Memories of Whitefriars Infant School 1992 - 1995

Aerial view showing Whitefriars Infant and Junior Schools, Boughton Drive

I started at Whitefriars Infant School in September 1992. I was one of the youngest children in the year as my birthday is in August so I was only just four years old while some of the others were almost five. We didn't go to school for a whole day at first. For the first half term we did mornings one week and afternoons the next. My reception class teacher was Mrs Earl. We coloured pictures of pigs, cows and horses and we learnt to read books about Roger Redhat, Jennifer Yellowhat and Billy Bluehat.

In Assemblies, people had to go up and put on the OHP sheets for the words of the hymns, and they got all smudged from people’s fingers so you couldn’t read the words. They used to say Happy Birthday to children in Assembly but they never said it to me because my birthday is in August so it was always in the summer holidays.

At the end of the Reception year we all received certificates for working hard during our first year at the school.

Picture of Jenny's certificate for hard work in her first year at Whitefriars Infant School

In the summer when it was dry we were allowed on the grass and there were wooden animals to sit on.

We ate our lunch at tables in the Hall. We could sit with our friends so I sat with my friends Frankie, Nicola, Stacey, Serena and Holly, but everyone was friends with everyone else in Reception.

We did a project on China and we had to make a hat. Mine was of shiny paper with pretty ribbons.

We had a Teddy Bears Picnic where half the class were teddy bears and the other half were clowns. Frankie, Nicola and I were teddy bears with little ears and the teachers gave us little cones with coloured cotton wool for the ice cream.

One day we all had to run outside to see a Zephyr air ship going over.

Pictures of the children dressed up for the annual Nativity Concerts

Every year there was a Nativity Concert that parents were invited to come and watch. I was never given a leading part in the Nativity Play - I think I was usually an angel or something like that - but at Harvest Festival I always had to carry a basket of fruit down to the front at the service in the Hall. Parents were invited to come to watch and every year we sang a song about broad beans sleeping in their blanketty beds.

We went on a trip to Twycross Zoo at the end of the school year. We were divided into small groups with a helper to look after us and my group had a very naughty boy in it so the helper had to spend all her time looking after him.

My teacher for Year 1 was Mrs Drage and we had children who had been in the other Reception class with Miss Totty in with us, and some of Mrs Earl’s class went into the other Year 1 class. We did a project about Space and had to work very hard.

In Year 2 I was in Mrs Claridge’s class. I liked her because she let me take my toy dog Scamp into school. I was in Mercury, the top group. I got moved up because my handwriting improved. We had little books to write down words that we couldn’t spell so we could ask the teacher how to spell them properly. I didn’t have anything in mine because I could spell quite well, but I thought I ought to have so I wrote in “soldier,” just so that I could go and ask about it.

Picture of Jenny's certificate for completing Year 2 at Whitefriars Infant School

We all received another certificate at the end of Year 2, for completing the year, and wishing us all luck in the future as we were all about to move on to Junior School. Most of us were going on to Whitefriars Junior School, but one or two children moved to other schools.

Pictures of the Whitefriars Infant School carnival float 1992

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