1960’s primary schooling!

[Knittingnanny]

Just found this in a file, my school “ report” aged 10.
Look at the number in the class, how on earth did that teacher know who we all were!
So glad I was a teacher in an era where numbers were far more reasonable.

Wow, they did class positions!

In my first primary school, which I attended from '67 - '71, there were never fewer than 42. And for some freak reason, only 12 of us were girls.

My mum taught in an overflowing school at the end of the 1950s where there was a class without any classroom. Every class had to do one lesson a day in a cloakroom to make room. She said if you haven't taught 46 children in a cloakroom on a wet day you haven't lived!

Not unusual then, I think.
I went back to my Primary school (London suburbs) a few years ago, and the Head commented that they were about to have extensive building work done as the classrooms were too small to hold 30 children. I told her that we used to have 48 in the very room she was showing me, I couldn't actually work out how we would all have been crammed in! Certainly no carpet area, or room to move at all!

My class was a similar size (at least until a new primary was built when I was about 9) but it just seemed normal at the time. And no such thing as teaching assistants.
Another memory that came to mind recently was when I was in the equivalent of year 3 and we had two teachers, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. I assume it was a form of jobshare - both were young mothers and they brought their baby and toddler into the classroom to sleep/potter around while they teached us. Imagine that today.

@GreyhoundG1rl

Wow, they did class positions!

Yes, my school was the same.

You knew exactly what marks you got in tests so you knew where you needed to try harder, and where your marks were in relation to everyone else. You knew where your strengths and weaknesses were.

None of this 'meeting expectations' or level this or that business, and not having a clue whether or not you are at the same level as the other kids in the class, or falling behind.

I found my dc's modern reports weren't worth the paper they were written on, to be honest.

@cortex10 you have reminded me that in 1983 a local school was so short of supply teachers that I was allowed to take my baby with me in his pram and the classroom assistant and some eager year 2 girls pushed him up and down the corridor!

@EducatingArti yes! And an older colleague told me there was always at least one child at the end of the day with odd shoes on!

Yes, my school was the same.

You knew exactly what marks you got in tests so you knew where you needed to try harder, and where your marks were in relation to everyone else. You knew where your strengths and weaknesses were.

None of this 'meeting expectations' or level this or that business, and not having a clue whether or not you are at the same level as the other kids in the class, or falling behind.

I found my dc's modern reports weren't worth the paper they were written on, to be honest.

Yes, I can see that. Very useful. I had heard of class positions (anecdotally) but never seen them used.

@bamboocat yes but sadly I can still remember my mother pursing her lips and saying crossly “who was above you?” As the year before I’d been 2 nd out of 46! What a memory of failure to have 54 years on though!

Yes I have my junior school reports from 1967-71. 41 in the class, positions in the class clearly stated.

Yeap that looks very like my primary school reports. I never remember taking any tests though so I'm not sure where they got the numbers from for each subject. It felt like a mystery to me, as if the teacher just plucked numbers out of the air! And yes, well over 40 pupils in the class was common

Yes, I was at school in the 60's in classes with over 40 children. No teaching assistants or people coming in to help younger ones with reading either. Just one teacher per class.

At my secondary school, the HT would sometimes read out everyone’s term mark in class/assembly (quite small school) so everyone would know how well/badly you had done that term!

We were numbered for registration based on alphabetical order. My surname began with P and I was number 45 on the register ! We just called out our numbers in order and if there was a gap the teacher knew that child was missing. This was mid to late 60s.

My mum taught reception and when I was a pre-schooler I went with her! I had a lovely time. I even went to staff meetings and sometimes sat on the Head's knee. That would have been 1982-3ish.

In my last primary year, (so 9/10 yo) we had 42 pupils in the class. We had class positions too. We sat a practice 11+ exam every Monday and we then moved desks to sit according to our result - the teacher's desk was in the left hand corner of the room and those with the lowest marks were put right in front of her, whilst those with the top marks went to the far right hand corner (I liked it there - nice and quiet). Miss never seemed to have any trouble keeping track of names.

When I was at secondary school (70s and 80s) they had exams at the end of each year and posted the class positions for each subject. They also marked the exams in percentages which is much easier to understand and you can see how you are progressing, as opposed to say an A which covers a wide range.

@2reefsin30knots

My mum taught reception and when I was a pre-schooler I went with her! I had a lovely time. I even went to staff meetings and sometimes sat on the Head's knee. That would have been 1982-3ish.

How the world has changed... Not always for the better.

There were always well over 40 kids in each primary class, and I don't know how they did the crowd control. The threat of the headmaster's office and the cane, probably.

It used to get very confusing with lots of duplicated names - one year in my class, there were four named Mark and seven Susans!!!

My mum started teaching in the 60's - she did her teacher training in Belfast, but also taught in a one room village school in Dorset where she had 5-11 year olds all in the one class.
In the 70's she did supply work, and would take my brother and I into class with her, and when I was at infants school I would just play in the hall or her classroom after school as she was teaching there most of the time.

The same teaching colleague also told me that she chose what she was going to teach without any schemes etc, if she fancied taking them ( all 47 on her own) out for “ nature study” she just went ahead and did it. And every child in her reception class could read by the time they turned 5!
Not sure how the children with sen fared though, probably all at special schools. In the county i taught in the 70’s anyone with an iq of less than a given number automatically was enrolled in a special school. Whatever their disability.
I have a vivid memory of a girl with Down’s syndrome in that class of 47 though in my home county.

I think there must have been a shortage of teachers or a 'bulge' of kids around then. My older DB let slip DM had been a teacher before she married, he was went home one lunchtime to ask her to come and speak to the headmaster (no phone) ... it was to beg her to return to teaching. So I was allowed to start school just after I turned 5 in jan 66 instead of having to wait for the Easter second reception intake.

I can't remember how many per class there were. The school did have one TA though (not sure what her position was actually called then).

DMs first teaching job was near the end of WWII in the east end of London, a class of 56 boys.

This is clearly a stealth brag you clever clogs

I was no. 48 on the register but there were only(!) 43-45 of us in the class most years.

We were listed and numbered oldest to youngest boy, then a few spare numbers to allow for extra boys joining, then oldest to youngest girl ( I was third youngest).

All my stuff has 48 on it. The clay Christmas log I made, the wax crayon candle, my exercise books, my project on the Stone Age, my hand towel...