• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

first day at school

H

harley

Guest
who remembers, their first day at school. how old were you.were you a cryer, or didnt you mind at all, i screamed the place down i was four i think.i was so petrified. i remember my mom leaving me there in the classroom, i turned round and she was walking out the door , she shut the door and i went crazy, banging the door and screaming, nothing could placate me for ages ,till i saw the other kids staring at me .the smell of plastercine on desks, and wax crayons was overpowering. but i settled in .but it was hard for me .i remember it like yesterday and im now fifty two. harley
 
I had been taken to see the place before I started, and on the great day dragged my dad by the hand as I was so anxious to get there. "Off you go!" was the effect of my parting comment, and I enjoyed the day immensely. That was 54 years ago now!

When I realised I'd have to go again the next day as well, I wasn't so impressed. It was downhill from there for the next 11 years.
 
i also remember my first day.

when i saw my mom leaving i ran after her. the teacher came to get me back by the time id got to the "cloak room" with your name by the little peg for your coat. i hung on to that peg and the teacher had to drag me off it screaming!
 
No, unable to cast my mind back so far. All I can recall are the beds, laid out in the playgrounds, for afternoon sleep for us.

I have video film however of my granddaughter on her first day. All prim and proper and running ahead of her parents to get in and get the show on the road. Similar film of her coming out on the evening - not so prim and proper in appearance with hair dishevelled and shirt out of her skirt but with a big smile on her face and a hop and a skip.
She is now approaching her twenty first and still studying now at university. Have no fear little one - the video is waiting until that special fella is brought to visit. Well what is Granpops for?
Will.
 
Remember it well,My mom told the teacher my name was Ernest (my first name, but never used),and I gave her an argument,then I made a fuss because I wanted to sit by my mate David Smith,he was 11 months younger than me,but his mom must have been doing war work,so he started early.The teachers name was Miss morgan this was U.T.S. infants.
 
I started at Grendon Road infants in 1942 and on the first day made a new friend Michael Terry, and we are still friends today 67 years later, and in regular contact allthough he now lives in Belfast.
 
I started school at 4 years of age in Dundee Scotland at a Catholic schools run by nuns, my mother was quite proud of me because I could already read a little and I knew a few nursery rhymes.

One of the nuns asked me to recite a nursery rhyme and I did so, only the one that I recited was rather rude.

I only spent about a year at that school before we returned to England, but they never asked me to recite a rhyme again.

When I started school again in England at 5 the starting age then, they thought I was a genius because I could do simple addition and I knew some of my tables, but the rest of the class soon caught up with me and overtook me.

Phil
 
Harley I started my first day at Yew Tree road school when I was turned five. I was a sickly child and was not able to start till well after the others. My teacher was Miss Povey or Pover who was lovely. I was given some puzzle that I knocked all over the floor and the headmistress was there and shouted at me and made me pick the parts up. I am still trying to remember her name. I cried and peed myself. That memory has stayed with me all those years and my mom giving her a piece of her mind. I will wake up in the morning remembering the heads name. Maybe Patty can remember?. Jean.
 
Church Rd School 100yrs old, thia year 2009, i followed my 3 Sisters & 3 Brothers as a pupil circa 1935, my Dad took me and said to Headmistress, Miss. Morrell "This is the last one, if he gives you any trouble let me know", i was taken into a classroom given a slate & a piece of chalk sat on a small chair and so my education began & some say ended Ha,Ha,!!,. Len.
 
Last edited:
Although it's been over 70 years ago I can remember my first day at school( Paget road ) like it was yesterday, the smell of the cloakroom,a little canvas bag that hung on my peg, and the canvas beds that we had our morning and afternoon naps on.
 
I remember part of my first day - the teacher's name was M iss Ricketts, I thought she was a witch because she wore long black clothes and had her grey hair in a bun. We had a big fire in the classroom with a b ig fireguard round it. Another girl called Stella was crying her eyes out - she had long golden ringlets which I thought were wonderful. Don 't remember anymore but Miss Ricketts must have made an impression on my 5 year old self as she is only one of two teachers name I remember. Many years later I realised why so many of my teachers were Miss ?? because so many young men were killed in WW1.
Sheri
 
ps some of the teachers I recall from Paget Road, Miss Flux, miss Edwards,both from the infants, "poppy" Sutton, "Goofy" wyers, Mr Roberts, "Nobby" Knight the woodwork teacher,all from the seniors,and I think the Headmaster was Mr Jones but could be corrected on that one,

I can't remember a single teacher from the schools(Osborn Road,and the Erdington national school) I attended while in the cottage homes,perhaps my mind just does not want to remember those times
 
My earliest recollection is my first day at school at the age of 5 at St. Mary's C of E Infants in Aston almost 60 years ago. I vividly remember fighting against my mom dragging me up the opening from Whitehouse Street with me bawling my eyes out. I remember I was still crying in the classroom but I can't remember when I stopped crying. Best days of your life.
 
I didn't enjoy my first day at school because I wasn't prepared for it. My mother worked full-time and couldn't take me, so a friend who was three years older than myself took me instead. I cried until I fell asleep on the desk. The teacher was Mrs Udall who turned out to be very nice and kind - so all was well in the end.
Anthea.
 
I remembered that Headmistresses name on my first day at Yew tree road school. A Miss Luckley. Remembered it while soaking in the bath. Jean.
 
I remember my first day about 40 years ago, and standing looking in bewilderment at the children crying and one being dragged off the door handle and wondered why they were crying. I remember the green canvas beds, and Mrs Allen the helper, but I cannot remember the teachers name, she seemed absolutely ancient! she was such a lovely lady and had travelled all over the world and used to tell us about her adventurers at story time.
 
First day at Tindal Street - I stood in assembly and p'd myself because I didn't know the routine.
Ted
Ted, i saw your post and wondered when you were at Tindal St, my mom went there until it was bombed in the war and then she was evacuated to Badminton, she was called Moore
 
I can just about remember my first day at Mapledene Infants in Sheldon in 1955.I think I went along fairly quietly-without too much fuss,and the weather was rather dull.I can remember seeing the faces of pupils at the windows as I walked to the school entrance with my mother.She had been telling me that I would be going to school,so there seemed a sense of inevitability about it.
 
Chukery Infants School ,Walsall.
I don't remember being taken on the first day but my Mother said I came home at the Morning Playtime because I did not think a lot of it. Must say that feeling prevailed all the way my education. It was in the days of you either understood it first time or not at all because no one was bothered to explain it. Thank goodness for the library service because I found books to explain things better than my teachers ever could. The cane or 500 lines was a lot less bother than teaching.
 
On my first day, after I had been dropped off and left in the classroom, I went back to the cloakroom and put my hat and coat on and sat on the bench in the hallway. The headmistress came past and asked why I was there and I replied that I was waiting for my daddy to come back to take me home!
 
It seems a good many children used to be very surprised that they had to go back to school again the following day.

I suppose for some one day would be more than enough.
 
On my first day at school I arrived with my mother at Christ Church infants school in Farm Rd. We both waited outside the office of the headmaster Mr Craggs, and from inside we could hear the screams of some unfortunate boy interspersed with hoarse shouting from the headmaster, who was obviously administering a hiding. After a few moments, the boy's mother, who was outside the office with us, began banging on the door and shouting to be let in. Mr Craggs simply shouted back something and continued the punishment. All I remember next is being welcomed into the office with my mother by a smiling headmaster, who must then have had a chat with my mother before I was led to my first class. Something of an unsettling start to my school life, that!
 
College Road Infants,

And I cried the place down when my mother left me, but not for long. But I never did like school and was glad to leave at 16, with some trepidation about going out into the big wide world, totally unprepared.

I must admit that I didn't like authority in any form at any time in my life, and was happiest during the periods that I ran my own businesses, even if they didn't always make money!

Maurice
 
College Road Infants,

And I cried the place down when my mother left me, but not for long. But I never did like school and was glad to leave at 16, with some trepidation about going out into the big wide world, totally unprepared.

I must admit that I didn't like authority in any form at any time in my life, and was happiest during the periods that I ran my own businesses, even if they didn't always make money!

Maurice

Well, i can certainly empathise with just about all you say, sounds like me to a tee.

Badpenny..
 
Back
Top