Your first day at school.

I am so impressed by your abilities to remember these things. I do not remember my first day at school specifically, but do remember the school well. It was run by Anglican nuns and was in a large house with dark wooden stairs. I was utterly terrified by the nuns - I had never seen one in my life before and I thought they were aliens who had no feet as they seemed to float around in their robes. And we had to go to chapel twice a week (wearing chapel caps) and that too terrified me - there were huge (to me) carvings of the crucifixion and the cross being carried with lots of suffering and blood - they were horrifying. I dreaded it all and hated every moment. I remember the little green hymn books and singing There is a Green Hill and puzzling as to why a hill would want a city wall anyway!

No wonder I became agnostic!! Ghastly stuff!

It was 1946 and I had just turned 4. Mother had given up her teaching career in 1938 when she married but the rules changed and she had been tempted back as there was a dire shortage of teachers, on the condition that I could start school a year early.

She was to teach at the Poor School (? I never asked why it was so called) attached to the Convent in the same road as the infants school. When we reached the 'Poor School' mother stopped a couple of older children and told them to take me the rest of the way and they dragged me kicking and screaming down the road. I don't know where my 6 year brother was.

We lived on the outskirts of town and I had never socialised with other children so it was an awful shock. The teacher, Miss Phillips, was terrifying and I got a slap for not having a handkerchief in my knickers pocket. Every Monday morning we had to stand up if we had not been to Mass on Sunday and get a slap. I was so grateful that we never missed Sunday Mass as I was such a ninny I would surely have stood up instead of keeping my head down.

Weeks later my baby brother, who had been left in the care of a teenage 'mother's help' obtained from the orphanage, got chickenpox and my father, who had never wanted her to take the job, demanded that she stay home to look after the baby. From then on I went to school with my big brother on the bus and Mother never again tried to go to work.
All sounds extraordinary now.

I don't remember much of my first day at school either - in the early 60s we weren't sentimental enough to take photos (or too hard up) - pix were only ever taken on holidays. I recall learning how to write our names on an enormous sheet of paper and reciting the alphabet.
However, I remember Mum telling us (twin sister and I) that we came home for lunch and we were walked back afterwards. After teatime we both went and stood by the kitchen door. Mum asked us why we were waiting - we thought we would be going back to school in the evening! When we were told that we'd have to wait until tomorrow to go back we both started to cry!

Another one here from the late 1940's. My Mother walked me to school on the first day, which took about 15 minutes. I remember standing in a queue of new starters and their mothers, waiting to 'register'. A boy, name of Barry Burns, screamed and clung on to his poor mother when she left the classroom. Our teacher, Miss Garrioch (sp?) failed to distract him and he spent most of the morning crying.
I also remember lying on camp beds for an afternoon sleep and, unless I have false memory syndrome, being given Ministry of Food orange juice, which contained cod liver oil.
After the first day I walked to school in the company of a couple of friends of the same age.
Needless to say, no photos or anything.

When I started school in 1949 you startedon the Monday of your 5th birthday week. My best friend Wendy had started 6 weeks earlier so I keen to join her. I walked to the classroom with my Mum who was carrying my toddler brother and Miss Long the headmisstress. Then I panicked and Miss Long said "leave this to us mother and walk away" She took me my the arms and the form teacher took me by the legs and carried me into the classroom. Five minutes later I was quite happy among my friends but I will never forget my first day at school. Can you imagine the fuss if teachers attempted to do that nowadays.

I was an only child and never went to a playgroup before so I really cried and cried when I was left at school on my first day. A boy called Alan in the reception class said, 'Don't cry, you'll make it rain'. That was in 1957 and I remember it clearly. I can't remember anything about Alan after that though but I did stop crying and I loved all my school days.

I still have some black and white individual school photos from Junior and Secondary school and a long photo of the whole school from my grammar School days. No photos from the infants. Later I remember my dad telling me off because I was winning a running race on Sports Day- I'd be about 8-then I stopped to look back at my friend and lost! I can only remember a few other incidents from primary school. One when I pooed myself and didn't tell anyone ( the teacher had refused to let me go to the loo) and I had to walk a long way home in dirty pants by myself. I was 10 then, top juniors so I must had had a bug as not the usual stuff I did! Happy Days.

Apparently when I was in the nursery class the teacher asked me 'what's the magic word?' expecting me to say 'Thank You'. I said 'Abracadabra'. My teacher in the infants was called Mrs Davies, other things I remember there was a caretakers strike when I first went to school so we did half days for about six weeks, It was a bit of a shock when I had to stay all day. I came out of school one day and my little brother said 'I've had sweets and you haven't' - I punched him and he didn't get any more sweets -win/win in my book. I also taught him to read, guess which one of us is the teacher - He is, obviously

My two DCs went to school without a backwards glance which was great.
My DD was in floods of tears when DGD No 1 started preschool and again when she started 'big school' (Reception) though she was pregnant with DGD No 2 and her hormones were all over the place and it was a new school where DGD No 1 didn't know anyone.

I lived on a farm one mile from the village school. Each day my brother and I were picked up by the dinner van. The dinner was already cooked by 9am!! I can still smell the cabbage.

I have a poor memory and am lucky to remember what I did last week, never mind all those years ago! No recollection of the first day, but I did like my school and most of the teachers.The only memories of infant school are of not being able to find my coat ( and panicking ) and of using purple crayons for the first time.

My brother used to take me to the nursery and then to school because my mum had an early morning cleaning job this was in the early fifties.
He always said I used to scream the place down

I remember my first day at school as I managed to accidently tear the front of my writing book we had just been given, in my eagerness to open it and start writing in it. I was so upset that I just sat there crying until the teacher realised what had happened and came to my desk and reassured me it could easily be mended. I loved school after that and can still remember that teacher.

I remember very well my first day at school. We lived a stone's throw from the school and my Mum walked me there. I remember distinctly crying my eyes out and watching her walk away - the classroom had high windows (well to me in my little world anyway) and I can see her head bobbing past those windows as she walked away. If I shut my eyes I can still see her so clearly - walking away....

I don't remember my first official day at school. We lived in the colonies, my mother was a teacher, so she had a small school for ex-pats. I suppose it might have been termed a "dame school", but very strictly run on the P.N.E.U. guidelines. Since the school was in our house, I had been on the fringes most of my life [I'm No. 2], so actually taking part didn't really make a mark on my memory.

What I do remember clearly is being at nursery, aged about3...

I remember mum taking me to school on the first day. We had to wait as a boy was kicking and hitting the teacher as she tried to drag him from his mother! The noise in the class was unbelieveable as 46 children cried for their mothers. There was no preschool preparation in the fifties, no nursery, no playgroup. I don't know how our teacher had us under control within days, but she did!

I clearly remember my first day at school. Never having left my mother's side for 5years , I was suddenly abandoned and left in a huge room full of strangers. I went and hid in the toilets and my mother had to be fetched from home. Thank goodness the whole process is so much kinder for our grandchildren.

I can't remember my first day--I was only just 4 and my mother wanted me out of the way as she was expecting my sister. I can remember walking to school by myself (about half a mile)and eating "bread and cheese" from a hedge (young hawthorn leaves). We learned to count using little shells. It was wartime, 1940 ,and there was a dugout shelter in the playground covered with earth which had poppies growing all over it in the summer. The loos were outside and very smelly so I tried to avoid using them with the inevitable results! I used to smuggle the wet knickers home and dry them in the airing cupboard in shame. We shared the school with another evacuated school so the classes were huge and some of the teachers had been recalled from retirement to replace men who had gone to war. We had an elderly woman teacher who always seemed to have a cold. She used to blow her nose on that hard toilet paper and there was a wastepaper basket by her desk which was always full of scrumpled sheets of the stuff. The headmistress lived in our road and she used to get me to take to her house a jamjar filled with leftover bits of meat and gravy from the school dinners for her cats. I hated doing this because her house was set in an overgrown and gloomy shrubbery and I thought it had monsters in it.

I don't remember my first day at school but I do have a photo of me aged 5 in my new school uniform and looking very glum! I had had to have my plaits cut off as it would be easier for me to comb my hair in school and I wasn't happy about it. I was very anti-social to start with as my parents wouldn't send me to playgroup and I never had any children round to play before I started school, so I had hardly ever met any other children and I used to bite them! Once I was told that was unacceptable I calmed down and things improved from then on and I made lots of friends. When I took our daughter to playgroup for the first time, she made a beeline for the sand tray and got stuck in without a backward glance. I hung around for about 10 minutes and then went over to her and asked if she minded if I went. She didn't look up, but said:" No, you go!" so I did and we never had any dodgy moments with playgroup or school although she wasn't too keen on nursery school and I must say I agreed with her as the teacher wasn't very nice and shouted a lot at the children. Luckily, she was only there for a term before she moved on to her prep school, which was wonderful.

I remember wishing I could start school as I was bored stiff at home. I remember watching at around 4pm each school day, children coming home from school and being eager to start.
My first day on the way to school, I remember rushing ahead of my poor mother (who was sad at it being my first day) and there were no tears on my part, just enthusiasm.

In those days, in was normal to walk to and from school from age 5, I did. I can remember the route clearly; soon my sister after 2 years joined me.

A few years ago I mentioned in a family gathering that I enjoyed walking to and from school - my mother, taking note of today's over reliance on coddling young people, exclaimed that she was sure she took me every day.

I loved school, everything but mainly being in company, with the other children, and with the teachers too.

My first teacher was lovely and as she lived not too far from us my mother continued to se her from time to time. I used to call in and have a chat when I was older and as by then she was headmistress of the school she allowed me to go in and do a sort of teaching practise there before starting training.
She was a person who loved to hear how former pupils were getting on so we would swap news of people.

I was taken to school by the girl next door who was a year older. After the first day I went alone until my brother started 2 years later and I took him. I remember a boy called Wayne crying all the first day - I always remember that if I meet someone called Wayne (or someone with the same surname). No photographs or other kind of fuss.
When my DD started school took a photo of her in her uniform. All the children were also photographed in school. Sadly the film was in my handbag ready to be developed when my bag was stolen. The photo taken by the teacher stood on the mantlepiece for ages until one day when I was dusting it slipped down behind the fireplace surround so I don't have a picture of my daughter's first day at all now! Another strong memory of infant school is being told off for keeping my eyes open in prayers at assembly. We had to stand up and I got dizzy if I shut my eyes so thought it very unfair!

I can't remember much at all about infant school.
This was 1942 and we had to take our gas mask and some sandwiches in case of an air raid. As I can't remember any shelters I don't know what would have happened but it was never necessary.
I also remember being rapped over the knuckles with the edge of a ruler. I think I hated it but loved the Junior school we went to at 7.

i can't remember my first day at school although my class were in a photo on the front page of the newspaper - we were the first reception class to go to the new primary school. haven't a clue where the school was before though!
and i can't remember how i got to school or back home again. later on my mother would put me on the bus at the end of our road and i'd get off at school as the bus stop was right beside the school and i suppose i went home on the bus to be met by my mother in the afternoon.
i stayed for lunch and remember vaguely once being the only child left in the dining hall as i wouldn't eat my meal.
the only thing i can remember of that school is standing up on my chair to tell my classmates about my trip to london where i went to stay with an aunt and uncle when the coronation was on - and i was disappointed to "only" see the duke of edinburgh in the official car when he and the queen did a tour of the local streeets - the queen was on the other side of the car so i didn't see her clearly.

1956 - I was also given a slate to write on, and told that I could only have a book and pencil when I had learned to write the alphabet, which I had by the end of the first week. My teacher was a neighbour, but she seemed like a different person in the classroom - really scary, although I did like her! At home time, the student teacher read us a story "Little Black Sambo".

123kitty we had to eat everything on our plates too. Salads with dates - I still can't look at one without heaving. Used to try and hide them in my knickers!

I'm not sure if I remember the actual first day, but I certainly remember the first days/weeks. It was 1942 so the war was on. We had to carry gas masks in a little shoulder bag (more like a little box) and we had practice sessions when a bell rang to see how fast we could get to a room which was lined with sandbags. Every afternoon we had to rest on the floor on little rush mats, the idea being to go to sleep but I never could and can clearly remember lying there feeling bored. One day I ate a toffee in class, strictly against the rules, and so received three sharp slaps on the hand with a ruler from our very strict teacher. I don't remember my mother ever walking me to school or meeting me. I used to walk with an older girl who lived nearby as the school was just at the end of the road.
In spite of the strictness they were happy days and I loved being at school.