having been born in 1936 and by1946 I was then ten years old , and as a result of being then an only child, and having had a badly interrupted education as I wasn't evacuated either simply as my mother was all I had and I wouldn't leave her, so the early years were very disrupted due to the bombing in the east end, and else where,.
then the eleven plus test had begun, and I wasn't surprised to find that I had failed that, due to my poor education, which I had accepted
so my school then was a secondary modern one, as it was called then and it had an assortment of teachers from chemistry, sports, swimming, boxing, carpentry , and generally getting involved in the school activities as it was then. Including plays and drama,
the education side, their was mathematics, history, religious education, poetry, geography, reading, writing., spelling, music lessons where the whole class sang the song dictated by the teacher, and wood working classes where carried by the boys who learned carpentry, making all sorts of wooden items,
the girls had cooking lessons , as well as all the things the boys had, regarding their education, and the girls played net ball and basket ball in the school play grounds,
once a year the school competed against other schools on the local playing fields and competition was fierce, as the schools competed to win the trophy, a silver cup with the engraved winning school on it,
some children bunked off, and others were found out, others got away with it completely and were never caught ,
during those times I like other boys then, became a milk monitor , that is going with another boy to bring up a crate of small milk bottles for the whole class, and I think the milk then was a third of a pint distributed it to each boy or girl,
a small number didn't like drinking milk and so refused which was acceptable despite being encouraged by the teachers to try and drink it,
as then the class was a mix of boys and girls in the same class room,
I think looking back that without a doubt the girls fared better than the boys, on average as they seemed to take the education better and their results out shone the boys , as they absorbed data better than the boys, which showed when we had tests, checked by the teachers,
I wasn't then very good at all especially with mathematics but fared better on compositions, essays. history, geography, and other subjects, at one time I came top of the class although it was rare, probably a lucky break, I suppose.
but maths was my biggest let down. which I regretted, I couldn't get my head around that subject , I simply couldn't absorb it and it left me confused,
in later years as an adult I fared very much better managing several petrol stations not the same time and ended up as a buyer in a west end store, how ever I left school as a labourer and began work in a wine factory,.
my wife by comparison, had a similar education, to mine and was far brighter than I was , she had a head for figure work and it came natural to her , but strangely enough she didn't score as well as I with the other subjects but stayed average in her class, how ever she had won her place to go to a grammar school, but due to circumstances beyond her control didn't go ,
in those days the whole class stayed in the same class room and the teachers
rotated around the school , going from one class to another,
we had break time in the morning and afternoon, apart from dinner time which many children had in the school canteen , others went home,
in those times there was a school inspector walking the streets looking for children bunking off from school and if caught names were taken and later the parent/s had to see the head master at the school as a result and explain why wasn't their child attending school. ??
although schools, and education, is very much different from todays education system and has changed completely ,
as children my wife and I went to two different schools she went to a north London, school, and I went to a east end school. of course we met years later but that's another story, how ever weve been married over 62 years , so some thing seems to have worked out alright,
Q; so do you have memories of your school days then, and what sort of education and sports and all that went on then,
will you share your memories with us, I'm sure it'll make interesting reading,