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?

Oh, and just to add.
A couple of years ago we all had to help empty the school library as a big refurb was happening in the holidays.
I found quite a Roger Red Coat, Billy Blue Coat books. We all laughed and reminisced but were rather concerned that these books were still there!

Sorry...Billy Blue Coat.

ITA had good intentions to resolve tension between divergence of spoken and written English which phonetics tries to now. PE involving climbing to the the height of a triple height hall and sitting on ledges with no H & S for falls. 0 or 1 child having asthma in a class. No understanding of ND beyond 'naughty' unfortunately.

Those little beanbags you got in PE - I can’t remember what we did with them!?

Threw them up on the school roof 😂

Scraping dinner left overs into a big metal bowl which was collected by a farmer and fed to his pigs. Recycling !

I started in 1976. I remember the wall of fag smoke in the staff room and used to dread being chosen to go and collect a mug of tea for the teacher on playground duty. Also recall the terrifyingly high 'jungle gym' in the playground, on concrete, and a wonderful camping trip at the end of J4 (Y6) - at least twenty of us, with two teachers and no other supervision for the week. All the gates to the school grounds were open all day and we had the regular excitement of a dog running round the yard at playtime. We also had the regular drama of certain kids running home, and when the local shop got a Space Invaders machine, there was one lad who would vanish regularly and have to be retrieved at some point when somebody noticed he'd gone. I can't picture that happening today!

Elastics.
In and Out the Dusty Bluebells.
British Bulldogs.
conkers
marbles
crayola crayons in tobacco tins - yes !
Times tables and spelling test every Monday morning.

I remember SRA but no memory of it having American spellings. Always desperate to get on to the higher colour (color) levels!

I don't remember anyone get corporal punishment but remember people talking about it happening in the past. When was it legislated against? I think possibly it was sort of "frowned upon" but not outlawed for a bit.
I mostly remember punishments being detention and being sent out of class a few times for talking too much 😬. Always thought standing about in the corridor was much better than double maths.

Going away for the weekend with 2 other girls to the sewing teachers caravan by the the sea in her mini ,and 3 boys going with the geography teacher in his car to his caravan in the same place , no idea how or why this took place .Also going on the school week residential which was in the middle of a graveyard with out door toilets and the bunk beds not having a mattress just a sheet of ply wood, also the teacher who would pull your loose teeth out im guessing we must have asked him rather than him just randomly doing this but who knows

My school life was definitely two different experiences. A primary school on a sink estate on the edge of a major UK city followed by a private boarding and day school for girls.

Primary school. (Started 1971).
No uniform
Peter and Jane reading books.
Alpha and Beta maths books
No TAs
Classes of 35 or more.
Regular visits from the police to give talks (not just for careers, there were some problem kids in school)
Dinner ladies taking a class back to her house.
Playing marbles on the manhole covers
Playing conkers
A concrete piece of climbing equipment in the playground!
Literacy tests. Reading all the words on a printed sheet to assess reading age.
Hymns written onto sheets for an overhead projector or on a massive book about 2ft by 4ft that was mounted on a wall and had to be lowered by pulleys for the pages to be turned.

Secondary school
Very strict uniform including a hat . Boarders uniform based on a historic uniform to be worn to church and on founder's day.
Church and cathedral attendance for Christmas, Easter and founder's day.
No allowance for disabled pupils. One wheelchair user had to be carried upstairs by senior pupils .
French taught as well as Latin, Spanish, Russian and Greek.
Food was appalling. As a day girl I was able to switch to packed lunches at the start of a new term (school dinners paid per term). I never switched back. Girls doing cookery would sell their work to classmates.
Boarders in cold dormitories with no private space until you reached 6th form.
Teachers wore their university cloaks and hoods to school events.

Being sent down to the local garage to buy the headmistresses fags! This was a small village school in the 1960s. Dodging flying blackboard rubbers and books, being hit over the knuckles with a ruler. Doing PE in your vest and pants in the playground along side a main road where every one going by could see. Music, movement and mime. The school meals would be delivered mid morning in big metal cannisters and dished out by the dinner ladies from a trestle table, but I did love those dinners! The very strict dinner lady who stood behind you and made sure you used your cutlery correctly. The outside toilet block in the playground. But this was normal to us.

Started school in 69. Another victim of the Initial Teaching Alphabet experiment. We also had music and movement, and country dancing. The other thing very different from now was compulsory hymn practice twice a week after assembly, I'm no longer Christian these days but know the words to tens if not hundreds of hymns.
Corporal punishment and/or lines were common. Learning times tables by sitting in rows of desks chanting them repeatedly (actually I'm not sure that was a negative as I'm the oldest at work but the best at mental arithmetic).

I also remember everyone doing a school medical, with a parent in attendance, and having to wee into a cup! Saw on Reddit last night about this and there was debate as to whether boys had their testicles felt to see if they had descended properly (?) and huge debate as to whether this happened. Anyone know? If you had a brother?

Started in late 70s.

One of the big differences to my daughters education was how much religion there was, even in a non religious school. The daily act of worship seemed to be much more of a thing then, or maybe we were a much more religious (Christian) society. I can still recite the Lord's Prayer and sing all the hymns which were up on the projector in assembly. Plus we had to sing in church at Christmas . I was brought up by atheist parents but still did all this as didn't want to be the odd one out by withdrawing from assembly.

The idea that primary aged children got the slipper or cane seems like madness now, my DD doesn't believe this was a regular occurrence at my school

@Iamthewombat
I was born in 1966 and had ITA as well. what a bonkers idea! I had already learnt to spell a few basic word and my name, then had to unlearn that to learn ita for 2 years before going back to learn to real writing!

I loved ITA. Paul and Sally then Zip and Wendy.
( Wide Range Readers followed then SRA cards.) I can still read it. Those books are worth a fortune now.
Remember many days screwing tissue paper up and glueing it to outlines of characters the teacher had drawn. We were like ninjas at making displays with them. Finn McCool or Red Riding Hood.
Teachers painting the windows with story characters. My favourite was Miffy.
Dinner ladies who were like your nan and taught you how to use cutlery and serve lunches.
Mass over at the church, getting out of lessons to sing at funerals or weddings.
Teachers with ash trays. We used to make them out of clay for Mother's Day.
Izal toilet paper.
Lessons were whatever the teacher wanted to teach. We spent so much time outdoors. Lunchtime was 12.30 until 2pm . 2 outside supervisors for the whole school.

It was fun.

Started school in mid 60s. Learnt writing with ITA which looking back seems bizarre. Large classes one strict teacher. Learned times tables parrot fashion and everyone could read write and spell fine age 7. Streamed classes A stream for the most gifted, B for average pupils, C for the slower learners.
Very little bad behaviour as it just wasn't tolerated. You got bollocked for wrong doing and darent tell parents because you would get a second bollocking.
Much better way of educating children IMO

Perhaps not think too much that aeroplanes had ash trays in the seats and free access to the cockpit to (hopefully pretend to) fly the plane.

Love the idea of the big hymn book with pages turned by pulleys!

Also remember Alpha and Beta maths books. I was very much a Beta girl

Am impressed that PPs can remember the ITA cards and stories. Was meant well as a technological solution to some letters/combinations having several different pronunciations and some sounds had several different spellings. Are synthetic phonics developed for the same reason and widely used now?

I forgot about our little hymn books. You had to back them with paper which usually ended up being gaudy wallpaper.
We had to wear plimsoles for assembly to protect the floor.
Every Monday would start with Morning Has Broken.

Singing Together on the radio I think
and country dancing tunes were played on an LP !

Lucky Seven angry Gay Gordons

Children now are surprised at the three channels with a couple of hours of children's tv, with the relatively few photographs taken (someone bringing a camera on a school trip) and the landline. Have mentioned the BT 1p/2p to check the time and listen to pop music but was suspected of lying. Didn't mention stickers and feedback on Boots' photograph development.

Teachers smoking in the classroom (usually a pipe), Scottish country dancing, skipping in the playground endlessly, learning old folk songs in music lessons (Lincolnshire Poacher, Blaydon Races, Fox Went out one Chilly Night etc.), enamel badges for Prefect/Librarian, singing hymns, Lord's Prayer at the end of the day, outdoor swimming pool - we were instructed to get our shoulders under the water as soon as we got into the freezing water! Pretty coloured aluminium tumblers for water at lunch time. Pyramid shaped milk cartons that gave you brain freeze. Having to ask permission off the head dinner lady to leave any food. Whole class sitting with hands on heads as punishment.