Your earliest school memories?

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

Being in an assembly in primary school.

nuns painting my face to get a reaction because I never spoke.

One boy brought in a wasp nest (an exterminated one), and all the classes took turns to study it, and draw it.

When we studied Victorian objects, one of them was a flat iron, which had to be heated on the stove. The headmistress herself demonstrated this, including spitting on it to test if it was hot enough, and ironing some clothes; and she wore a maid’s outfit. She was generally fearsome, but she had a sense of humour.

We once had an after-school Christmas sing-along to which parents were invited, and the words were all handwritten on large sheets of paper, and the head teacher pointed at them with a long stick, while another teacher played the piano. It was odd being in the school when it was dark outside. We sang "she'll be coming round the mountain", and for the "pink pyjamas" verse, one of the dinner ladies appeared in a pink track suit, and was chased round the hall by the head, with her stick.

We used to walk to the nearby library, and the adults would bark at us to keep together as we walked (they never used "crocodile" to describe this - I didn't learn that term until I was an adult), warning us to look out for dog mess, and not to touch the privet outside houses, as we'd have the neighbours after us. We'd all be crowded into the library, and could choose one book each, keeping it for a week.

Somebody in the class had a birthday party in the same library, at the weekend, with an entertainer, and the invitation instructed us to bring teddy bears, for a competition. Egged on by the entertainer, we threw litter around when we played pass the parcel. Such disrespect to a library!

One morning before school started, I fell and hit my head in the playground, with a nasty injury, and without hesitation, a passing teacher took me (and the adult who had brought me to school) to the nearby hospital, in her car. I don't think she even told the school office until afterwards. Could such a thing happen now?

Starting in a class where everyone seemed to already know each other (this was back when they staggered starts depending on your birthday, and this particular school had August borns skip reception all together).
Learning to write my name and thinking it was terribly unfair as I had quite a long name and was sat next to someone with a 3 letter name.

I remember the various health checks, as well as the nit nurse: eyesight, hearing, with the headphones and being told to say “yes” on hearing the little noise, the dentist. Most of these were almost presented as “fun” things. There was also a general medical, in the school office, with a male doctor, and I remember having to bare my chest for the (very cold) stethoscope. My mum was there too, which was unusual, as she was usually far too busy to come in.

Loads of memories of my nursery:

there was a Disney characters mural painted up the stairs

I had a melamine cup with ducks on to keep my toothbrush and toothpaste in (they were hot on tooth brushing I guess!),
amazing playground which had an aviary and bunnies in it - we took a baby bunny home as a pet.

I had a nightmare while I was attending where the Disney characters came to life and Captain Hook was chasing me and my mum was there but wasn’t rescuing me.

Tea was always sandwiches of either marmite, jam or lemon curd. I only liked the jam option and always got to pick first - not sure if because I was the oldest or at the start of the alphabet - and one time I had to have lemon curd as there was no jam and I was absolutely DISGUSTED

It was a townhouse in Bristol, I bet I could still find my way around it. Vivid memories!

Then when I was in reception I had the best teacher ever and he turned a corner of the classroom into a pirate ship made out of cardboard which we could play inside

We had an injection in reception and again, start of the register, I had to go first. We got a sweetie afterwards and I happened to get two stuck together - cue comments about how I was trying my luck/greedy, probably very harmless but yup, already knew I was fat then and that just reinforced it!

I basically remember everything about school very vividly because I was so in the moment, and it drops off a cliff around the age I got social media (17-18 thankfully no younger!) Sad!

The numbering of classes in my infant school was peculiar: “class five” was the youngest, “class one” was the oldest, roughly equivalent to year 2. The nursery was also known as “class six”. They did not seem to correspond to year groups: perhaps it was staggered starts, or depended on children’s ability.

In my first week I remember being prodded sharply in the chest by my teacher while she shouted “Don’t you go home telling tales!”
I didn’t know what telling tales meant, so I asked my mum after school and told her about the prodding (it had hurt). My mother was furious, and marched straight to the school to speak to the headmistress about it.

It turned out not to be the only complaint received about that teacher, and she left shortly afterwards. Her replacement was lovely, and my memories after that are all happy ones.

I’ve no idea what the initial ‘tales’ were about.

My little bear my mum knitted for me to take in my pocket on my first day. I still have him, 64 years later - he’s the original Rusty Bear.
I remember standing by the teacher’s desk reading Beacon books to test my reading level.

Wear what you want. Nowadays schools are all like North Korea on uniform…

also changing in front of the the boys. Or wearing your vest and knickers for pe when you forgot your pe kit 😂

So many early memories
First school reception aged 4.5 being made to stand in playtime facing the wall in the playground. No idea what I'd done.
New school after October half term me saying I could read and them pulling a book down off the shelf a proper book and saying yeah sure and I read it!
Spending time outside the classroom again at this school writing stories in the corridor. Oh there maybe a theme here...!

I remember riding a big tricycle at preschool. I left that preschool when I was 4 because we moved. I can also remember having milk and Smarties at that preschool.

@ARichtGoodDram I hope there have been many, many happy times in your life since then. X