ive just remembered that my primary school taught us all basket weaving as a regular activity/lesson.

[Pagwatch]

it wasnt just an occasional project. we each had terms of basket weaving in the library taught by the headmaster.

why did i need this skill? did your do any off lessons like that or just my village school

It was also tradition that if a teacher was going on maternity leave, they'd be knitted four baby cardigans by year 6. We were split into four houses and each house did one between them — I contributed a sleeve.

Thefruit bowl I wove is still in my childhood bedroom at my parents' house, forty years later, now repurposed as a waste paper bin.

No basket weaving, but at age 11 we had needlework/cookery (girls school) and in needlework we had to make our own games skirts... Until you'd made your skirt (royal blue, pleated, wrapover style embroidered name on the waistband) you had to do games in BIG NAVY BLUE KNICKERS. My form did needlework third term by which time the fabric had run out OMG

Swahili here, too!

I can still sing the first verse of, 'One Man Went to Mow' in Swahili.

Which is Not Very Useful.

Macrame, pottery, woodwork, sewing, gymnastics.

I did enjoy the gymnastics.

Weirdly, my daughter has taken up macrame. I think it's having a definite Gen Z revival.

@ErrolTheDragon

Sacrilege! Basket weaving and pottery together mean the making of containers, which are incredibly important historically for food collection and storage.

People think about technological inventions such as stone and metal tools, the wheel etc, but I sometime reckon one of humankind's earliest and most transformative leaps might have been the invention of the bag... something to carry food in other than one's own stomach, mouth or paws. Perhaps we shouldn't downplay needlework either.

One word: clothing. At risk of stating the bleedin’ obvious, which is a talent I picked up somewhere. Humans would not survive without shelter, ie building AND textiles. But the latter is women’s work and therefore of no importance.

I only did pottery in secondary, and it always blew up in the kiln .

Seems lovely OP. There are plenty of things covered in education that are never used subsequently. I'd wager that only two or three of my school Physics class ever used anything we learnt ever again.

Languages you have a chance to use again, for example.

No, didn't do basket weaving.
I did learn to play the Guitar from the Legion of Mary. They would visit the school every week.

Those 'Sunny Smiles' photos
Can you imagine doing it now!

I know

Just can't imagine what they were thinking...

Did anyone else see the first moon landing thus?

Our class (about 40 of us) were herded into a classroom to huddle round the school telly to see it.

I guess each class must have had a time slot but I don't recall it being recorded. I think the coverage was pretty intense though so they probably just waited for the next time it was on

Yes ! We did basket weaving , country dancing, pottery, carpentry and maypole dancing (our maypole was up all year and became frenzied as may approached). Happy days - only time I’ve ever written/said that but mean it literally and wholeheartedly.

At junior school we had "special aptitude" on Wednesday afternoons where the whole school took part in interesting or creative activities, changing term by term. I remember basket weaving, pottery, needlework (mainly cross stitch on binca), dancing - there must have been others. We would be in mixed age groups, which was with hindsight a good way of getting children to mix first with older and then with younger pupils.

at junior school we did basket weaving and this is the 60s we were shown how to make pin and thread pictures i was gutted when on open day one of the pictures on display was my picture with someone elses name on it

Country dancing!

I distinctly remember the finale event where we had to dress in western costumes.

Also it was a specialist teacher who came in to teach it!

When I was at primary, a number of schools were heavily fined for photocopying sheet music. This didn’t stop my school doing the photocopying. What it did mean, however, was that the Y6 children would take it in turns to feed large bundles of sheet music into the incinerator. Lovely and warm on a frosty winter’s day.

this is mostly a lovely thread - its amazing to see how many different relaticvely obscure skills got dropped into daily education.

Ive just remembered our craft lessons when a whole load of tissue boxes, loo roll middles and cereal boxes were dumped on a table and we had to make something. i was so awful at that.

also Mrs Turner who decided to give us all a go at lino cutting to make easter cards and so may of us cut ourselves the nurse came and sat in the room until we finished

I don't remember singing in Swahili, but at Junior school, we had to sing in Cornish, the Headteacher was from Cornwall. (This was in Surrey )

Embroidery, elocution and Latin. I did go to a private girls school for primary however.

My state secondary taught latin but it was only for the clever kids it was an elective in second year! I never took latin

Our y3 (as it wasn't then ) project was rug making on a Friday afternoon, and sometimes my teacher would bring in one of her amazing home made chocolate cakes.

We did lino cutting in y5 in art.

Lots of country dancing and the maypole.

And recorder lessons.

Arts and culture are so important as knowledge and practical skills.