If you were at primary school in the 80s

[isabellerossignol]

I've spent what seems like all morning printing off worksheets for my primary aged child. And I was suddenly struck by a vivid memory from primary school. Hand typed or handwritten worksheets that were printed on a machine, in the days before printers, with really poor quality paper and all the writing came out with a bluey/purple tinge.

I've had a Google and apparently it was called a Banda machine, and was used a lot in schools because it enabled relatively cheap printing. Does anyone else remember it?

The thing I remember most is that the printed sheets had a really strong, distinctive smell. If I could smell that now, I'd feel like I was 8 all over again.

Jackdaw we had an alternative chorus for Would You Walk By:

Cross over the road, my friend
There's a lorry coming round the bend
If you want your life to end
Cross over the roooaaad

We must have been a bit more innocent than the kids at your school! We did also use "Joey" as an insult, though. You had to say it in a particular way and do that thing where you push your tongue in front of your teeth. Terrible, and I don't remember any of the adults telling us off for it, either.

Does anyone remember crinkly loo paper that was kind of shiny?

It was no good for wiping as it was too slippy!

I always remember being given spellings in a old golden Virginia tobacco tin with your name taped to the front ( still with remnants & smell of the tobacco inside ) 😂😂
Imagine that today !

Anyone remember Chocky, scary kids programme ? We used to chase each other shouting 'chocky' over and over

Strike we were issued Golden Virginia tins to keep our crayons in! I can remember the smell too. Very evocative.

Three of my schools had ‘temporary’ portacabin classrooms - no idea why all the schools were so full, did they not build new schools in the 80s

I think they were chronically underfunded. I remember Y6 was a temporary classroom with a bouncy floor, freezing in winter, like a greenhouse in summer.

And I remember not having to go to school while the teachers went out on strike. Yay!!

LOVED primary school though. All this and more...

I do recall the netball posts were v heavy cast iron that we had to carry & out together. One fell on my head and & got told off!!! Amazed I didn't end up with a fracture. Definitely a more cavalier attitude to injuries.

The antiseptic Savlon smell of the first aid room takes me right back. I was in there a lot!!!

YES to the tobacco tin of spelling words, SRA cards (loved them), the overhead projector, amazing smell of floor polish & skidding on the shiny new floor, desks with lids and singing hymns...

Colours of Day, Lord of the Dance, One More Step Along The World I Go....

And the excitement when we had PE equipment installed in the hall - a massive pull-out climbing frame on the wall...

Last thing, did anyone else do country dancing for PE? Hilarious. Good fun too...

I loved country dancing too. We also did maypole dancing which was fun when it got going.

We had SMA baby milk tins for our art supplies. And the desks all still had inkwells in them with those sliding lids, which we never used.

My grandma had one for a while, and used to do loads of stuff for her church on it, it stank. We called it the duplicator too. We used to play with the used ink sheets to make pictures and it would get all over me.

Didn't have one in school. We had workbooks and put all the answers into exercise books.

Of course we did country dancing - Scottish country dancing!

We had old fashioned wooden desks too with ink pots, great for keeping all your stuff in. Our school was Victorian and some classes still had fireplaces. I remember being in top infants and being read a story in winter with the coal fire burning, so cosy.

no idea why all the schools were so full probably because Gen x are generally the offspring of baby boomers - there was a ton of them and a lot of them still had larger families too ime

@Bumpsadaisie that loo "paper" also scratched your arse right off! Ouch!

There were under 25 kids in every class in my primary school in the 80s.

We didn’t do any dancing in PE until high school, where December meant ‘social dancing’ and the horror of choosing a partner. The teachers would get us to line up along the wall at one end of the hall and the boys at the other end. Then announce which sex was doing the choosing that day.

It was dreadful. You weren’t allowed to decline, so you’d be standing there desperately thinking: ‘not Fergus, not Fergus’. It was almost worse if it was your choice, because you’d have to weigh up the possibility that whoever you asked might think you fancied them. 😆

@zaphodbeeble

I remember Chocky! God, that was terrifying!

We did country dancing, which was quite comical in an 80% non white British inner London school. Nobody really understood what on Earth it was, but it was fun.

For the Londoners, does anyone remember the exercise books and pencils stamped with ILEA (Inner London Education Authority)? I remember when they started to run out mid 80s due to funding cuts and the teachers would say ‘you’ll have to look after that pen, as ILEA aren't sending us any more’.