Schooldays

There was much howling of wind around here from Friday onward as I remarked to Sammy so I got a few things done that I might of delayed as I wasn't able to be until later on on Sunday.

The origins of the this post go back to 2005 and Friends Reunited because one core aspect of that site was links to schools and other places you'd been that just didn't allow you to contact people you knew but also included sharing otherwise scattered artifacts of that time.
I am feeling very brave today and am sharing something with you.
That school picture is my Infant/Reception class would of been sometime probably early 1970 as in reception we didn't have to wear a uniform although you can tell those who already were going down that route.
Staring from the back row at the far right was Mrs Bell, our Reception teacher who did give me some extra tuition as I wasn't good at speaking then, and the boy in  a grey sweater and tie actually next to her is me. Third from me is Mark one of several children of the 'big cheeses' of the Methodist Chapel.
Back then much of what as children we took part in was organized by them and a prominent landowner so we were very much connected to that form of Christianity and its moral teachings. It wasn't sufficient  to learn academically for us it involved moral education too.
Second row from the back on the far right was a boy who was only with us a couple of years who was blind in one eye and to whom we absolutely did take care of and next to him was 'Tich' from another prominent family.
You'll note the back and second row are nearly all boys and that was not just pretty normal for the era but also because the boys of our class were a pack, a unit and a tight one at that would look out for each other.
Dead centre on the front row was Karen another of the families of prominent Methodists who were involved in running the chapel and a farmstead.
The building wasn't untypical of country districts being late Victorian with Boys and Girls entrances originally  but in practice we had Infants and Juniors with matching playgrounds.
The building ceased to be a school at end of Summer Term 1974 because it was too small for our needs with us needing to use a community hall for things such as French, P.E (not Games) and school canteen for lunch sharing the building with a parent run Preschool, mobile child welfare clinics and so on.
We moved into a new purpose built school for Autumn Term 1974 which had more space although it was of the trendy open plan sort with each year having its own 'homebay' to which we moved across the building for art, and science.
It had a hall for all school assemblies held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday which were Christian centred, games with climbing frames and store areas for static equipment and music.
At the time we didn't use it for eating  as instead we finished in time to clear are desks which had changed from wooden ones with matching chairs to Gopak tm triangular ones and grey plastic backed chairs to eat off and as we were 'top class' juniors, we were expected to head tables for our younger children, looking after them.
Games was always played in the new building outside with much more space and grassed areas for Soccer and other ball games.
Today as a former governor there I know they eat in the hall and much of the open plan design has been converted into defined classrooms with doors which while I understand does keep noise distractions down that can be an issue I did feel personally was claustrophobic taking out much of the spaciousness of the original design.