Actually, to tell you the truth when I saw this picture I did feel a bit sad actually because for me, Jacqueline and a few others it was the point we realized we would be at the margins of the group because we wouldn't transfer with them and as you countless know, daytime school groups transfer over to things like sports groups, the "Youth Club" and so on resulting us being marginalized.
For me it was near total because I was going to boarding school so daily after school contact in a pre-internet age was non existent so the few I did manage to keep in contact with through things like the Methodist Chapel do matter and some those contacts have been maintained through 'adult' positions in the community like being a Council Chairman or involved in other groups that paradoxically put me in positions of some real stature in this community that the others didn't get around to.
On Monday, I was about when I called over Karl who was living at his fathers old house here and to which I'd know backward from the days we'd call on each other to play and we got talking about how each other was and that.
He was one of six I had regular contact with over the years and that was when I realized that as unfortunate as that break was as a J4 leaver, actually I hadn't really lost anything of value because those friendships still remain right now. It is a part of how we relate to each other.
I recall leaving both the infant school and the juniors. There were three primary schools located on the same site, the Infants and then two junior schools one for boys the other girls.
ReplyDeleteWhen we left the infants two teachers led a crocodile line of boys up to the junior school, where we were taken into the hall, here we were introduced to our new teachers after which we were free to go home for the beginning of the summer holidays.
Four years later on leaving day we had the usual end of term service at the end of it the headmaster asked the fourth year boys to stay behind. He then read out our names and told us which school we would be going to. Those who had passed the 11+ would be going to the grammar school, while the rest of us would be going to one of two secondary modern schools.
Much of the first morning assembly at the secondary modern school I went to was taken up to the headmistress telling us which class we would be going in and who our teacher would be. On leaving day in my case the end of the Christmas term - we had the end of term service - after it we had to go to a classroom where we would receive all our school reports and a typed testimonial which had been written by our last teacher