School in the 1970s

[Malie]

Was chatting to a friend who also went to school in the 1970s. We agree they were quite different to now. Anyone else go to school then?

I did.

The staffroom was always thick with cigarette smoke and the teachers would smoke outside when they were on playground duty.

Corporal punishment - the headteacher used a slipper or a ruler.

We did PE in the hall in our knickers and vests.

Skid runs on the playground. Nowadays most school don't seem to let them play out in the snow.

School gates and doors open. We seemed to frequently be chasing dogs around the school that had got in!

All our food was cooked in the canteen, and we had a separate canteen building. Potatoes were peeled, and pastry was made by hand.

It was a BBC schools prgramme on the radio called "Singing Together"

I started school in 1978, it was a strict Catholic, convent primary school ,we had to wear boater hats in the summer ( girls) and berets in the winter as well as the rest of the uniform ,boys wore caps and had to wear shorts all year round ,academically it was an excellent school ,not so sure about the discipline though.

We had to queue up at the school office every day to get a ticket for our free school meals. No free trips for those on free school meals, you just didn’t go.

Yes to music and movement in pants @KangarooKenny

When I was in the equivalent of Y6 the pupils were able to choose their own individual timetable. You had to ensure you did 30 minutes of reading and maths everyday but then you had free rein for the rest of the time. I liked maths and reading so I just filled my days with that! You had your own maths book that you worked through independently. As I did so much maths my mum bought me the next maths book from WH Smith.
Not sure what the teacher did all day as were all working independently. Absolute madness!

Oh I loved Singing Together… narrated by Johnny Morris!
That was the highlight of the week.

Warm milk in the summer, frozen milk in the winter.
Walking 3 miles home aged 7.
Chalk or black board rubber thrown at you if you talked.
No school uniform.
School dinners.

I also remember those of the Jewish faith staying in the classroom unsupervised while we had assembly.

Did anyone else do the SRA reading thing?

A box with stories and question cards and you moved through the levels. Great… but they were all American spellings. I used to refused to mark myself wrong when I got the answer card if the answer was, e.g. “color” and I’d written colour.

Still have nightmares about the Public Information Films shown on the tv on trolley wheeled into the classroom, particularly Apaches 😱

You had your own maths book that you worked through independently. As I did so much maths my mum bought me the next maths book from WH Smith.

I bet that was the ‘orange sum book’ (it probably had a more scholarly title than that!).

We had limited resources so our readers were less dick and Jane more blackbeard and pirates to this day im not sure if I was supposed to be reading those books but I was a good reader so they let me read whatever

I left school in 1978.

There were 47 of us in my primary class. Can't imagine that now, can you? I seem to remember we did a lot of country dancing and playing the recorder.

Yes. I’d completely forgotten about that. They were all reading comprehensions, weren’t they? An extract from a book, or a story, and all the levels had different colours like violet, tan etc. That was the first place I remember seeing American spelling.

Lots of people mentioning theses huge class sizes.

There were typically low to mid 20s in my primary classes. I remember my P7 class having 23.

This was in Scotland.

I was born in 1970 so stated school in '75.

The teachers were kind and we were just left to get on with stuff.
I remember that in top infants (year 2) we were allowed to play every afternoon.
The dressing up was old clothes and shoes, there was Lego and we had a class rabbit.
Even in juniors we were left to explore what we wanted I. The afternoon during topic time.
I was never taught times tables or grammar.
I look back on it as being a wonderful,free time.

We had a very formal uniform at prep. Shirt & house tie under a pinafore topped with a cardigan a blazer and a duffle coat & beret !!!
As quite a petit 4 year old I was mostly just clothes.
Probably very old fashioned to modern eyes but it felt very homely and safe. I adored my P1 teacher.
We sang ' all things bright & beautiful 'in the morning , it was quite religious .
Sadly that little girls prep closed and I got a shock when I went to the local primary .

My teacher used to smoke in the classroom while we were out on playtime. When we came back in we had to fight through the fog to find our desks

I always used to think it was a bit rich that we were severely punished for smoking (not that I ever did) while the staff indulged in it to their hearts content! You couldn’t see across the classroom for the fug

Sorry staffroom!

Yes. I remember

Playing elastics, skipping and doing gymnastics, a lot

Custard

Being really uncomfortable on the floor in assembly

Getting the ruler, usually on my hands

Playing bulldogs

Loo roll like sandpaper

Sex segregated toilets

I was born in Australia in '68, started primary school at the beginning of 1974. My start date was delayed by about a month due to the Brisbane floods. Private Catholic primary, very very strict about everything. I liked it. Moved to a different town further up the east coast the following year, was at another private Catholic primary until the beginning of '78.

Then had 5 years of being dragged around the world due to my father's job (diplomat). Schooling was very patchy during that time. Had about 3 months at a UK Catholic primary in '79...was quite a big culture shock for a 10 year old. Wasn't that impressed with school dinners (did like the deserts though).

That pattern followed for my secondary education, too...start at a school, 6 months later would be on the other side of the world at a different one. Finally stopped when I was 14 and my mother was forced to stay in the UK because mine and my two brothers schooling was beginning to really suffer. Ultimately my older brother did very well, I did ok and my poor younger brother left school with no qualifications.

sitting on the carpet, green carpet in the corner of the classroom, for a story

I've never willingly drunk milk on its own ever again after the vile stuff that would be left to go off in the playground. There was caning at my primary school (late 60s) but my mum took me away from it when my teacher told her that I (5 or 6) knew too many words and used them too accurately for my age. Then went to a completely lovely GPDST school which was too laissez-faire if you didn't want to work, but brilliant if you were motivated yourself.