I was 5 when I started in the Infants. That first day, during the afternoon storytime, the mums started rolling up outside, some with their coach built prams and additional children (my mum being one of these, with her big maroon and grey Royale and my sisters Stephanie and Theresa in it. I saw them and was ready to go, but it was about 10 minutes before the bell rang. I didn't understand ... and ended up sat on the teacher's lap, sobbing, because I couldn't go out.
Sadly, I can't remember her name. Part of me thinks it was Miss Martin, but then I wonder if I'm confused with Mrs Martin from one of my later schools. memory does play its tricks sometimes.
Out headmistress was a lovely chubby grandmotherly type lady, Mrs Edwards. During playtimes, she would come out to chat to the staff on duty and immediately be swarmed by kids. The first lucky two would get one of her hands to hold, the rest would add onto these two and the resulting ragtaggle snake of children would wander all over the playground.
The jungle gym was a steel climbing frame that we kids all loved, the boys made a fort on the top level, the girls a home down below, all in our imagination of course, and we girls also loved to swing, upside down, on the one crossbar that was about 5 feet off the ground. I think Health and Safety would have a fit nowadays, but back then, scrape, bumps and bruises were war wounds and worn as a badge of honour, and I don't remember anyone dying of falling off a jungle gym, despite their being set in tarmac or concrete.
From age 5 to 7, we were in the Infants, and I remember my 2nd teacher was Mrs Isaacs, who was a tiny bird of a woman with dark hair ... and our class was Class 2.
Prior to "going up" to the Juniors, the 2 top classes went on a school trip to the zoo ... but I had to miss it because it was the day of my dad adopting me. I, however, got a special trip, all of my own, that weekend ... just him and me.
In the Juniors, my first 2 years, I was in Mrs Stark's class, and the latter 2, in Miss Lynes'.
Those 4 years definitely were the best 4 years of my school life.
My best friend was Stephanie Baum, our mum's were friends, and we did a lot together. Other friends included Anne Gage, Katie Beinder, Jacqueline Austin, Margaret O'Connor, Trevor Stannard, John Byrne (who was football crazy) and Saeed Sharif.
For starters, the playground games! We played ballgames up against the side of the house that bordered the school playground, or the wall of the canteen. We used the lines on the playground, that were lanes for sports days, to play games like letters, peep behind the curtain, Queenie Queenie who's got the ball? and what's the time Mr Wolf? In the general playground area we played colours, the farmer's in the dell, cars, it and kiss chase. A few of us would also sit up by one of the fences and play stones, or jacks.
It didn't matter that we were East End kids living in the inner city. Failure was not an expectation, we were given every opportunity to reach our full potential, and our curriculum was full, interesting and we were encouraged to aspire.
The school library was a small room off the hall, and we read classics from the shelves there, not large print or paraphrased versions, but unabridged versions with pages of tiny print and words that - if we didn't understand - we looked up in the dictionary.
We girls were already learning the crafts of the day. We'd bring knitting to school, bootees or mittens for son to be born siblings, some brought crochet squares they were doing to stitch together for blankets. We had Sindy dolls and brought them in, and clothes we were making for them. When Trolls became all the rage, we fashioned clothing for them, from felt.
Another passion was puppets, at first glove ones and by Miss Lynes' class, Pelham puppets,
and the school had a wooden fold up "theatre" stage that we were allowed to put puppet shows on, with. Favourites, back then, were Disney movie characters or nursery rhyme characters - Pinocchio, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Little Bo Peep, witches, etc - or tv show characters - Pinky and Perky, Bengo the puppy, etc.
This was also the time when every trip to the seaside would find kids sitting watching Punch and Judy shows! A different era ...
All the Junior schools in our area took part in a variety of community events, one of which was the Stratford Music Festival. Rosemary Lammas, myself and a boy named Alan, ended up with our picture in the local newspaper, one year, recorders in mouths.
There was also a poetry reciting competition, with elocution lessons as the prize. I took part every year, and won certificates of merit but never the star prize. Nonetheless, we loved taking part.
Another event was the daffodil growing competition, which took place during late Winter and early Spring. We'd buy a daffodil bulb, and nurture it through to blooming, and then all the entrants would be judged to find the best flowered plant.
In the 4th year, I was made a Prefect, one of the hall and stair monitors helping keep the calm during pupil entries in the morning and after "playtimes". Katie Beinder was Head Girl and Trevor Stannard was Head Boy that year.
When we broke up for the Summer Holidays in 1966, many of us us knew there'd be people we'd never see again, and that our lives had changed and would never be the same again.
I have said so many times that I wish all schools were as good as George Tomlinson. We had some awesome teachers and it just felt like the whose school was a big family.
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