What do you recall from your first day at school?

I don't have many memories of infant school. I remember my mum walking me there on my first day and showing me my peg. I was confused by it all. I was the eldest and had only known my younger siblings and my older cousins.

On day two mum saw me across the road outside home and told me to follow the other children and mummies. I was to make sure I crossed the roads with them. I was the only child walking alone and felt very frightened. I try now to make sense of things by understanding that mum had younger children to care for and probably wasn't in a good place herself.

I didn't enjoy that school at all. Fortunately I did have a lovely kind teacher in my first year at the junior school who helped me learn to read. I started to enjoy school.

I remember the teacher a Miss Watson wore a black sticky out skirt with yellow umbrellas on it.I met her some years later and she laughed when I said I remembered it but said it was her favourite skirt .The Italian boy from the end of our street asked my young sister to sit beside him,he thought I was the youngest ,I was very small for my age and my mum had put a siren siensuit over my school clothes as the snow was heavy.I started school in the January before my 5th birthday ,there were 2 intakes in 1959 Strangely I decided to leave school the January before my 16th birthday and left before school went back on the 6th

Siren suit similar to snow suits

I remember siren suits!

And who else’s uniform included navy school knickers?

I was reading a thread on kids arriving at school in nappies and not potty trained. That really shocked me.

From the sound of things here most of us could read and write to some extent. And those of us who decided to run back home could obviously find our way around the area and cross roads without help!

We did games in navy blue bloomer type knickers at junior school (7-11).

I remember at the end of the first day sitting on the mat for story time with the rest of the class. I sat next to a little boy who also started that day. His birthday was the same day as mine and I remember that he smelt of wee. For many years I thought all boys were like that!

I loved my school from the moment I started at 41/2 in 1949 I don’t remember anything about the first day just that I know I was excited and happy to be going
I do remember there being a big piebald rocking horse in the corner of the classroom, a reading corner and a frieze going round the walls of the room with the alphabet on A is for apple etc etc and every morning we used to recite it as a group
I remember more as I got older playing two ball at the wall and what’s the time mr wolf, hopscotch and leapfrog and I remember most of the teachers

My 1st day at infant school, September 1964, when I was 5 - the teacher was Miss Robinson, very tall (or so it seemed), with dark hair and red lipstick. I was wearing a pleated dress or skirt that had slit pockets, and my biscuit (or lunch?) money was in it.

I was 5 in August 1960 and started school in the September that year having never been to nursery school. I was painfully shy but knew two other girls. However a few months later a new primary school opened and it was realised I was in the wrong year class as were 3 others who I wasn’t friendly with and we were pushed up a year suddenly and missed out on a lot of early grounding work being expected to keep us with those some nearly a year older in the new class. I struggled to make friends. I could read and write but slow with maths and scared to get things wrong. I dreaded having to do partner work as I had no friends in this new class. Eventually I made friends and to this day meet up with my old bestie from school. She was a September birthday so just about a year older than me. I didn’t really enjoy school and didn’t find my confidence until I went to a secretarial college. I feel even now those born in August are at a disadvantage as they are only just 4 when starting school. You do catch up eventually tho but tough to start off with. My first daughter was born in December and my second was an August baby.

I also remember wearing navy kickers!! Also a horrible gaberdine mac. My mum always bought clothes much to big for me to grow in too and I was quite small and dainty so never really grew into them very quickly😂

My youngest daughter was born right at the end of august and started a few days after she was 4 however my son was born at the very start of September and was always the oldest in the class I felt he was more at a disadvantage than his sister My eldest was born in the middle doddle so no advantage or disadvantage

When I started school in the '40s, there were two intakes each year, one in August (this was Scotland) and a second one in February. As my birthday was in November, I went in February. By that time, I could read and do simple sums. Most of the children I knew were in the class six months ahead. I was allowed to advance into their class eventually and held my own pretty well. My first teacher was Miss Ross who seemed to be very, very old and wore a hair net.

I don’t remember my first day of school but I do remember my brothers first day . He started school around his 5th birthday in January 1957 and I cried and cried because I couldn’t start with him .
I started in September 1958 aged 5 years and 4 months . My best friend from over the road from us started at the same time so I wasn’t too worried about starting . There were 45 children in each class . My first teacher was quite young and was called Miss George and was very nice .
We also had a Wendy house in our classroom but I never once played in it as we had to ask permission from teacher and I was too shy to ask so that was that .
I couldn’t read or write when I started but soon picked it up. I found all the work we had to do very easy and passed the 11+ no problem but got a big shock when I started grammar school and actually had to apply my brain

I started our small village school at 5 and was rather upbeat about the whole thing On my first day I was seated with a girl called Ann who was crying uncontrollably. I instinctively put my arm around her and tried to comfort her but, much to my utter shock, she spat in my face. I'd never known anyone spit before, least of all in someone's face. As we progressed through school she turned out to be rather a nasty piece of work and I avoided her. I was otherwise undeterred and thoroughly enjoyed school.

I went to twelve different schools and don’t remember my first day at any of them.

I remember wetting myself in assembly, because they had a strict time for visiting the toilets. To compound my embarrassment, the headmistress told me off in front of the whole school, then sent me home which involved a lone walk down a busy main road, then crossing a busy junction. My parents, understandably, went ballistic - with the headmistress I hasten to add, not me. I was 4 and a half years old!

I have no memory of my first day at school. I was 4 years 9 months old when I started and think that my mother must have prepared me really well.
One memory of infant school that remains with me is of St. Valentines day. We were in the yard doing PE, throwing bean bags etc. Miss Little our teacher stopped us and pointed to the birds in the trees, they were all sitting in pairs. She told us it was the birds' wedding day. From that day to this February 14th is always the birds' wedding day before St. Valentine's.

Miss Little our teacher stopped us and pointed to the birds in the trees, they were all sitting in pairs. She told us it was the birds' wedding day. From that day to this February 14th is always the birds' wedding day before St. Valentine's.

How lovely, MiniMoon
I'll try to remember that 🙂 🐦🐦

All I remember is a girl called Wendy. She was crying. Screaming really. Then she was sick all over her uniform and the floor. Quite a dramatic first day really .

What I remember about my first day at school was that my class was in a church hall and we had to walk nearly half a mile to the main school for our school dinner, then back for the afternoon, which started with a rest on a camp bed.
My first memory in year one was having to go across the playground to the spooky toilets. There were no lights, so unless you kept the door open you sat in darkness. I wonder if that was why they smelled so bad, because the boys could not see to aim.

Couldn't believe that my mum just left me there! No prep. Sense of being abandoned. Not that I'd hold a grudge or anything!

We all wore school uniform and I recall the headteacher telling off a first year for not having the correct shade of blazer!

There is a photo of me and a few classmates on the internet, a historical photo site, we must have been about six.
We weren't wearing uniform, were standing doing some craft work, I think.

We don't look happy or sad, no smiles for the camera.

my aunt worked in education and was a friend of the head mistress.. we lived opposite the school. one morning my mother took me to school and in the corridor talking were miss Turner the headmistress and my aunt. my mother told me to say 'excuse me please' as I passed them but I darted back to her and asked if I could squeeze behind them.....

because of my aunt I was picked to be a maid of honour at May pole day along with a teachers little girl. I have the photo.

we each had a rafia mat to lay down on in the afternoon for a rest..... it was a modern school with three buildings, infants juniors and seniors.

teacher was miss Hancock. pencil skirt long dark hair and red lipstick.....