How do you remember primary school?

[Hsshjabq]

The more I think about it I realise I was mostly unhappy. I was fortunate that I was smart and top of the class for maths and was liked by the teachers. But I've been remembering the bullying I've experienced. There was teasing, name calling and the general being excluded from playing with others the playground or in the classroom. This was from multiple people who simply didn't want me to play with them.

I also got beat up multiple times. I was hit with a cricket bat and my worst memory is being beaten up by a classmate in the playground. This classmate would then go out of their way to annoy me by constantly following me around, sitting with me and being a general nuisance. He also used to enjoy reminding me that he beat me up.

And FFS the stress of the 11+ ruined my mental health. (I thankfully got into a grammar school)

Yeah I hated my primary school too. Same as you in that liked by the teachers, was smart. But spent most of my years being excluded and being made to feel rubbish. Unfortunately for me some of those girls ended up in my class at secondary school and it continued there too. Thank God for streaming when I was finally out of their poisonous reach by being put into a completely different one. But yes it was a painful traumatic time of my life and even now when I look back I still can't figure out why.
What this experience did do tho was really toughened me up and taught me that I could get through adversity and also that I hate bullies and that behavior which I have brought my kids up counselling them not to deliberately exclude anyone and to have a wife variety of friends. I have also been a Mama bear when they have experienced bullying behavior and in that I have taken no prisoners. 😁

Lazy teachers. Lots of bullies. Poor buildings.
It was btw private.

Nuns who shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near small children. Physical violence still being legal. Endless religious brainwashing. Traveller children being mistreated. Disgusting toilets.

Shouty teachers, ups and downs with friends, playing outside, looking through the windows, pigeon sounds, signing basic hymns in assembly, overhead projectors, overcooked veg, pencil cases made of wetsuit material

I generally liked it. Adolescence was when it all went to shit.

I don't really up to juniors , but it's hazy
I do recall my first day at school ( oddly enough ) but after that it's almost blank ( I was just over 4 when I started)

Absolutely loved my primary school (80s). Fun, carefree, great teachers, very little homework. Loved the school dinners and I even enjoyed all the singing from the hymn books at assembly.

Awful, scary children or mkre speficically one child who would pin younger children against the wall and tell them fc didn't exist.
Lost in a huge class of at least 40, taught absolutely nothing, I couldn't do anything maths or add up by 10 I wasn't writing in basics.
It was awful.
I don't even think I was ever sat facing the board.

Overcrowded classrooms (40 children in the afternoons!)
Bullying
Teachers who did their best but were overwhelmed
Pretty dull curriculum

I also have an overriding memory of being sent out of class for something someone else had done and missing a whole fun afternoon. It came out afterwards but it was too late by then.

I loved my time throughout school. We lived in a village growing up and it was a great school, amazing head teacher with lovely nurturing teachers, we were very involved in the community.

high school was in a small town and I had no problems where either, loved my time at school, just wish I had worked a bit harder.

That sucks I'm so sorry you had to deal with that at such a young age

My experience was the opposite; primary school was great, I think of that time as my happy innocent carefree years.

Secondary school was a bloody nightmare. We lived in a pretty rough inner city area, most, if not all, of the kids were being raised in poverty. Many of them were in care / foster homes, and had all the issues that comes with. Bullying, drugs, alcohol, SA, violence etc were rife.
If you weren't in a gang, you were the victim of gangs. You had no choice but to stick with a mob of mates for your own safety.

One of my friends stood up to a gang of bully girls and was found in the loos unconscious in a pool of blood.
The police came into the school and arrested them all for GBH, but didnt take any further action and they were back in school within the week. My friend never returned to school because her life was literally in danger and nobody cared.

We also had a deputy head who was a total nonce (an ex-policemen no less!), who could always be found lurking around the girls toilets "to stop people smoking" it was an open secret around the school that he had a "thing" for underage girls.
We all used to laugh about him but if you were in the loo by yourself and heard his footsteps, you'd get scared. He was seriously creepy.

SA was a daily occurrence, it wasnt even frowned upon. Boys could do whatever they liked to us and it was "Ah but boys will be boys" / "Just ignore it" etc. One girl suffered a serious SA by multiple boys in busy corridor between lessons, nothing was done, our PE teacher who broke it up just shouted at them all to get to class, left the poor girl in tears with her shirt ripped. Her parents called the police, the boys were "spoken to", the school denied any knowledge of the incident despite there being a whole corridor of witnesses, and so the girl was "spoken to" for "causing trouble" -she never returned to the school either.

That school was where your innocent child-like hopes and dreams all died. Horrible place.

I get why private education is popular in and around London, people arent being snobby, they just want their kids to be safe!

Always felt a bit excluded.

Always felt on the back foot a bit. Like everybody knew what was happening and what to expect apart from me.

This was in the late 80s, so pre-internet and WhatsApp groups etc. I think a lot of the mums were friendly and kept each other informed.

My mum didn't make the effort to make friends with any of the mums or help forge friendships for me. I was just sent into school every day, that was it. Never had the right gym kit, never had money for book fairs, or jumble sales, never had home baking to take in for the stalls.

So yeah. Just lonely, alone, and a bit clueless, really.

I loved primary (secondary less so) and weirdly enjoyed the 11+. I used to love exams.

I remember assemblies really fondly and some of the teachers, and play time. Not so much the actual learning 😂

The only SA/SH stuff I remember from primary were boys trying to see girls change in the bathroom in year 6 to see their underwear.

For me. Secondary was mostly verbal bullying and teasing. And when I finally got into a fight about it I was surprised that people actually got in trouble (including myself). When I got beat up in primary nothing happened to them after. (I didn't bother telling anyone though.

The bullying in secondary only stopped in 6th form (same school) and by that time people had thankfully matured and were a lot kinder.

Loved Reception to Year 3. After that it was rubbish and knocked my confidence.

I remember I used to cry a lot.

I loved those days. Small village school, very close community feel, caring teachers who knew all the families, very happy and comforting environment. I genuinely loved going to school, there was nothing at all to worry about there. Home life wasn't great, maybe that made a difference to how I felt about being at school.

I barely remember it.

We suffered severe emotional abuse so it’s like my brain has just blocked out chunks of my childhood.

I loves primary school. They were truly care free days for me and my friends (80s]. Secondary was a horror show and I wouldn't go back to then.

I loved infant school - started in 1973. Juniors was OK. I got bullied because of my clothes (very hard up, wearing 4th/5th hand clothes - cousins' castoffs, so really out of date - and no uniform), and was very bored most of the time. Only remember maths and spelling with occasional art or history (which was generally just copying something out of a book). I was bright - had read all the school library books, but wasn't allowed to bring in my own, finished the maths books so was told just to go back to the start!, and spent most of my last year teaching others in my year to read (lots still couldn't). However, I loved the music (just recorder, but learnt the treble as well and we had a brilliant group), and had a good group of friends.

I passed the 11+ and absolutely loved the girls grammar school - so much to learn!!

Was the 70s, so don't remember all of the years, apart from the last two.

3rd and 4th year the two teachers were evil bitches and shouted at the drop of a hat and enjoyed punishing you in front of the class. 4th year teacher carried a ruler around and if she considered your writing wasn't good, would smack your hand with it.

School was a dump with rabbits running around the place and other random animals. Caretaker was a creepy fucker too.

I found the first few years a bit scary. But overall, I enjoyed the last few years of primary school. Then, the first few years of secondary school were intimidating and not much fun at all.

For me. It's hard to reconcile to accept the fact that I was bullied in primary and secondary. In secondary it didn't stop after the fight I got into (which I won). I would have loved to have hit more bullies but I would have risked expulsion.

Not too bad. In the early years I absolutely hated the school dinners and I just could not eat them. They tried to force me but it just made me more upset. One day I tried to eat some & vomited on the floor. It was my way of saying "see I told you I couldn't eat it". I was painfully shy too and this was reflected in my school report. In the later primary years I had some good friends and I came out of my shell a bit. One girl did bully me for a short time but my dad & my teacher soon put a stop to that!