Primary School in the seventies (or sixties)

[YellowCardiganNavyJoggers]

If you were at primary school in the seventies what are things that today's children would probably be shocked at.

Here's a few of mine.

Teacher kept 'words on paper scraps' in a tobacco tin. You got called out and you had to read the words of the paper. I still remember the green flat tobacco tin.

When someone wet themselves (puddle on floor) and nobody would own up to it the teacher would take each child into the toilet and pretty much feel between their legs to see if they were wet. Can you imagine them being allowed to do that now.

Teacher was bad tempered and strict. Kids were pretty well behaved and quiet. I was quite scared of my teacher and jealous of the other Primary 1 kids who seemed to have nicer, younger teachers.

School 'jotters' - you know the books you got to write in.

Your dad covering things with old wallpaper. I can't remember what it was exactly - was it books or folders? Or was this high school and I am getting mixed up

The highlight of my day was the milk crate. Oh my god I used to get quite excited to get a whole bottle of milk (and straw) to myself. I was always hungry. Typical seventies child living in cold council house with basic and scarce diet. That bottle of milk was looked forward to each day so much. To this day I still love drinking milk and always have pints and pints of it in the fridge.

Desks with the little pull out drawer underneath. We also sometimes had drawers in a sort of unit with each persons name on a drawer.

Coat hooks outside the classroom with your name beside it and a picture on it. Do they still do this?

Play area in the corner of the room with little cooker etc. I used to love to play on it as we didn't have many toys at home.

Going up to the teachers desk to use 'the big sharpener' on the teachers desk. It was sort of attached to the desk and you stuck your pencil in and turned a handle.

If you were at primary in the seventies (or sixties) what do you remember?

Primary school in the 60’s here. Walking to and from school alone in a city from the start. Not going straight home after school, going to play in the park with lots of other school children. Getting the belt aged 5. Classes with 40 children in them. Going home for dinner.

70s child here.

We had a school bell, that you held and rang when school started/ finished, and play time/dinner time. It was a real privilege to be the bell monitor! I loved that job😄!

Tracing paper toilet roll (ouch).
Outside toilets😱.
The pencil sharpener on the teachers desk.
Sitting on the floor at story time.
Singing hymns in assembly, followed by the lord's prayer.
PE knickers!
Free milk
Horrible school dinners in primary, no choice. But they did a lovely strawberry yogurt.
Tuck shop ran by the children.
Everybody played together.
Bullying rare.
We all watched the same TV programmes, so had lots in common and to talk about.

Lovely memories🥰

@YellowCardiganNavyJoggers my primary one class had 45 children in it. One teacher. (TA’s hadn’t been invented then!)
How she managed I really don’t know, though we were all toilet trained and as far as I recall, all pretty well behaved! Classes always seemed to be som much bigger back in those days, late 50’s early 60’s.

I'd forgotten about her!
The same metal comb used on everyone, dunked into a glass of some coloured liquid and forced through your hair.

She told my friend "Oh, you don't have nits, you have dandruff" in front of everyone.

Sixties child here and I remember the milk too. I also have a memory of orange juice. We used to play marbles on a drain which I don't think would be allowed now but the biggest thing I remember was the corporal punishment on some of the boys. Mainly a ruler slap on the hand. It was horrible and upset me a lot as a six year old.

I remember doing spellings at the teachers desk. I was always one of the ones who was 'good' at English but she asked me to spell 'choir' - I think I would have been 9 ish.
I was horrified as I couldn't and I guessed Q U I E R.
Devastated!

Sixties/seventies.

Playing Elastics in the playground. French skipping with two people using two ropes.
Listening to my teacher read The Hobbit-absolutely enthralled. From a poor council house background so loved the milk and FSM. I used to finish everyone else’s but as skinny as a rake.

Learning times table by rote and spelling tests. Eleven plus was just a test-no coaching or extra tuition. Walking to school alone from age 5-but completely normal. The excitement of being chosen as an angel for the nativity. Most kids were well behaved even though it was a deprived area. If you told your parents you had a ruler tap, they gave you another one as you obviously deserved it. But they were good days-we made up games and amused ourselves without adults hovering all over us.

The infants school I was at is now the council music department. When my dd was having instrument lessons a few yeats ago, I would go and collect her and have a wander around.
It's crazy how small it actually is - obviously remember it as massive! A very old building woth high ceilings and huge water pipes running round the classrooms

Mid to late 70s in NI here:

The “apparatus” which I can’t ever being in use but was for PE.

Responsible children like me being sent to the shop to get my P7 teacher’s cigarettes.

Same teacher used to send my older brother with a note to bookies to get a bet placed for him.

I remember scraps! My mum used to buy me some from the newsagents sometimes. We kept them loose in books to swap at lunchtimes.

I started school in 1960. At infants school you were given a lovely little badge on your birthday, but I never got one because my birthday fell in the holidays and I hated that - I desperately wanted one of those badges

In junior school, maybe third year, our class teacher invited a few of us (maybe 6?) to tea at her house! I'm not sure if we were the only group to go, or if she invited the other girls in subsequent weeks, though she possibly didn't.

We used to go for nature walks in the park next door & do rubbings of tree bark.

Country dancing, which was great fun

The smell still makes me want to book, even in my memory 🤢

70s primary school - the teachers smoking, not just in the staff room, but one used to walk around with a roll up in the corner of his mouth and another smoked a pipe.
The cane (I never received it, but many did).
One child being picked to sit on the teacher's lap at storytime.
The milk - the bottles were always kept near the radiator so were warm and it made me feel sick. My mum ended up writing a note excusing me from having to drink it.
Chocolate crunch and pink custard.
Iodine on grazes.
The boy who put his hand in my knickers when we were sitting on the floor.
Secondary school in the 80s:
Having blackboard rubbers thrown at us for talking in class.
Being called morons, cretins and imbeciles by the science teacher.
Watching the harrowing safety films (Building Sites Bite and Patches I think) and having nightmares about being electrocuted, buried alive or crushed!
Navy blue PE knickers

I remember my 5 year old friend being smacked on the hand with a ruler for talking in Church. I'm still a bit traumatised by this 😔

Mostly the smells, chalk, the pink carbolic soap in the toilets, the Lysol used for the floors and despite that, a vague smell of boak, wet coats. Plasticine, Crayola crayons, pencil shavings and whatever variety of Avon perfume the teacher wore that year.

Singing Together on the radio. It was every Monday after the morning break. we had to share the pamphlets with the words and had our favourites. It was usually themed around different countries. I remember Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree from Oz and Mango Walk from the West Indies I think. All warbled in broad Glaswegian accents. Also remember the big black & white TV on wheels being brought in for Picture Box.

When i started primary school in 1967, we were each given a slate and chalk to practise writing, not a pencil and paper.

A Derbac Comb. You'd be lifted by the cops for carrying one nowadays.

Late 70s: I remember a teacher literally washing a pupil's mouth out with soap and water after he swore mildly in class.

I hated milk then (still hate it 50 years later) so I had to get my mum to write a note excusing me from my free bottle. The wretched stuff was never properly chilled and stank the classroom out. It's the only good thing Maggie Thatcher ever did, getting rid of free school milk 😆

'Izal' medicated scratchy shiny toilet paper - ouch

A few that would be alien to today's digi-savvy children:

The purple duplicating machine - faint purple worksheets you could hardly read.

We used to listen to a weekly music programme on the radio - the radio was in the secretary's office and the speakers wired through to the classroom. I remember someone seriously trying to convince me there was a 'little man' inside the speaker.

Going to watch TV in the library - the customary telly on a trolley - pretending to 'shoot' the lines on the ITV Schools countdown clock (or dots on The BBC one).

50s child here. Walked to school on my own from the age of six. 47 in our class, we were all born the year after the war ended so loads of us.
All sat behind desks with a lift up lid and and inkwell, I loved my lift up lid.
No such thing as PE kit, vest and knickers, socks and plimsolls.
The wonderful slides we made in the winter going from one length of the playground to the other with no one to tell you it was too dangerous.
Still had smacking in schools, I honestly don’t think we gave it a second thought and certainly never mentioned it at home. I loved my primary school days.

Last year of primary wecwentvtp Belgium. Kids left to run around Ostend all day on our own until tea time. Then back to the hotel where the teachers were all drinking and smoking. No contact with our parents for a week. Teachers bought loads of duty free fag's and booze and hid it in our suitcases. Had a bloody brilliant time

This was 1968

Oh and the head masters son was caught shop lifting and the gendarms marched him back to the hotel.

The school milk in the 70s always tasted much nicer than any milk does now!
Being table monitor at lunch time. Although I lost that privilege within a week! My best mate at the time used to hum constantly while she was eating and after day 4, I picked up the lid from the pudding tray and whacked her over the head with it! I felt it was my place to deal with it, suddenly being in charge!
The headmistress having a cane laid at the front of her desk. Me and my mate, mentioned above, were hauled into her office for playing on the school field out of season. While she was reprimanding us, all we could focus on was that cane! It looked like a tree trunk to us! She was a softie though and never ever used it, but it was a good threat!
I remember some teachers smoking, with ashtrays on their desks, piled high with tab ends!

Being smacked on the bum and pushed onto a chair, though it was the humiliation that was worse. Still loved the teacher, didn't affect me.

Great thread. I started school in 1981. I remember a lot mentioned here including blackboards, warm or ice cold milk, the school TV and some of the playground games mentioned and lots of skipping. We still had the gym equipment that pulled out. I was in three tier in Northumberland so quite a small first school. We had a school bus, not walking in.

Our teacher used to put the wee bottles of milk on the radiator so "they wouldn't be too cold for our little tummies" 🤮

Teachers asking kids nosey questions about their families, purely for gossip.

SRA reading lab. What a skive for the teacher! From playtime to lunch we had to sit in absolute silence doing these cards. They were American so the spellings and some words were different plus the stories were all American themed, so didn't mean much to us

Oh yes we used to use the belts from our summer dresses.

I went to a private school so no milk. In fact we weren't allowed to have a drink with our lunch which seems very odd. We got hit a lot and got a lot of lines. It was run by nuns though and they loved beating children up. I remember being in the classroom in winter with the big windows and it going dark and we'd made a snowman by covering a jar in cotton wool . I remember country dancing and the big climbing frame where a little boy fell from the top and a huge bump came up, looked like an egg. And I do remember covering books in wallpaper.

One boy used to run away all the time but never got very far and I remember going up to the front to the teacher to read - one of the words was adamant and a lad who loved Adam and the Ants was thrilled. We had maths books that were still pre decimilisation and this was probably 1980 - obviously weren't investing the fees in books!