Schooldays

I started at a council school at the age of five years. I went to Netherfield Road. I enjoyed my time there and made nice friends. We played a lot of team games. I liked the sword dance. We used long clay pipes to dance over. The teachers were strict. Is that why I always had ‘conduct excellent’ on my school reports? My best subject was maths. My writing was not good. We always had a good time for Empire Day. St George’s, and any other special days, we would dress up.
One day a bee came into the classroom. The teacher caught it in a jar. Then, took the whole class to a park to set it free.
When I was aged eleven I went to Salisbury Street, they must have been the first school to have showers. It was not private, so I don’t think we were very pleased with that. We could have Horlicks instead of milk. I still like Horlicks.
Our headmistress was a great lady, besides the above items, she brought out a curfew stating that all children, in the area, had to be indoors at eight o;clock at night. She did get an honour, but I can't remember what it was. We played netball. I only attended for one year. Then we moved to Walton. I went to Gwladys Street for one year. I then went to Priory Road, which was a newly built school that had swimming baths. Then the Second World War came. I was evacuated to Shropshire and went to Wistanstow School until I left at fourteen years of age.

'This story was submitted to the People’s War site by BBC Radio Merseyside’s People’s War team on behalf of Pat Mountfield and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.