A Fifties Childhood: School-Life

Fifties Childhood - Memories

Susan in the Infants School

I first attended Newton Road Infant School at the age of about five. This was a great shock to me as up until that time I had not really been anywhere without my Mum. Unlike children today, who are enrolled in a variety of activities from a very early age, children in the fifties were almost solely looked after by either their Mum or Grandmother. I remember my first teacher – Miss Gibbs. Mum called her Norah as she sang alto with her at the Operatic Society. I can picture myself being dragged to school crying and Mum peeping anxiously through the high class room windows to see if I was all right. Despite this traumatic start I adored infant and junior school although I had a few grievances that I remember even today.

Number one – We had a sand pit in the first class. This was very small as it was inside the fender of the old fireplace in the classroom. We were only allowed to play in it two at a time and only after all other lessons were completed. In all the time that I was in that class I didn’t get to play there once. Every time I was the first to finish my sums, or what ever it was that we were doing, there was not enough time left to play in it.

Number two – In the top class I was picked to play Mary in the nativity play. I wanted to be an angel. Their costumes were much better than Mary’s. And anyway Mary had to hold hands with Joseph who was played by Billy Knowles. No-one wanted to hold hands with Billy!

Number three – The school nurse came to give us injections at school and had two plates of sweets on the desk – Smarties and Fruit gums. Watching very carefully while waiting in the line I worked out that going alternately I would get a fruit gum. I didn’t! I got a Smartie. I was not pleased.

Number four – During music time I only ever remember getting a triangle to play. I never got a turn on one of the drums. Who knows, my musical talents could have taken a different course. It’s funny looking back over these grievances. They were very real at the time and it makes me smile that what seems now such a few trivial things have made such a lasting impression on me. It just goes to show that possibly the things teachers think are important and the things that make the most impression on us are not necessarily the same.

My second teacher, who I adored, was Miss Howes, who later married Mr. Neville from the junior school. Miss Howes was lovely, except when during singing time we sang “Ten little tulips”

Ten little tulips, Sitting in a bed Along came an old woman I’d like one she said And plucked a little tulip Right out of the bed.

Ten children were picked to be the tulips. Miss Howes put on a shawl and a quavery voice to become the old woman. I didn’t like this as lovely Miss Howes became quite frightening. I hung back so as not to be chosen as a tulip. I never was (Whew!)

Miss Boreham (Dad joked Bore’em stiff!) was my last teacher in the infant school. She kept a jar of sweets in the cupboard and each week we had a test where she read out a short passage. She would give us instructions like “Full stop. Capital letter next word. Etc.” If it was all written down correctly with no spelling mistakes you got a sweet out of the jar. I was always very good at this and so got a sweet. However one week we had the word “bathe” in the passage. I didn’t know how to make “bath” into “bathe” and so got it wrong. I didn’t get a sweet that week- a disaster for me. I didn’t like to fail even then. I learnt to knit while I was in her class and because my Mum had taught me how to cast off Miss Boreham allowed me to show some of the others how to do this. I made an apron as well– green gingham material with a cross stitch pattern in the squares along the bottom. I was always sewing at home and so this wasn’t new to me but Mum told me that when they went to an open evening some of the other parents wouldn’t believe that I had made the apron myself- but I had.

The head teacher was Miss March- a small thin lady with glasses. I only remember her as a remote figure sitting in the hall at her desk collecting the registers. I don’t know what else she did. Mum knew Miss March as she also went to the Operatic Society. She was the prompter and sat in the wings of the stage ready to help anyone who forgot their lines.

Going over to the junior school my teachers were Miss Sewell, Mr. Leeding, Mrs. Dyment and Mrs. Edge.

I’m sure Miss Sewell was an excellent teacher but all I can remember of that year was making a model lamb out of wire and covering it with papier mache. I don’t think it was meant to be a lamb but that is what it most resembled when I had finished. It never quite stood up properly as the legs were uneven.

Mr. Leeding always wore dark suits and I remember that he had beautifully manicured fingernails. They were always dusty with chalk. He read “Swallows and Amazons” by Arthur Ransome at the end of the day. We never quite finished it but this was a source of enjoyment after a day of hard work.

Mrs. Dyment was the headmaster’s wife and head of music. She took all the classes for singing lessons and built up a choir. We were, although I say it myself, very good and sang a two part song “Lizzie Lindsay” at the schools festival with Mr. Thorne at the Ritz cinema. “Growlers” were weeded out of the class and made to sit at the back. As most of the growlers were boys you had to wonder if this was a ploy to sit at the back and mess about. Would teachers be allowed to discriminate in this way today?

Mrs. Dyment enjoyed getting her class to grow things and rows and rows of jam jars, filled with blotting paper and runner beans, decorated her window sills. We also grew cress and had cress sandwiches as a treat one afternoon.

Fridays would be radio time when we would take part in a broadcast assembly, singing hymns from a book published by the BBC to tie in with the services. In Mrs. Edge’s class we also had the radio for singing time when we would learn new songs.

At Christmas there was always an end of term concert and you could offer to do anything you wanted. (Well within reason). There was a small group of us who always came up with something. In Mr. Leedings class we decided to have a skiffle group and sing “Catch a falling star” (a hit at the time). Elizabeth Britten’s grandma had a washboard and so she played this complete with thimbles. Linda Cresswell played a tea chest complete with a pole and string. I had a tin filled with peas and Margaret Maddams completed the group with dry rice in a tin. Rehearsals went very well until Margaret getting very excited shook the tin of rice very vigorously. The lid flew off and the rice spilled all over the wooden floor. Mr. Leeding made us pick up every grain which is not easy as the wooden floor had lots of cracks. After that the lids were sellotaped on to avoid a repeat of the incident. Margaret and I sang our first two part duet “Under the old Linden tree”. When we were in Mrs. Edge’s class we did a play called “The Beauty Parlour”-a comedy where all the treatments went wrong. A good time was had by all.

For all the concerts the desks were pushed together at the back of the hall and the younger children sat cross legged on the floor in front. At one concert about seven of us all crowded on to one desk to sit. Half way through the concert the desk collapsed with a loud crack. Luckily no-one was hurt and we couldn’t stop giggling.

One afternoon a week was sewing time for the girls. I can’t remember what the boys did – probably football. Work was kept in embroidered bags which you shared with a friend. Most of the time was spent either lined up at the teacher’s desk or gossiping with a friend. To start with we had to make a sampler learning all the different embroidery stitches. After finishing that I remember making a table cloth which my Mum used for ages. We were made to do knitting as well. Margaret and I decided to knit scarves. Mine was a very bright pink and green. Some people did tea cosies using two coloured wool. We decided to be clever and do moss stitch on our scarves. What a chore. Talking to Margaret recently I know she still avoids doing moss stitch unless she absolutely has to such was the impact of the scarf on her.

Some people made slipper bags out of gingham with cross stitch on them. Most sewing afternoons there was always someone who had to make their strings for the bag. The front of the class room would be cleared and after measuring out several lengths of the cotton used to make the strings, two people would stand, stretched out across the room with a pencil in each end of the strings, They would then have the laborious task of twisting the pencils until the strings were twisted enough, then finding the middle they would hold this, putting the other ends together and the strings would magically curl up into a very tidy pull string for the slipper bag.

A lot of fuss is made today about children doing “Sats” tests but when we were at school we had tests at the end of every term on all subjects with a report and the results sent to our parents.

In Mrs. Dyment’s class we took turns to ring the bell at the end of lessons, taking it round to all the different areas of the school. Another job for the more “responsible” members of the class was to set out the cups and make the tea in the staff room, washing up afterwards. The kettle was boiled on a gas ring. Would they allow children of ten to use matches in a school today? One day Mr. Dyment sent two members of the class to make the tea. He obviously had doubts about their ability and after a while sent me to see how they were getting on. Imagine my horror when I saw that they had the flexible pipe of the gas ring draped over the flame. A hole was burnt in the pipe. I quickly turned it off and hurried to the nearest class room- Mr. Leedings- saying I could smell gas and thought there was a leak in the pipe. I never told anyone what had really happened but I don’t think those particular people made the tea again.

Sometimes while assembly was on Mrs. Dyment sent me down to the butcher’s shop in Cromwell Road to get some meat for her dog who spent his time in Mr. Dyment’s study. Mr. Dyment often let me do some jobs for him when I had finished my work. I remember taking messages to the different classrooms and once marking some arithmetic book. (Mr. Dyment gave me the answers and I ticked the books.) 

In the Infant school playtime was mixed boys and girls with a lot of chasing around the playground. The only safe place was in the girl’s toilets. All the toilets were outside in those days and cold, draughty and smelly they were too. I’m sure the caretaker did a splendid job but it must have been an endless task to keep them clean. By the time we moved over to the junior school it was thought that boys were too rough and so separate playgrounds were the order of the day. Playtime games were always changing according to the popular game of the day but a firm favourite was skipping. We had a very long heavy rope into which several people could skip at once. One person at each end of the rope got it going at a regular pace while others dodged in to start skipping. One rhyme I remember was

Susie’s in the kitchen Doing a bit of skipping In comes a bogey man And out goes she.

“Susie” skipped until the person as the “Bogey man” jumped into the rope. “Susie then left the rope and “bogey man” became “Susie”. The rope didn’t stop turning and the rhyme continued until either the turners got tired and wanted a change or one of the skippers missed their step and caught the rope. Handstands up the wall were another favourite. We must have spent a lot of the summer upside down. Cartwheels as well. Margaret was very good at these.

I-Ackey (I don’t know what it means either) was a sophisticated hide and seek. The seeker had to find the others and run back to an agreed spot where they shouted I-Ackey Susan 1, 2,3,60. You could however beat the seeker by running if they found your hiding place. If you reached the agreed spot before the seeker you shouted I-Ackey myself 1,2,3,60. The first person to be found and I-Ackeyed was the next seeker. (Later research has discovered that “I-Ackey” or “Hi-Yacky” comes from the Latin phrase “Hic Jacet” meaning “here lies”)

Polio was another game. I’m a bit rusty on the actual rules of the game but I think it went a bit like this. One person was it. The others huddled together and each chose a word according to the category agreed – let’s say “colours”. Then they would tell the “it” person the colours – red, green, lilac etc. after which the “it” person chose and shouted out one of the colours. You all ran and the “it” person had to throw a ball and try to hit the person who had chosen that word. It sounds complicated but it wasn’t. It appears that we spent a lot of time running around outside. No couch potatoes in those days.

Two balls up the wall was another favourite. We made up lots of rhymes as we threw the balls, putting in drop actions and round the back actions, galloping, jumping, skipping and throwing under the leg. All tricky moves, but polished to perfection at home, so as to astound your friends later in the week in the playground.

The playground in the juniors sloped down in the middle to a round drain. Lots of games were played here including marbles. In the winter after a good frost we made long very slippery slides which snaked all over the playground, some going down into the drain. What fun this was and although we often got bruised knees and bruised egos we loved it. What a shame children of today are so inhibited at school that they are not allowed to play even slightly dangerous games in case the school is sued. I only remember one boy at school breaking a leg and I think he did this at home. His name was John Pipes. He sat in the same desk as me. In those days desks were made for two people and Miss Sewell, I suppose in order to keep an orderly class, had arranged it so that the desks were shared by one boy and one girl. I was a little afraid of the heavy plaster cast on John’s leg and kept right to the edge of the seat.

In the top junior class Mr. Muncey and Mr. Whitworth introduced country dancing to the school. At first this was quite embarrassing as the girls didn’t want to hold hands with the boys who hung around the edge of the playground. While we were learning the girls often danced together but later on we were invited to dance at a school’s country dancing festival and so Mr. Muncey and Mr. Whitworth paired us up according to size. I danced with Richard Safford. I think the festival was held in Birmingham . On the day we had a rehearsal in the morning and were told “what ever happens keep on dancing” A clown came and lay down in the middle of our set and we had to dance round and over him. The most spectacular dance for me was watching a Scottish sword dancer. We were sitting right next to him and I was fascinated as he danced in and out of the swords. The dance group was also invited to dance at a garden party in Ringstead – the home of Miss Bull one of the other teachers.

Susan in the Junior School

When we first learnt to write we used pencils but in the Junior school Mr. Leeding introduced us to pen. These were wooden handles into which you fitted a steel nib. They were very scratchy and had to be dipped, every other word, into the inkwell which was set in the top of the desk. The nib could be changed when they became bent or made lots of blots on your work. If you pressed too hard the end of the nib would bend outwards making your work very untidy. Mr. Leeding was very stingy with the new nibs and would only let you have another one after he had really inspected it and tried it out to see if your claims were true. To get a new pencil you had to produce the stub of the other one to prove it was too short to sharpen. One boy in our class chewed his pencils as he worked. He got through about one a week. The teacher was not very pleased.

Most work was done from the blackboard. The teacher talked through the lesson and then everyone got on with the set work copying from the board. Looking through my old reports it is interesting to see there were usually 52 or 53 pupils in a class. (Today they complain about class sizes but they are never more than thirty) It is a wonder that we learnt anything but I suppose class discipline was more strictly applied in those days and all pupils faced the front of the class with the teacher having their desk at the front with the blackboard behind them.

Times tables were learnt at an early stage. Miss Gibbs, my first teacher in Infant school, started us off with the 2X table. Every day we recited it parrot fashion until we were perfect. We knew all our tables up to 12X before we moved on to the junior school. I can still do my tables now. I can also recite the poem “Matilda” which Miss Scott, a supply teacher in junior school, read to us.

Sports Day was a most enjoyable afternoon. For several weeks before, the teachers would take the class for sport and different races would be carried out to find the best runner, jumper, etc. These people would then be entered for the inter- schools sports day which took place at the Football ground in Hayden Road . Those of us who were no good at sports (that was me and most of my friends) could go along and have a lazy afternoon cheering on our classmates in the races and drinking bottles of pop. One year it was very hot and I got sunburnt as I didn’t realise the sun was on my back until I went home. In those days no-one wore sun cream and so calamine lotion was applied to my back to take out the sting.

Unlike schools today we didn’t keep going on trips. In fact I only ever went on one trip during my Infant and Junior School life. Mr. Dyment had organised a trip to St. Albans or Verulamium as he called it (That was its Roman name). For a few weeks before he told us the history of the town and explained that we were going to see the Roman remains and a Mosaic floor (Very interesting!!!) On the way we were to stop off at Elstow at the home of John Bunyan and sing in the little church that he had worshipped in. We had the full history of John Bunyan as well. (I can feel you all yawning at this point). We never got to see the Roman remains at St. Albans as we couldn’t find them. After trudging over muddy fields we had to use a shabby set of toilets as we were all bursting before returning to the coach. (Fond memories eh!)

In the top Junior class we had to take the 11+ examination. Mr. Dyment took us regularly each week working through old exam papers, teaching us how to do the questions. I was fortunate (or so I thought at the time) to pass the exam and win a place at The County High School, Wellingborough. Infant school and junior school bring back very happy, secure, memories. The High School, after more than forty years still haunts my dreams making me wake up with a start in cold sweat thinking that I have forgotten to do my homework or bring my books home or have lost my bus pass.