We all have `em....... Primary schoolday memories,so how about sharing?

Lots of memories mostly all happy ones. On wet playtimes we seemed to dance endless 'Haymakers' in the entrance hall to the music from a wind up gramophone.
The school was in the head mistress's house and we all used her bathroom! Once a week on Wednesdays she'd stand on the half landing as we processed past her. Girls had to curtsey and boys had to bow to her as she graciously said good afternoon to each of us. Funny little school but I was very happy there and learnt to read at 3. Yes really. It set me off on a path as a voracious reader and eventual novelist. Thank you Miss Smith and your lovely teachers.

Because of my father's overseas postings during my primary years I changed schools so frequently it's a wonder I learned anything at all.

1. A French kindergarten in Egypt during the 1952 revolution. I only remember our white dresses with blue smocking, learning to count with an abacus and being evacuated under gunfire. Two of the nuns were shot dead!

2. Chiswick House in Malta. Mum taught music there. I don't remember anything about the lessons but I still have my Coronation souvenir album.

3. Back to the UK and a horrible convent in Tring. The Irish nuns hated me because I wasn't a catholic and was a tomboy. If caught whistling I would have to stand outside in the rain and pray for forgiveness. Never mind purgatory - all hell broke loose when my parents found out!

4. The Gables in Linslade where I discovered books, books and more books. We were allowed to read at our own pace so I thrived.

5. RAF Khormaksar junior school in Aden. The only good thing about it was we were allowed to take our 11 plus early. The best way out!

6. The Isthmus school in Aden. Multi-national with high standards. Shame we had to return to UK after only two terms. My saddest memory is of a friend's mother being killed in a grenade attack on their restaurant and the kindness of the teachers. Thanks to facebook I've been able to stay in touch with a couple of friends and the headmaster's daughter.

We lived eight doors away from the school, I started there age 3, all the children in the street went there too, I was in the same classes up to the age of 11 as 3 cousins, several cousins in forms above me. My father also attended the same school, I loved it in that school . The 3 and 4 year old children were in a building across the school playground from the 5 to 11 year olds, I felt so grown up when I moved across to the big building when I was 5. The girls playground was separated from the boys playground and we entered the school by seperate doors to seperate cloak rooms

I remember:

- being terrified of the nuns - I thought they had no legs as they drifted about in their black robes.
- being terrified of the wall carvings of the stations of the cross in the chapel- they were taller than I was and gruesome.
- finding some dead baby mice in the grounds and a group of us girls buried them with full ceremony.
- novice hiding behind a tree to smoke!
- taking our knickers down behind same tree!
- being rapped over the knuckles for things I could not help - e.g. not being able to answer maths questions.
- a teacher coming up behind me during singing, tapping me on the shoulder and telling me I had a beautiful voice - it was the start of a lifetime of singing lessons, singing in choirs, running choirs etc. A landmark day.
- being peed on by the boys who would piss over the wall of the roofless outside toilets as we walked past.
- accidentally bumping heads with a girl in the playground - she subsequently died of a head injury.
- ascension day trips to the local park.
- playing recorders - a group of us got together and used to play in the lunchtimes.
- Singing Together - remember that radio programme?
- plasticine - brown and filthy and revolting.
- sewing an apron - cross stitch on gingham.
- walking a very long way to school and back on my own - especially memorable on snowy days.

My abiding memory is that I really did not like school - neither primary nor secondary.

And, no prizes fro guessing why I am agnostic!

I was well over 5 when I started school and couldn't wait to go. Like so many then there was no nursery or pre school - I was just at home with my mother and 2 rather younger siblings - big sister was already at school.

One of the very first things we were told was that there was no need to ask if we needed the loo - we could just go. So I still remember feeling somewhat scornful of the girl who wet herself and sat in a corner crying!

When they thought we could read well enough to use it, we were given a hymn book for morning assembly. Until then we were told to 'sing to la'. I was so proud of getting my hymn book - felt so grown up.

It was quite a long bus ride to school - maybe 3 miles, and as I got a bit older I did it alone. One day, because of more dawdling than usual, I missed the bus I usually got with others - and didn't realise that there would soon be another. So I walked the 3 miles odd - dawdling and stopping to look in the window of the pet shop I'd passed so often on the bus.

God knows how long it took me - my poor mother was frantic, and IIRC had alerted the police!

Once a month, on a Friday afternoon the headmaster, Mr Hartley, let all the boys dress up as Cowboys and Indians and do what cowboys and indians do (or did - since it is now totally non pc to play that particular game). The girls were nurses or filled some other ancillary, non-combative role, so we didn’t have any fun.

About this time of year there was what was called 'Tails Day'. Children brought sticky willy to school and stuck it to the backs of others including teachers. Some of the more daring naughty boys pinned messages to the backs of teachers' clothing . The treachers took it in good part even the head who was a formidable woman. She was obviously prepared for it on Tails Day when she went up the steps to the school and we all watched as one of the boys affixed the tail to her coat.