Varied Curriculum in a 1950s Inner London Primary School

I was very unhappy all through school, I am dyslexic and in the early 1950s this wasn’t understood. At junior school I suffered the indignity of having to stand in the washrooms to think about why I couldn’t/wouldn’t read.

We lived in central london, my older brother was supposed to take me to school but he used to run off and hide so from 5 years old I had to cross main roads to get there myself.

I remember the outside toilet block and having to ask the teacher for a sheet of toilet paper if you thought you might need it.

mixed emotions about school days - infants, what i can remember is i loved it but a different matter when i went up to the junior school, i hated it, we had a very ferocious head teacher, luckily i was only there 6 months before we moved and i went to a new school, quite a modern primary from what i recall. we had lessons outside whenever we could, went on trips locally and further afield even abroad. no prep for the 11+, just sat in the hall and did it. i passed, we were the last ones to sit compulsory 11+. didn't enjoy 1st few years at grammar school, had fun around 14 but was glad to leave at 16.

I enjoyed my primary schools, I went first to a stand alone Infants, then to a Junior school which I left at the beginning of the last year, we moved. Then my last Junior school for the remainder of the year. I am still in contact with a lot of friends from the first junior and infants we still and meet up when we can although we are spread around the world. Unfortunately the last time was the funeral of one of our number. We have just had news of the death one of our beloved teachers too. We hope to send a representative to her funeral.

The thing I remember most about my last juniors was the weekly Thursday trip to Epping Forest where a man called Fred Speakman used to take us out into the forest to learn all sorts of things about nature. A wonderful memory.

The OP asks what the boys did when the girls did sewing, well we did craft. Mostly making things with Card, scissors, glue, broadly speaking making a mess, but quite good fun. This plus PE, were the only subjects that we did segregated although we sat boy girl boy girl in our little desks and you got moved as a punishment. I was sat next to the only black girl in the school for most of the second year, terribly racist, because I couldn’t write neatly!!! I only got moved in the end because a gypsy lad joined and ‘obviously’ he had to sit next to “poor Tina”.

On my first day aged 5, I was so frightened that I wet myself. The teacher stood me in front of the class and said 'look what this dirty little girl has done.' Off to a good start. Not much improvement after that. I envy those who enjoyed school.

I started school aged 5 in Chester, don't remember much about it, by April we moved to Prestwick, Ayrshire so I went to a local school there and the children called me 'Posh' We went straight into exams - Adding. I had no idea of the concept of adding, so I wrote the prettiest figures. I couldn't read. The summer holidays dad spent a lot of time teaching me to read and add - which must have worked because I was 3rd in the class after the exams!! To my mothers horror For my 7th Birthday I invited 12 children to my party - I just wanted friends!! Up til I was 10 I enjoyed it, was good at it then I had Scarlet Fever and was off school a lot. I had difficulty catching up, thought I couldn't concentrate. It was 12 years later I learned my hearing had suffered as a result of the Scarlet Fever!

I clearly remember the terror I felt seeing the little boys in my class being beaten by a ruler on the back of their legs. The teacher was later found to have severe psychiatric problems. I always felt I was going to wet myself with fear. (Since then I cannot tolerate any kind of bullying or torment of animals or children).

GrannySomerset.....I remember First Aid on English( you are talking about the book?!). Yes I loved it. What a brilliant learning tool.

I hated school too RosesAreRed. Every single minute of it both primary and senior, apart from some lovely friends I made.

I went to small private infant and junior schools from about 1944 to 1951, so didn’t experience the large numbers people mention. I think there. were 40 pupils altogether in the infant school! I loved both schools, especially the first one. We learnt all the usual things, plus French, and there was a great deal of singing - the headmistress had been a professional singer -which I adored. We sang mostly folk songs, I think, some in French. I can still remember a lot of them. I was bad at arithmetic and learning boring tables, but so happy with my music and poetry and acting that sums didn’t seem important to me. I was very bad at sewing, too. I suspect some of the teaching was rather Victorian rote learning, but I can still tell you what an isthmus is - “ a narrow neck of land joining two larger portions”!

I couldn’t tell the time until I was 9 or 10, and a junior school teacher used to send me to find out what time it was (as if she didn’t know) on the big clock on the landing. I would hover there until a teacher or older girl passed, and ask them to tell me what time the clock said, saying I didn’t understand the Roman numerals. This was not true.

I suppose I didn’t meet a great cross section of children at these establishments. We were all relatively privileged, and there was virtually no bad behaviour. There were very few punishments given or needed. Unrealistic, perhaps, but happy.

I went to a Catholic primary school. Scary nuns and priests. We went to confession on a Thursday, Mass and Holy Communion on a Friday. After confession we weren't allowed to eat until we'd had our Communion the next day.
We took our breakfast with us to school to eat after Communion. Cold buttered toast and a paper bag with cocoa and sugar mixed. We would then put it into a mug and the teacher would pour hot water and milk onto it.

I hated school - probably because of the nasty bullies. I have very little memories of school just the odd bits and pieces. The best day for me was the day I walked out those gates for good.

But how I wish it had been different

Jane43
'All in together, girls,
Never mind the weather, girls,
When we call your first name
Please run OUT'

Long length of skipping rope, long queue of children skipping in and out.

Can't for the life of me remember what I did last week sometimes?

I started school in 1948 in Edinburgh but, like M0nica went to lots of different schools — nine in total.

I only went to three grammar schools but, at each one we did ballroom dancing classes. Never was a class wasted on anyone as that was on me. That was a great disappoint to my dear mother who had been an amateur exhibition ballroom dancer in her youth and was still able to produce a nifty quickstep well into her seventies.

Being sent to the toilets to tear off a square of toilet paper (?Bronco/Izal) for tracing!

(Is it true that playgroups and nurseries can't use empty loo rolls for crafting these days?)

When my children were at primary school about 25 years ago I used to go in as a parent volunteer for an afternoon in each of their classes to listen to the children read. I got to know the teachers quite well as a result and one of them told me that things were so restricted now by health and safety etc and also the national curriculum. They can no-longer take the children out on nature walks spontaneously on a sunny day as there have to be permission forms sent out and returned for any trip, then if it rains they have to go through the whole process again. They also need parent volunteers for any trip outside school because of pupil to adult ratio requirements. When I was volunteering there were no checks on the suitability of the parent volunteers. I'm sure that now, if parents are still able to volunteer, they will need DBS checks at the very least.

I enjoyed primary school in the 1950s, most of the subjects covered & good handwriting expected. The only thing I hated was PE, my puberty arrived at 9 years old & jumping around in vest & navy blue knickers was absolute misery whilst wearing a huge looped pad affixed to a pink sanitary belt...terrified they'd come adrift.

The smell of plasticine - that immediately brings to mind my first day at school.

Interesting the OP says she doesn't know what the boys were doing while she was learning to knit and sew. At my primary school, the boys simply did the same.

I was at a central school from 1951 to 1957. This was in Victoria SW1. We were taught Greek dancing! We wore something like two pieces of jersey silk sewn together. The first year it was held up and rolled over with a kind of belt. By the time a few years had passed it dangled down to just covering your bottom.
We had speech lessons. Learnt to throw your voice and breathe correctly, taught by an ex actress. Once a year we were examined on it by a group from I think the Central School for Speech and Drama. We had to read from a book, act out some piece of drama, then talk on some subject suggested by the examiner. If you didn’t know enough you just chatted away explaining what you didn’t know.
Had housecraft lessons while the boys had woodwork.
During the last two years we had daily shorthand lessons.
Learnt to touch type and studied accounts up to trial balance.
We had visiting musicians playing Chopin etc. An Opera Company visited. We had fashion shows put on by Simplicity patterns. We had needlework lessons which I wasn’t very good at so I often read a story to the class while they worked.
We had art lessons and visited the National Gallery. We only had a playground on the roof so we taken elsewhere by coach to play netball and then hockey. We were taken swimming and entered swimming galas. I loved school.

I too had several schools up to age 12. Father in forces. But I have fond memories of singing songs like 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor?' Sitting outside on the grass for lessons in the good weather. No memories of having to wear a hat or suncream or needing to have a bottle of water close by. Scottish dancing. Making paper mache puppets. Going on nature walks to collect and name leaves. I'm sure some of these same things still happen at school, but think they are much more restrained by rules and regulations. I don't remember kids being disruptive. If you were told to sit down or stop talking, you did.

Started at a small village school in 1960.
Hated the infants class as being an only child I felt overwhelmed by the numbers of people. (No playschool so straight into mainstream!)
Moving up the school I remember my arms aching after holding up my wings for the Nativity.
We had a headmaster who had been a 'desert rat'. He told us daily how he had to wash in only a mug full of water!! We found this highly amazing as he was quite overweight with a large stomach!!
Failed the 11+ so went to a Secondary modern, which was the making of me!
Taught us that even if we were not academic and destined for University we most make the most of the qualifications we can achieve.
Most of the male teachers had been through the war and that certainly came through in their attitudes, discipline etc
School leaving age was 15, but I managed to persuade my parents to let me stay on for one year, although they were anti any further education as it was seen to be a waste of money for a girl as she wan't going to be the main breadwinner and would probably be married with babied by 21, which actually I was!!

When I was at my first primary school there was a school garden a short walk away and we occasionally went there and learnt about the plants growing in it. At my second primary school we went for nature walks when the weather was nice, I remember learning the names of various trees. We also did mental arithmetic which was so useful, before lock down if I was buying a few items I always mentally calculated the total and before we started using our debit cards for nearly everything I used to have the correct money ready. We had to learn the capitals of the countries of the commonwealth but many have changed their names now. We also did basic sewing, small squares of material with perforations and fringed edges and we used to do patterns on it with cross stitch. I remember organised games in the playground, skipping with a long rope ‘All In Together Girls’ and a game called ‘The Farmer Wants A Wife’ where we all joined hands in a circle, I don’t remember the details of those games though.

In primary school in the 50s, we had a radio speaker high up in the corner of the room. I remember being mesmerized as the presenter went back in time and described a fight between two dinosaurs. I'm sure this is how I became hooked on dinosaurs and all things historical.

A strange memory of primary school was that we had to roll a sheet of newspaper into a cone shape then go out into the playground with it to collect rubbish. I knew that the wind blew rubbish under the canteen, a hut up on low stilts, so I was always the winner....probably because I was the only fool collecting and there was never a prize. I had a sense of achievement though!

Ellianne - Wendy House from Peter Pan, I loved playing in ours, 1962 West London, and dressing up, fantastic. Passed it on to my pupils too until 2007ish when the school decided they were unnecessary for 5 year olds?