What's your earliest memory of starting school?

[Ousetunes]

I started reception at Nethergreen First School in September 1975 and I can still recall the smells of the place more than anything.

 

The school had only been open about a year (if that, maybe half a year?) and still smelled incredibly new. That meant that great smell of new carpet, of paint and of pencils and crayons (though the carpet one is the one I remember most). Then the playground which was a wonderful red tarmac. After it had rained and the sun came out there was almost an incense-like smell of the tarmac as the sun dried it and warmed it back up.

 

School toilets always had a smell of their own (no, not THAT!) and NG1st was no different. Tracing paper bog roll, paper towels, the slimy green soap that came from a wall mounted dispenser and so on. Then you had the smell of the cloakroom area which around 1975 saw Parker coats hanging alongside gymkit bags.

 

All the gym equipment was new and so there was this whiff of fresh rubber (so that's where it came from.....). I also spent many a day in the sick room (no, I wasn't, I just preferred home to school when I was 6 years old) so the smells of disinfectants and creams remind me of those times.

 

Then the smell of food cooking (from cabbagey smells to biscuity ones) and in autumn the smell of rotting leaves as we collected them from the back of the school as part of a project.

 

Ah, such innocence eh?

[frankkettell]

Hi Frankkettell, Mr Mills was the woodwork teacher I was thinking of ,as soon as I saw the name I remembered him. The Ratcliffes were our neighbours. Marie was the eldest then came Billy, Horace and Alfie. I'm pretty sure that they are all dead except for Alfie who I heard was very sick. My youngest sister, Anne was in the UK last year and met up with Marie's daughter. Anne is 66, Betty is 71, Frank,my brother is 63 and I am the eldest at the ripe old age of 73, my name is June and our surname was Gosling. We left Sheffield in January 1952 .

Hi June, Your parents were much more adventurous than mine. We moved to Shiregreen in 1952 as our house was condemned. I emigrated in 1966 with a very young family, three kids the eldest was four. You may have been in the same class as my cousin David O'Brien, who lived in Baltic Rd. next to Banners. The road made with wooden blocks, which is mentioned on this site, must have been almost in front of your place. Frank.

[gosling]

Hi Frank, I remember the blocks very well, we used to scrape out the pitch from between them and get into strife for wiping it on to our clothes. I don't know about our parents being adventurous, but we all made Aussie friends very quickly and never had any desire to return to the UK.I can"t recall the name David O'Brien but I'll be meeting up with my sisters next week and will see if they remember either of you. June

[dowkeruk]

1942 Carfield Primary. I was taken short and mum had to use her hanky as there was no paper. I can still see the green doored cubicles.

[paul20]

I started at mansel infants school in 1964 and I can remember the first day like it was yesterday.

 

My mum took me to school and I remember playing in the sand pit, painting and singing. I even had to walk home on my own.

 

We had to were short trouser all the time , even in winter and I remember falling through the Ice of a local pond on my way to school one year.

 

The pond was filled in and lanscaped soon after

[Lee James]

Earliest memory of your old infant school;

 

Scary on the first day, it was the old Infant shcool in Handsworth which is now closed.

 

Wooden floors

Plastic coloured plates at dinner

watery custard in big pot jugs

milk at break time Sometimes gone sour in the summer heat

outside toilets Yuk!

Jam jars with watery paint in them at art lesson

 

Anyway i have started the ball rolling. Did anyne else go to that school.?

 

Playing in the sand pit, always getting a story read to you and those gigantic chocolate covered Dundee biscuits!

[Eleke95]

My earliest memory was sat on a box in the hall at playtime on the first day because I daren't go out to play as I'd seen the local bully in the yard!

 

I eventually settled in and remember the paint pots and aprons you had to wear. The sand pit and water play and the smells of carbolic soap in the toilets!

[teddie]

Stannington infants, my teachers name was Miss Bradshaw, and she had the most enormous boobs, probably rivalled Jordan. She made a boy stand on a chair the entire first morning as he had said something rude, was Hell and put me off school for ever:rant:

[hennypenny]

yes wattsy i went to handsworth school the headmistress was mrs meridith and well scarey!!

 

My mum taught there, she was called Mrs Evans. She hated Mrs Meredith, I remember once Mrs Meredith came to our house for tea and I was in total disgrace for finding a cooked caterpillar in my cauliflower - apparently I should have kept quiet

[pressy]

I remember being in the Nursery at Norfolk school on Craddock Road. I loved it as I was sent to see what the time was all the time. I loved the huge rocking horse.I liked having our own mat to have a nap on in the aftrenoon....even though I never slept. My first teachers were Mrs Whitworth & Mrs Brockelhurst ....wonder if they're still around.