What were you taught when you first started school.?

We made green daisy baskets and learnt the alphabet .
It was all very gentle .
I cried for my grandma .
I thought that it was for one day only !
I clung to the teacher like glue .She was nice and cuddly.
But I felt upset when she tipped hot water from her kettle onto the iris growing under the window sill
.
At that age ,I grew plants from seeds in the garden and knew the names as well !

I was embarrassed to go to the lavatory as they had no doors and found the loudness of the other children too much because I had to be quiet at home .

I was friends with a boy ,who was deaf ,another who was an introverted musical prodigy and one who was a big brother type .

Slowly, I came out of my shell ...

We weren't allowed to run round in the cloakroom but I remember playing tick (some may call it tag) and falling, cutting my head open on a peg.
The teacher took me to the hospital to have stitches put in the wound, about six stitches, luckily at the back under my hair so it doesn't show. I can still feel a lump there.

I went to a catholic school and the religion frightened me to death. Drinking the blood of Christ (wine) being nailed to the cross etc I feel I was far too young to be able to digest it all

I was taught the alphabet and to read and do addition and subraction in Primary 1.

We also spent time playing things like Ring-a-ring of roses and other nursery rhymes where you sang and did actions.

We were also taught children's hymns - for years I thought the hymn said "Jesus bits of shine" as "bids us shine" made no sense to me. We learned the Lord's Prayer as well and did simple kinds of handwork, and of course we had gym lessons.

I remember a Minister who somehow worked the sinking either of the Titantic or the Lutsiana into his Rememberance Day sermon when I was seven and the mother who put her children onto the life boat and remained on board to drown herself, as there was not room for them all. I cried for hours and refused to tell Mummy why only that the sermon had upset me. She finished up phoning the minister to ask him what on earth he had told us, and when given the explanation told him that she was having to deal with an extremely upset seven-year old, and that would he please refrain from preaching a sermon of that kind to school-children at a school service again.

Surely schools are expected to respect the ratings of films? A colleague of mine phoned every parent for permission before showing a class of 15 year olds a film rated for over 16s and explained why he wished to show it that term rather than leave it to the following year.

Children watch so much unsupervised television now, that some may not have been at all worried by the Titantic, but I would never have dreamed of showing it even to a class of 16 year olds, nor for that matter Schindler's List, although it could more reasonably be included in a syllabus for Senior School pupils.

I remember one of the first things I was taught at school was "Fairy Steps". The teacher, Mrs Barclay, drew a house on the blackboard with 10 steps leading up to it. We had to copy the picture and we did this every day, then we put the numbers 1-10 on each step. Each day we would draw the house and steps and be given a sum such as just put every other number on the steps or the Fairy is going to skip up the steps 3 at a time and fly into the house. Things like that. It taught me how to draw a house and steps. I am rubbish at maths.

Grandmabatty- you are correct, it was a very jolly tune. My husband sang it at Catholic primary school a decade before me too. My husband incidentally, hated his school days because the Catholic nuns were so very cruel in the 50’s. I’m sure that is the reason he had a very bad stammer when I first met him in the early 80’s. I did not mind school at all, but most of our teachers were pleasant. I forgot about the nature table too, and being taken upstairs to watch television in a darkened room. I think the programme was called “on the move”.

My teacher in primary one was so old she used to fall asleep if we were reading around and someone stopped . We would look up from the books and she was asleep. Even as a 5 year old I thought that was strange. I don't remember what I learned in her class.

*Granmarderby10
Thankyou for the world so sweet/ Thankyou for the food we eat/ Thankyou for the birds that sing/ Thankyou God for everything”
That’s brought happy memories back for me, we used to sing the same prayer at the end of each day before lifting the rickety wooden chairs up onto the desk, we were then made to check under the desk & pick up any bits of paper etc off the floor, the caretaker was a lovely man he grew prize chrysanths and used to bring them into school.
I remember the big alphabet frieze, there was also one up in the hall where we had morning assembly. When it was your birthday you were called to the front of the hall to blow out big cream candles that were stuck in a wooden tray. I’ll never forget the day a girl with particularly wild locks set her hair on fire, the teacher quickly slapped her around the head to put it out. We all had our own picture on our pegs and this also went on our tin of wax crayons, mine was a daffodil. The toilets were outside across the yard, I tried not to go, they had moss growing in them and the great big spiders stood out on the whitewashed walls.
I hated the milk at playtime, it used to make me heave so I would tip it down the cloakroom sink when the teacher wasn’t looking, put me off milk for life but most of the kids loved it.
I remember doing Daily News on Mondays, all the family secrets from the weekends happenings used to come out in that, I bet the teachers had a giggle reading some of the stories. Ive still got my Daily News books with the cover all coloured with wax crayon patterns. and my name written by the teacher in black Magic Marker.

Being taught to sing hymns (including the 'poor man at his gate' which asserted the class order), Morris dancing, Music and Movement, the 12 times table, singing practice (including John Peel), cup hook writing practice, the independence of the Gold Coast and how to make a shoebox theatre. Some useful stuff and some useless stuff at Junior school.

Fronkydonkey I remember singing the Titanic song too! There was such a mismatch with the words and the tune. Words were as you stated but the tune was really jolly and had quite a beat. It never occurred to me until I was older.

I can't remember when I first heard about the Titanic but I'm sure it wasn't at school.

We were on a particularly rough Channel crossing with our son, then aged around 5 (now 49).
He suddenly piped up in that piercing voice that young children have: “ Is this the Titanic then?”
We were mystified until we saw the “TT” initials on each seat.
It was in fact Townsend Thoreson (? sp) but I think some people were momentarily unsettled.

That I wasn't the most important person in the world and I was just one of 30 fairly unimportant people who couldn't whine or tantrum their way around the teacher's rules. As an only child it was a bitter lesson.

I remember singing “ Oh they built the ship Titanic, “ when I was very young at primary school in the 1960’s. I did not think too much about the lyrics when I was 7 but it’s very sad now to think that a song was composed about such a huge disaster. Especially the line “ husbands and wives…. Little children lost their lives…. It was sad when that great ship went down”. We were taught the basic subjects, reading was extremely important and so was spelling. The girls were taught needlework. We did games and PE inside the gym hall. We had music lessons and hymn practice. Some gifted children were lucky to have music lessons at lunch time and played violin or trumpet. I don’t remember much about history or geography lessons but we probably touched on how other countries lived as I remember the vast comparison to how I actually lived. I also remember French lessons with the headmaster in the final couple of years. He also used to bring a French woman into the classroom who was an advisor , a bit like a classroom assistant would be today.

Attended nursery at 3, was never known as a nursery school in the war years. Only memory I have is the drama of a child falling off a rope ladder in the play shed. Landed on concrete and broke his skull. He was okay. From primary school, sliding down the hill in the snow on first day with friend who was also starting. Both Mums behind us struggling to stay upright.

I only remember learning to read the Janet and John books, but my 27 yr old granddaughter was obsessed with the Titanic from a very young age

I think its up to the teacher and they spend a lot of time lesson planning.
I can remember being taught how to sit straight and not make a noise so maybe things are better now.

Btw child was 9!!! Yes!9!!!

I knew my times tables by the time I was seven. I remember reciting them by rote in class.

Every day!
We had to know them before we went on to junior school.

# friends GRAND DAUGHTER!!! Editing tool beyond your abilities still GN?

Private school.....yawn...... Learned how to curtsey, how to address the bishop , singing, drawing/painting, writing(physical not creative!) Catechism catechism catechism........my friends Be was traumatized in 90s by her school showing the world at war film about bombing of London and Dresden (wtf really?!?!?) And she with parents absolutely tore a strip off the school for their utter incompetence and stupidity, result? No apology just a threat to exclude child....well done education system , a law unto itself and the sheer arrogance of teachers.a

My son also went through an "Egyptology" phase that ran concurrently with his dinosaur mania. He did love to relate to us how all the internal organs were removed to preserve the body before embalming. We were in the course of having Sunday dinner once when he launched forth into a description of the brains being removed via the nostrils which caused my husband to say "enough not while we're eating please"

I completely understand children being in thrall to both the age of dinosaurs and ancient Egypt both are fascinating. Whenever I've visited The British Museum I spend so long in the Egyptian rooms which are sited near the entrance, and absolutely amazing, I rarely have much time for anything else

I doubt that the Titanic was part of the early years curriculum. I taught EY for many years and have friends who work in this area as teachers and TAs. I think your great grandson was probably sitting in on an assembly performed by much older children and it’s just caught his attention.

I remember we learned about the departure of the Romans and the subsequent invasions by Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Then Alfred the Great and the Danes and Danelaw, Danegeld. I think I was about eight.

We learned about Norway and Fjords, I remember drawing them from imagination.

I knew my times tables by the time I was seven. I remember reciting them by rote in class.

Quill pens and inkwells. What a mess you could get into with those!

On the whole, I was glad to leave the world of education as soon as I could at age 17. I wanted more control of my life...

Young children are interested in all sorts of difficult subjects. When my friend's dog died my granddaughter (5) asked me where he was buried, whether he was sitting up or lying down in the grave and then said that he must have gone on a long adventure! It depends on the child; if they ask difficult questions they are old enough to hear a simplified answer.