Do you remember your first day at school? Or first year?

[GimmeAy]

I just seem to have been reading a lot of school based threads this evening, so this popped into my head.

I don't remember the first day, but I remember the night before.
I remember cornflakes boxes and a sand box and drawing houses and Mrs X correcting our copies and her glasses and the red pen.
But I don't remember my first day at school.

My only long term ex, lived about 300 yards from his school. On his first day, he escaped and ran home to his Mum. The Head teacher came high tailing it after him and he was lured back.

Yes, it was after Christmas but I don’t know the date so I was 7/8. We had only been in the UK a week or so and I didn’t speak any English, it probably isn’t just the first day I remember, when I look back I just remember how scary and confusing it was. I kept wetting myself, but I didn’t know how to say toilet, eventually a nice TA gave me a laminated picture of a toilet.

I don't remember my first day, but I do remember the taster day. We made Father Christmas out of toilet rolls.

I remember preschool. It was attached to the primary I'd eventually go to. Lovely low, bright building. So cosy. Milk and toast midmorning, crayons, the squirrel handpuppet that I loved. Home at lunch for tomato soup with my mum.

I vaguely remember primary, because in my memories the colours scheme goes from sunny primary colours to grey. I was bullied relentlessly from very early on

I started when I was five just after Summer half term, my class teacher was Mrs Pickering who was wearing a brown suit, American Tan tights and open toed brown sandals... I remember because I stamped on her foot to run after my mum. She held my hand at assembly when we sang Lord for tomorrow and it's deeds. I got a double session in the sand pit in the afternoon and could not work it how to turn my chair over to put it up on my desk.

Nope!

Not first day. But I do remember my first school which I was only at for a term before we moved away. And I do remember my first day at school at my 2nd school.

Yes, but it wasn't much of a culture shock for me as my mum taught there, so I'd spent a lot of time there. Wrap around care consisted of playing in my mums classroom until start time, and back in there at the end of the day, or if I was really lucky in the hall. I remember sitting with my back to the brown flowery curtains during assembly as the reception starters sat at the side that day - only a few of us as then there were 3 starts a year so you started the term you were 5

When I think about it, I understand why it was felt to important to get YR and Y1 back into school.

My impressions of my infant school are burned so positively in my memory. I am 51 but can remember so much as if it were yesterday.

I began work in a school recently and on a shelf on my office is a box of those uniflex cubes we used for counting. I knew what they would feel, smell and sound like before I put my hand in the box.

No but I remember putting up my hand to answer 2 plus 3 first year.

No the first day but lots of memories of the first year and my lovely teacher Miss Evans. That was 58 years ago and I can still see her now,

I started school in 1979. I remember being in a mobile class room and getting upset because I went in the wrong one after break, must have been two reception classes. Everyone else seemed to understand what was going on apart from me ( a feeling that has stayed with me ever since). It was only in recent years my mum mentioned I started after Easter due to my birth date so most people did know what was going on due to their head start on me. I was only there a term and we moved again ( army brat).

I do! I remember doing a half day. We'd recently moved to the area and I was starting half way through. I drew a house and a bird picture and took them home.

I remember my first day at school well . I went to a school called Downhills Infants in Tottenham (North London).
Another little girl was waiting with her Mum to go into the class she was called Carole and she was my friend all through school.
My teacher was called Miss Lewis and she was an absolute dragon and very scary.
My reading book was about a boy called Ted and a girl called Sally who had a dog called Boots. My Mum used to collect me for lunch.
This was over 60 years ago

Met my bf on out first day and I remember a lot about that day and infant school in general. We are still bf's 43 years later!

I started school in 1976. I remember we were asked to draw ourselves and a boy drew himself with blue hair and was told off. We were supposed to ask to go to the toilet but a girl didn't and was told off. That then made me scared of going to the loo full stop.

I was really annoyed to discover that I wasn't after all going to go to school on my fifth birthday (a Friday, quite possibly the last day of term, certainly no more than a week left). I had to wait till the beginning of the next term instead. I considered this disgraceful.

I remember the walk to school (it was the only time I was ever taken: after that I went by myself or possibly with siblings).

I was put on a table next to Angela who had already been at school for a term or two (I was summer-born, the second-youngest in the class) and Miss S explained to me that Angela was on FletcherMaths book 3 and needed somebody to play the game with her, so they were starting me there and would see how I got on.

I spent years thinking what a fortunate coincidence it was that I was actually pretty good at maths and absolutely the best person to do this with... I mean, seriously, years. It was only when we were asked to write our autobiography in what is now Year 10 English class that I thought "oh - hang on -"

(My sister said this was typical me: academically clever but a complete idiot)

My best friend in the class was Tracy who brought a packet of crisps for morning break every day and shared them with me (I should add that this was not why she was my best friend )

We had a sewing group in the hall where we were given a small square of [dunno what it's called it's that stuff with gaps to put the needle in - aida?]. I put my needle in a random place in the middle, thinking I would do a picture like the samplers we'd seen in the museum on holiday, and was quickly directed to just go round the edge instead. I was a bit miffed about this (possibly about the implication that I had Got It Wrong more than anything else) but had to admit that the result was probably worth it. Still got that little square of stitched fabric...

We did cooking biscuits in small groups, and I was sternly reminded not to lick the bowl out afterwards.

In the afternoons it was Free Play in the hall, though it wasn't entirely free as we stayed with the same activity. I always wanted to go in the wendy house, but I actually remember rather more of the sand table and the vehicles.

We used to go on holiday during school term time (this was a while back) and on my first day back while I was hanging up my coat one of the boys said "you're not in our class!" I just looked at him and said "yes I am" but realised that I wasn't sure I'd recognise him either so should make allowances! (I remember him now... one of the Matthews)

We went home for lunch for most of primary school (was actually eligible for FSM for several years, but I was a decidedly fussy child and my mother thought I probably wouldn't eat most of the school food). One day we had to take sandwiches - I think there may have been a hospital appointment - and I put myself on the list for packed lunches and went and sat in the little hall waiting for my sisters. After what felt like ages but was probably only 5 minutes they turned up and said "what are you doing? we're going to the park for lunch" so I got up and followed them out. We ate our sandwiches and sat on the swings till it was time to go back in. It didn't occur to any of us that according to the school records I was still on the premises...

One of the boys in the class had to wear a caliper on his leg. I remember feeling sorry for him and thinking "I'm so glad I've never had to have anything like that". Years later I found out that when I was little I'd had my feet strapped to a board while I slept (one of the consequences of being born wonky).

Yes I do, 1989. The funny part is that my DD is now in her first year - Reception and has the same teacher I did in my first year! 31 years ago!

Oh, and I remember wearing a dress the same style as Elizabeth's (hers was navy, mine turquoise). Given our circumstances and the reliance on handed-downs, this was quite unusual for me.

One of our games was laggy, or if you were being formal elastic (I expect it has a proper name). The loop of elastic goes round the two people standing out, and the third jumps various patterns at ascending levels of difficulty: anklesies kneesies and bumsies. Once done you move on to non-stop anklesies kneesies bumsies, then onto not even touching. At one point we did experiment with armsies but that was considered a bit much, particularly for non-stop!

In the juniors laggy developed into a larger-group game, with a much longer cord and three people standing out to make a triangle. Obviously the patterns were completely different. Pretty sure we still had the concept of anklesies kneesies and bumsies but I can't remember actually getting further than anklesies.

We played elastic too!

I remember my first day quite well. We all had to stand round a table and were given a picture each which would also go on our drawer and our coatpeg. Mine was a white bird. Then we went into whole school assembly. The first hymn was "He's got the whole world in his hands" and I couldn't get over how loud it was with the whole school singing, 100 kids at once. I was given a hymn book but even though I could already read I didn't understand the concept of singing the words from a book so didn't know what to do with it.

We played elastics. Great game.

I remember having a Minnie Mouse school bag with a clasp that had to be twisted closed. My mum had shown me how to open and close it, but I remember being nervous the night before my first day of school that I wouldn’t know remember how to do it.

I loved primary school and remember being so excited on my first day. I loved story time and the dressing up corner and my teacher, who I remember thinking had blue eyelids. It was a revelation when I worked out what eyeshadow was! Can you tell I am an 80s child?

I am a very shy adult but I was confident as a young child and don't remember any anxiety or worries. Primary school was the happiest time of my childhood - unfortunately it was all downhill from there!

One of the main things I remember from my first day at primary was wondering why so many people were crying. Strangely I was wondering why everyone was crying on my last day of school in year 11 too. I just don't get crying (and I wonder why people say I'm heartless).

The one thing I do remember very clearly was that my mother was very late collecting me at the end of my first day at
infants' school.

From then on, like all the other children, I made my own way to and from school. `Kids in 1965 were far more independent.

My primary school had a really long corridor, with all the classrooms along one side of it. Several times a day the whole class would have to walk along this corridor, which had several sets of swing doors; usually one child would be given the task of holding them open. I remember asking my teacher why the doors were there; she didn't say why, but admitted that it was "a bit of a nuisance".

Getting all the children in the school from one end of the corridor to the other for lunch was a complicated operation, involving lots of lining up, managed by the "dinner ladies" barking orders at us, making sure that we all went to the toilet and washed our hands. They then looked after us for half an hour after lunch; usually reading to us, or if we were lucky, getting us to play games such as hangman. They would then let us out to play, sometimes with a competition of "will it be the boys or the girls who can go out quietly?".