What do you recall from your first day at school?

I remember my first day clearly too & like big louis & salti i too also decided school wasn’t for me & planned my way out. I put my hand up & asked to go to the toilet which I’d already noticed was close to the way out. Then ran all the way home across a road & remember stretching up to knock on the door. My escape didn’t last long before the school nurse came round to take me back to the dreaded school.

I vividly remember running into the little wooden Wendy house set up in a corner of the classroom and being entranced by the miniature copper saucepans there. I didn’t once look back at my mother, emotional at my first foray into a world other than home. Generally I loved my first school but then we moved from the North to Cornwall where at school I was made to feel like an outsider (even by the staff!) and teased because of my slight northern accent. Luckily my parents didn’t keep me there long but unfortunately had to pay for my primary education as there were no local places. My memories from the start of the little private school I attended from 8 are those of unadulterated bliss! I found a best friend and loved the beautiful gardens which were our playground. Happy memories indeed.

1971 - my first day at school.
I had been hanging over the back of the sofa watching the kids walk to school wondering when it would be my turn.
The day came - I was to wear a grey duffle coat with tusks for buttons. I hated it. I cried all the way to school. I cried so much I was sick in the playground. I decided I didnt like school.
The teacher let me go inside with her. I felt a bit better.
When it was time to go home again, I noticed that all the other kids were wearing the exact same duffle coat with the same tusks for buttons.
School wasnt so bad after all.

I was dying to start school months before I did. I used to watch children coming home from school and envy them. When am I starting school I would ask my DM.
My first day I remember skipping along ahead of her. I was excited to meet and make friends with other children.
I look back and feel sad for my DM, watching me running ahead. One of my grandmothers had been a primary school teacher and I’m sure she had some part in preparing me for school.
Another factor in the 60’ - I walked to and from school each day, about 2 miles including crossing a B road. That was normal in those days.
Different times.

I lived in a small town where everyone knew each other so I loved my first day at school with all my friends. Mum collected me to go home for lunch and a neighbour asked ‘how was school?’ Very nice thank you I replied to which she said Cocky little toad. It still makes me laugh.

I recall being ushered away from my mum and told she was in the next room so not to worry.
We had to lie down after dinner on an oval coconut mat with a cushion and close our eyes.
At home time I went in the next room and my mum wasn’t there,I was heartbroken!but she was at the school gate thank goodness!

cornergran

Absolute terror! An only child I had lived an isolated country life until I was 5 when my Dad secured work and housing in an urban area allowing me easy access to a school. I’d never really mixed with other children, saw cousins a couple of times a year, otherwise my life was with my parents and occasional time with farm workers who all seemed to be childless.

In a strange environment, no settling in visits back then, surrounded by other children, noise and a teacher who shouted I was immediately silenced, too afraid to speak.

Things settled eventually, I could read, write and count before I arrived in school and did well academically. However the anxiety in large, noisy groups has been life long. Although I’ve learned to cope and hide my anxiety group situations have never been comfortable. I learned to act confidently, as I suspect many people do. Professionally I’ve facilitated groups, run workshops and forced myself to speak out while never being comfortable with more than a few people. I still hold back in larger groups.

This could have been written about me. I've just had a light bulb moment; "anxiety in large groups being lifelong" applies to me 100%.
Only child
Didn't attend any playgroup or nursery prior to starting school, aged 5 in those days.
Moved due to dad's job pre school-age
Only saw cousins couple of times a year
Cried for 3 weeks apparently when I did start school and was 'left' each morning.

I then absolutely loved school as it became my social life, I actually didn't like weekends as I never saw anyone. Was a voracious reader (still am) but I still mix well and choose friends very carefully, feel very anxious in unknown circles.

Yes one of the biggest changes then (1956) and now is that we all walked to school, gathering more children as we got closer and vice versa on the way home. Chat en route an enjoyable part of the school experience.

I remember spending the whole day desperately trying not to pee my pants!!! Not because I wasn’t toilet trained, but I was a very nervous and shy infant and the toilets were in a separate block, on the other side of the playground to the actual school, and I was too terrified to walk that distance on my own!! Ridiculous now I think of it!

I was five and so remember my first day at school it was Dawson infants in
Becontree Essex my mother took me in and the head mistress was Mrs Butterworth a lovely rather plump head mistress, I was taken to a classroom where loads of children were playing. My mother left me there and I was given an overall and sat next to a square water table where we were allowed to splash and use different items to fill and pour out the water, it was a lovely time best of all I made a friend Pamela B. We stayed friends till I moved away to Plaistow east London.

Me too

When I started school at 5 the first term I had an older teacher and she made me sit on my left hand. I was behind all the other children and 2nd term we had a new younger teacher and she asked why me snd a boy were sitting on our hands and he boy was writing upside down. The relief we both felt when she said to the whole class that anyone who wanted to use their left hand could. At least three other people swapped hands at that point so must have been doing that for at least two terms.

I haunted the Catholic school at the end of the road to my home; the children played outside, and slept on little canvas cots in the afternoon. If my Mother was looking for me, I could be found swinging on the railings, longing to join in. As I could read, she persuaded the local JM &I school to take me at four, and I loved it. A new school, I was dazzled by marble stairs, parquet floors, huge windows, so much light, lots of chatter and friends to play with on that first day.

I remember sitting on a small chair and the teacher coming over to me. She towered over me and had another child with her. "This is K", she said. "I want you to look after her". Last year K and I celebrated our 80th birthdays. We went through primary and secondary school together, we took very different paths in life (one of us into arts and literature and a civil servant, one of us a scientist and dentist). We have lived far apart in different parts of the country and met up infrequently, but we have always kept in touch and still speak on the phone at least once a month. I can't claim to have looked after K as the teacher asked, but we have been, and remain, the best of friends.

In 1955 my Scottish teacher asked that any child who wasn’t born in England should come to the front of the class. When I told her that I was born in India, she then asked why I was called Heather! I didn’t say anything. On reflection, you would think that an educated teacher would have known something of colonialism and the British Raj. It’s funny how we remember certain things so many years later. We really did think of England as the mother country.

I literally begged to go to school age 4 like my older sister so mum asked the head and he said to give it a try lol. It went well I had hated being at home without sister around and I too could read and write, like many are saying. Loved the smell of a new exercise book remember it like yesterday but can't remember much else tbh 😊

Ps. When my son started school he said 'it was ok' I was pleased as he hadn't wanted to go.
But on day 2 he looked so shocked! ' I've been to school , Im not going again!! Lol

I remember being on the floor in the doorway crying my eyes out and my mother and the teacher (Miss Boler) trying to get me into the classroom. Once in I was sat at the end of a long table with all the other children. I settled in okay. We used to have stories in the afternoon and we all sat on the floor. Another memory is of me and my friend getting blue paint all over our hands and the teacher (Miss Aliwell) dragging us both to the washroom and giving us both a good hiding. We were sobbing for ages afterwards.

I remember being taken by my mother wearing a double breasted pink tweedy coat with velvet collar. It was 1952, my teacher was Mrs Moss. I hadn’t been to nursery or any kind of play group so my first recollection was of a lot of noise. There were toys which I remember looking at and as I could talk for England I chatted to a girl I already vaguely knew. She is still my friend over 70 years on.
When I got home I told my mother I wanted to stay at home and be a mummy like her. One wish that was granted.

We had 2 reception classes in a tin hut. I was in Miss Hart’s class. To me she looked ancient(!) and I did not take to her. After playtime I took myself next door to Miss Ruthford’s class, she was much younger and prettier. I was swiftly frog marched back to where I should have been all along. I was very unhappy for a long time. I can now read, write and count so some good must have come of that year!

My first day of school was in 1965, at the age of 5.

My first teacher was an "auntie" (some relative of my father) who I knew very well, so I was completely relaxed and just excited to be there. I remember a little pot of perfectly rolled up plasticine in my desk, and being desperate to get it out and play.

The girl who became my first best friend was the daughter of the school's headmaster, and she led the charge out of the classroom, running after her mother, in floods of tears. I was tasked with befriending her and reassuring her that school was going to be fine, and nothing to worry about.

There were no such things as playgroups, nurseries etc where we lived, so first day of school was our first taste of being in that kind of environment, and away from our parents.

I remember crying when my mum left me in the classroom and also the smell of lemon curd coming from the kitchen. It didn't take long to settle in but I can't abide lemon curd!

This has reminded me of my little boy's first day.

I picked him up and asked if he'd had a good time. 'Yes thank you, but I don't want to go again.

I've been reading through this thread with a mixture of delight and incredulity! Delight in recognising similar experiences from my early schooldays but incredulity at the appalling nature of some of the remembered experiences! Children today are lucky that we live in more enlightened times, in some respects.

I remember the horror of being made to finish all that was put in front of me for lunch. A slow eater even today, I hated stewed fruit, especially prunes which seemed to appear on the menu with sickening regularity! (pardon the pun!) One day, I concealed a large apricot in the side of my mouth, intending to dispose of it in the playground bin. Unfortunately, I was spotted by one of the staff!

I started school in 1961 aged just 4. The road on the way to school was being newly tarred and to this day the smell of tar takes me back to that day. I was a very shy child and I noticed the teacher bolt the door of the classroom when we were all inside and that was it, I burst into tears !