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'The grown ups in my family used to tell me I was late starting school because I had been ill,' says Barbara Greenshields (nee Jupp) born in 1924, 'but how late or what the illness was, I do not know. I can't even remember what time of the year it was, but I remember very clearly my first lessons there.
Mother took me on the bus to Felpham Church of England School (now converted to flats) where we met Miss Phillips, the infant teacher. She was the daughter of the headmaster. There was a big rocking horse in the infant department and my first introduction to the schoolroom was to be given a ride on it. Then I sat at a desk and threaded coloured beads and, later began what I soon realised, was proper learning.
We all had little blackboards - no easels, just boards we rested on the desk and a piece of chalk. Miss Phillips came and did a little drawing on mine. 'That's a figure four', she said, 'Try to do some more like it.' So I kept trying and after much rubbing out and starting again it at last met with her satisfaction.
I was promoted to a book with little squares all over the pages and a pencil and allowed to do a whole row of fours. 'One in each square,' Miss Phillips said, but I expect some of them strayed over the lines. The next drawing was much more difficult. This was the letter 'f'. Not the walking stick with a little line across it that children learn today, but the copperplate sort, all loops and curves. I persevered and at last achieved success, so there followed a row of them in my writing book.
I have since wondered if I was only a few days late starting school. Had the other children already learned to do one to three and a to e? Or was it the whole term and a few days, and I had missed the previous 'baby' class?
There must have been a mid-morning 'playtime' on that first day and I feel sure I went home to dinner before the afternoon session, but I have no recollection of these. Mother had arranged for a neighbour's daughter to take me to and from school. Joan was a 'big girl' and we walked the mile to school in a little group of children of various ages, being joined by others on the way.
Infant school finished at half past three but I was allowed to wait in the big classroom until Joan finished at four o'clock so that we could go home together. I don't think this arrangement lasted for more than a term. Perhaps Joan left school or perhaps it was wintertime when I had a season ticket for the bus. Mother made a little pink bag for me and I wore it round my neck.
Our dinner time bus went from the school soon after twelve o'clock, but at that time Dad was working for Bailey, Hartley and Watton of Felpham and sometimes he came along on his bike before the bus did. Then he would take me home, sitting on the little wooden seat he'd put on the crossbar especially for the purpose. Then it was back to school on the bus as I think Dad only had an hour for dinner.
We school children had one and a half hours. Sometimes mother met me from afternoon school with my brothers, Peter in the pram and David, who I expect also had a ride when his legs got tired.
I learned the other numbers, the letters and their sounds, sums, reading and joined up writing. I liked school and I think my progress was satisfactory, as it didn't seem very long before I was in the top half of Miss Phillips' class. I remember a nature lesson when she told us the parts of a flower.
'There are lots of stamens', she explained. 'Too many to count, so we say it has numerous stamens'. I thought 'numerous' was a lovely word. What a good way to describe lots of things.
We did the other usual subjects - singing, drawing, drill (PE) and chanted our tables, but being a church school, every morning started with a hymn, prayers and a scripture lesson. Grace was sung before going home to dinner. 'Be present at our table Lord' and we started the afternoons with 'We thank thee Lord for this our food'.
There were religious pictures round the walls which, privately I thought rather dull, though I didn't express this opinion to anyone. Sometimes we walked crocodile fashion to church. Ascension Day being one occasion, when the afternoon was a half-day holiday.
I became familiar with the tunes and later the words of 'Loving Shepherd of they sheep', 'There's a friend for little children', and 'There is a green hill far away'. Why did this last one give such useless information I wondered? It wasn't a city, just a green hill, so surely it wouldn't have a city wall round it anyway.
Miss Sharpe, the other infant teacher, played the harmonium for our singing. Mother had taught us 'Gentle Jesus' at home and I know now that I was not the only child to be puzzled by 'pity my simplicity'. Where was Plicate, this place where all those poor little mice were? Was it some sort of mice prison or another name for mousetraps?
Nan bought us 'Chicks' Own', a comic whose front page featured a yellow chick called Rupert and his friend Nigger, a black one. The words were divided into syllables to make it easier for young children to read. When I was able to read it she posted it to us. This was followed by 'Tiny Tots'; the front page featuring a boy and girl called Tiny and Tot.
There was a story about Monty Mouse, a mouse who lived in a children's nursery and played with the toys when they came to life at night. At the bottom of the coloured centre pages were 'Pam and Dick at the Pantomime', a serialised fairy story in coloured pictures, and on the back pages were 'Bunny' and 'Bobtail', 'The Funny Bunny Boys'. The comics arrived on Saturday mornings so we looked forward to the postman on that day. He usually came early and Mother would bring the comic upstairs to us so that I could read some of it in bed.
From time to time a nurse came to school. She wore an apron and a funny little blue hat and looked at everyone's hair. Always after her visits a few children were sent quietly home and, almost invariably included two little girls who lived near us. I expect I conveyed the information to Mother, for she never seemed to want me to play with them, though she was tactful enough not to make any comments that I might cause hurt or offence by repeating.
By the time I was old enough to play with the other children in the fields opposite our homes, I knew about what were known as 'dirty heads', so tried to remember not to get too close to them. A pity really because they were quite pleasant playmates. I don't recall any drastic treatment to my head or hair, so I suppose I was lucky enough to avoid those unwelcome visitors.
One bright sunny afternoon we were taken with the older infants for a nature walk along Drygrounds Lane (just a country land then) and the footpath to the churchyard. This was before the Felpham bypass was built. There were trees and flowers on the way - we could identify the daisies and I recognised the 'shoes and stockings', yet neither teacher made any attempt to tell us it's proper name was bird's foot trefoil, or the names of any of the other plants or trees we saw. Some nature lesson. I suppose we (and they) benefited from the fresh air.
On another occasion we went to the beach, but we took our sum books with us. All that lovely sea, sand, seaweed and shells, but we sat in rows on the shingle doing our sums. Hadn't they any idea how antagonising this must have been for young children?
Nan came to visit us on the Saturday of the local flower show and we all walked down to King George V Field. I didn't know that some of the school's art had been entered and was quite excited to see that my coloured drawing of a marigold had a 'consolation prize' ticket on it. Mr Phillips came into the Infant Room on Monday morning and presented me with my prize - a silver sixpence (2 and a halfpence) - what riches!
I had gone up into Miss Sharp's class by the time my brother, David, started school so we walked or 'bussed' together, (probably according to the weather) but we always 'bussed' home for our mid-day dinner, as did most of the children who lived near us, unless they had bicycles. There would hardly have been time for our short legs to walk both ways.
Lessons were a bit harder in Miss Sharp's class. The five and ten times tables were fairly easy, but the ones in between were quite difficult. She would ask round the class, 'Six sevens?' or 'Five eights?' If we gave the wrong answer we stood up, but were allowed to sit down again if we gave the correct one next time. The daily chanting of these tables must have eventually instilled them into the heads of most of us and, since then there have been many times I have found them useful.
Sometimes we had plasticine to model with in the afternoons, but one day it was something different - something I'd already learned the rudiments of at home.
'Guess what we did at school this afternoon, Mummy?' I asked her when I got home, 'it begins with N'. Mother couldn't guess and no wonder. 'Knitting!' I cried triumphantly.
'That starts with a K', she informed me. I've always remembered the day I learned how to spell knitting.
I think it was my last Christmas in the Infants when each child was given a small storybook and a bright new penny on the day we broke up for the holiday. How we treasured those pennies. We all spent Christmas at the 'Brit' (Britannia Inn, which my paternal grandparents used to run) that year and David and I stayed for the rest of the holiday. One morning Nan (Auntie Hilda) gave us a tin of Brasso and some cloths. While she, Grandma and Grandpa were doing their chores we sat at a little table covered with newspaper and converted our life's savings into 'new' pennies, ha'pennies and farthings!'
It sounded so simple to keep a child occupied on those days - no battery operated toys, Playstations or computers to provide. How life has changed.
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