the school and I seem to recall was a single storey pre fab building, not unlike the canteens that still exist at our junior school, here in Filey. Salad day was the worst for me, because I simply went hungry. No one seemed to care; if you didn't eat what was put in front of you, then it was a case of do without.

 

I believe Wincobank fort was situated above the school and we did actually pay it a visit during one class.

 

Can anyone remember the day when there was a fire at the two gas storage tanks in Wincobank bottom and we all got kept back at school until about 6pm?

[tara]

I remember when very young, being in a classroom in one of the prefabs near canteen. (at wincobank school)

there was a pretend shop with loads of tins and packets, a big water vat with measuring jugs and a sand vat too.

whether this was the original reception class in 60s before infants, i cant remember.

I remember being in the main building after, past the foye and straight across, doing my ABC from the blackboard.

neil kimpton was in my class, anyone know him.