Memories.

[Daisy]

Aggie - that's so sweet. I bet you made a lovely jingling noise.

Gem - both you and your mum had had a very traumatic time, so it must have felt very unsafe having to leave her for the whole day. We certainly didn't get any preparation for school in those days. Thinking about it, I knew my cousin, who lived next door but one and was 5 years older, was somewhere in the school, and her friend who lived in the house between us, so perhaps that was reassuring. We had separate playgrounds though, so I never saw either of them at school.

[Clover]

I remember my first day at school very well.I wore a grey coat and the material felt like a terrier dog’s rough fur. We were all waiting in the playground when a teacher came out and said”All new children this way” I remember saying to my Mum “That’s me” and trotting off into the unknown.
As I said in my other post I’d been to a private kindergarten (how posh that sounds ) so I suppose I was used to leaving Mum.

[Gemini]

My first teacher was called Mrs Marshall, and I remember her well she was lovely. I suppose I would have cried even more if I had had a less nice teacher!
I didn't particularly like any of my other teachers as I went up the school,but that one was lovely.

[Enfys]

I remember my first day at school. My Mum was waving me off at the school,gate and I said would she wait for me to come out at playtime and she said yes, of course. I went out at playtime and there she was, and still there at lunch time. I really believed she had waited there all day. It was years later she told me she had quickly cycled home and dashed back each time for the break. My lovely Mum would do anything to keep me happy, bless her. It was only the first day, I was fine after that. I can remember wearing long brown lisle stockings and I was always falling over and making holes in the knees. Stockings at 5 years old, I ask you! Held up by suspenders on my liberty bodice 🙂

[ZIZI]

I don’t actually remember my first day at school. I went to so many as we moved every two years. I think it was in Gibraltar at Europa Point. We were taught in a big high ceilinged Hall and there were only two classes. One for the little people and one for the bigger children. My teacher was a lovely lady called Mrs Hoare, she was a big lady (but then I was very little) and I remember her being a good person to go to for a cuddle. There were few children at the school. The older children were taught by a younger lady who used to push a rickety roundabout the soldiers built for us and we would shout “faster faster faster”. Mrs Hoare lived in a cottage near the only hospital on the rock. It had lots of flowers on the window sills andwhen we walked into town we would often see her and she would wave and give us cakes “to keep us going”

we used to get given our third of a pint of milk in green beakers but we could choose to have hot chocolate in white beakers served by an old Spanish man whose son and daughter ran the NAAFI outside the school. We were taken at break times to buy cream doughnuts from the NAAFI. My very first boyfriend was Ernest Macedo son of the NAAFI managers who was allowed to attend our school. As I recall he was chubby with a crew cut. I wonder what happened to him?

How does a person remember all of that but I can’t remember what I am doing on Thursday.......

[Gemini]

Zizi, if we had hot chocolate and doughnuts,instead of milk which I have always hated, I think I would have been more willing to go to school

[Gemini]

Writing about an incident at GS1's school on another thread has reminded me of something.

I went to a very small private primary school. The oldest children were pretty much dinner supervisors. This annoys me as an adult. Parents were paying, and apart from a cook the school paid no one to supervise the children.
Anyway, one 'big girl' whose name was Ruth, decided that I (5, small, never been away from mummy before) had to eat all my dinner. Dinner invariably included mashed potato with hard lumps in. I didn't have a big appetite at that age, and certainly wasn't used to lumpy mash!
Ruth threatened to feed me with it if I didn't finish it (where were the adults at this point?!) I cried a lot, I still remember it and I must have come home and told mum.
The rest I only know as mum told me, in later years and we have discussed it a few times over the years. Apparently once I was in school the next day (Dad dropped me off on his way to work each morning) mum got my baby sister into the pram and walked the 3 miles to school.
She asked the headmistress if she could have word with the girl. Head was surprised but agreed, I imagine mum was insistent. She was 4 foot eleven and fiery!
Mum then told R that she and my dad paid for my meals, and it was not up to her whether or not I ate them all, and if she ever said anything like that to me again, mum would come to school and feed her with every dinner on the table!
I know it probably wasn't the right thing to do, but I say Good On My Mum! Ruth never bullied me again, and the memory of my mum doing that for me, always makes me happy.

I can't feel much sympathy for Ruth as I still remember how awful she made me feel!

[Plantaholic]

What a dreadful experience Gemini, good for your mother to sort it out. I expect Ruth had had that said/done to her.

[Daisy]

Gem - good for your mum. Can you imagine any of that happening today! You can't even walk into a school without an elaborate system of checks.

[Nanto2girls]

Well done to your Mum Gem. I wonder if Ruth remembers it.