Retro: Schooldays when it was a great honour to be a blackboard monitor!

Hopefully, that will start again properly in September, having made little difference to children’s progress. They will certainly be experts at any electronic game.

I’m convinced, though, that they know more than we ever did when we went to primary school in the 1950s. They certainly seem much more articulate and knowledgeable about the world around them.

There were no nurseries, preschools or child minders in those days. Mother was at home and took you to school each morning, picking you up at the end of the school day, although walking to school on your own was not considered neglect.

There was no awareness of child abuse and anyway, there would always be other children walking backwards and forwards and mothers stood talking at garden gates.

As girls, we wore white liberty bodices under our dresses. These were difficult to fasten as the buttons were made of rubber and quite small and squashy.

We usually wore bottle green knickers with buttons which fastened on to the liberty bodices and had little pockets in for our hankies. With white socks and sandals.

It was common for younger children to wear ‘hand me downs’ previously worn by older siblings. The boys wore short trousers which ended at their knees and long grey socks which were kept up by elastic garters, and useful for using as catapults. These socks were darned in wool by mothers, using wooden mushrooms.

Boys were usually around 13 when they first wore long trousers. If you look at school photos of this time, you can see that we all wore the same kind of clothes.

Jumpers were hand knitted and quite lurid, depending what colour wool was obtainable at that time. Tank tops were popular and we wore gaberdine coats with belts.

Hair styles for boys were short, back and sides, with girls having long hair in plaits, tied with brightly-coloured hair ribbons.

Classes were large in number, as of course we were of the ‘baby boomer’ generation.

It was easy for children to get left behind when it came to lessons because they could not attract the attention of the teacher or could not understand.

There were no provisions for children with special needs and it was not uncommon for children to leave school unable to read or write. Learning was very much parrot fashion, especially the times tables, with emphasis on the three Rs.

The books we read at school were of the Janet and John variety and, although we did not know it then, were incredibly sexist. John helped Daddy with the garden and cleaning the car whilst Janet helped Mummy to wash the dishes and clean the house.

How much Tupperware did you really need?

Of course, we did not know anyone who owned a car, but the boys were ready in case they ever did! It was a while before these books were discontinued in primary schools.

We were encouraged to bring money to school to help ‘black’ babies who lived in Africa and were apparently taught by missionaries. We knew nothing about Africa but we liked to look at the pictures of the babies.

We could also buy pictures of small children in Sunny Smiles booklets. These were children living in orphanages in the UK. It was all a bit vague and I am sure very much open to exploitation.

The boys would disappear one afternoon each week to do woodwork whilst the girls did needlework. Discipline was strict even at such a young age and it was before the end of corporal punishment.

Boys would be caned for disobedience while girls had their knuckles rapped with a ruler.

We sat at desks which had lift lids and ink wells. When we left school at the end of the day, we placed our chairs on top of the desk.

Monitors in those days were nothing to do with technology. One member of the class was chosen as milk monitor, giving out bottles of milk.

There was also a blackboard monitor, whose job was to clean the blackboard with a piece of wood with chamois leather stuck to it, and the pen or pencil monitor. All a great honour!

We were expected to produce neat handwriting and drawing. We did spelling repeatedly, and sometimes modelling with Plasticine, and nature study.

When we had PE lessons, we did them wearing our underclothes, possibly one concession being black pumps from Woolworths.

There was a real emphasis on Britishness, learning about the Commonwealth and the Catholic religion, but no sex education or information about people of other races or religions.

Visitors to school were the school nurse, who was mainly on the lookout for nits and eye and ear problems, the school dentist, priest and the school inspector.

Conditions were quite bleak compared to the schools of today if not exactly Dickensian! The toilet blocks across the yard were cold and smelly and you played out both at playtime and dinnertime no matter what the weather, often jumping about to keep warm.

We had a half-pint bottle of milk each day. If a warm day, the milk would be warm and taste sour. It was only drinkable when cold and the crates had been left outside.

There was a dreadful smell of school dinners which were delivered to the school in large metal containers. The dinners were basic with no frills and no choices either. There was always a main course and then a pudding which could be rice, semolina or tapioca.

In the last year of primary school, we were streamed into those thought likely to pass the 11 plus and those who weren’t, having extra tuition if the former. It was always a contentious selection process and open to much criticism over the years.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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