Memories of the old South End Infants School

South End Infants, Summer Term 1973
Back Row L-R: Carolyn Cheek, Christine Benning, Vincent ?, ?, ?, Oksana Demitric, Mary Lines, Helen Lines,?
Middle Row L-R ?, Ashley Peacock, Simon Bates, Carol Austin, ?, Tina Goode, Tracey ?, Nicola Blair, ?, Gordon Dickman, ?, Anita Clayton
Front Row L-R Nicholas Hopkins, ?, ?, ?,?,?, Miss Bowler, Peter Copper, Maggie Prickett, ?, Sarah Scotney, ?, Owen Kelly, Mark Rogers

My first year at school was spent at South End Infant school, which was at the bottom of Wymington Road. It is now the Full Gospel Church. I started the school in September 1972 when I was 5 years old; we had two years at infants school. There were no reception classes then.

My first teacher was Miss Bowler, who had just left teacher training college, and we were her first class.  She had a beehive hairstyle and wore very short dresses; some were so short you could see her underwear! On my first day at school I didn't cry like some of the children did as I didn't intend staying for too long! On the first morning we were given round cardboard circles with safety pins on the back and our names on the front. We had to wear them for the first couple of weeks or so. We also had our full names written on a long piece of cardboard at the desks where we were to sit for the year.

 One of our first lessons was to be able to recognize our name and then to be able to copy it in our books. We had loads of different books, one with squared paper for maths, one with half plain and half lined pages for news and one with different spaced lines for handwriting. We also had a plain paged book for drawing. In the mornings we had things like sums, spellings, and PE, and in the afternoon we had art and playtime, with storytelling before we left for home. One of my favourite stories was The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

First thing in the morning we had the register taken which seemed to take ages because there was over 30 of us in the class. We then had assembly. The assembly was in the hall which was in the middle of the school building with the classrooms all round the outside. We all had to sit on the wooden floor with our legs crossed and it was very uncomfortable after a while. It seemed to shine so much you could see your face in it and the hall always smelt of floor polish. The first song we sang on my first day at school was All Things Bright and Beautiful.

 In our PE lessons we had things like music and movement where a cassette of music was played and we had to dance to it. Sometimes we had to be an animal or a mode of transport or even a flower. I was always a cat or a chicken. We always did our P E lessons in our vest, knickers and plimsolls.

 Just before playtime we used to have our milk. It always came in little glass milk bottles which we used to drink out of with paper straws. We all used to take it in turns to be milk monitors. The milk never used to taste that nice, especially in the summer when it got warm, there were no fridges in the school then.  The milk was brought to the classrooms in the milk crates. We used to take it in turns to be milk monitors.

 Our toilets were outside the main school building at the edge of the playground. All the boys used to tell the girls that there were rats down the toilet that would bite our bums, so there were a lot of girls who had accidents at school. In the playground in front of the school building there was a huge metal climbing frame that we all used to like going on. It seemed very big though to those of us in the first year. It was also used as a backdrop for the class photos that we had taken once a year. There was a bit of waste ground next to the school with a tiny stream running through it. There were railings at the front of the playground to stop us running out into the A6 road which was in front of the school. Once, a boy got his head stuck between 2 railings and the fire brigade had to be called to rescue him. The rest of us children thought it was really funny and talked about it for weeks after.

There was a lollipop lady that used to see us over the A6 road every school day, in the mornings, in the afternoons and at dinner times, because a lot of the children would go home for their mid day meal. One day though I was feeling a bit fed up, so asked if I could go toilet, then picked up my coat and walked home. I crossed the busy A6 on my own and felt very grown up. That was until my mum found out and then my teacher and I were in big trouble! A lot of my class mates were impressed that I managed to escape for a little while though.

 When we did well at spelling or sums we used to get a gold star in our workbooks next to the work. The books we used to read were Kathy and Mark, with their dog Socks, and Peter and Jane which were the lady bird books. Every few weeks we had to go to the head teacher to read to her. I used to hate that. I would always get stuck on the word "and" when I had to read to her, even though I knew it when I read to Miss Bowler. I loved reading about Socks the dog and would always ask my mum for a dog just like him, he was a spaniel. My mum always said no because our cat wouldn’t like it.

At the end of the Summer Term 1973 the school closed and we all moved up to the new building on Wymington Road.

(To read Maggie's memories of the new school, click here.)