Rachel Glyn, nee Glendinning, My First Day at Junior School – 1987

“I can remember my first day at the junior school in 1987, though.
My teacher was Mrs Woods and the first thing she told us was to look at the words on the wall opposite the door.
In big capital letters, we saw ‘TRY’.
She told us it didn’t matter how good we were at something as long as we tried with our work.
In the eighties there wasn’t the same pressure on teachers and we were taught in a ‘fun’ way throughout junior school and each of my four teachers had their favourite subject, so each year we learned more about the subjects the teachers enjoyed teaching.
I don’t know how much to write here, but here are a few things I remember about the school in the late 80s.

Looking back, some of the classrooms were run down, they were big and we had two classes per year.
The school was still split into two but rather than by gender, it was by age.
We had a music room dedicated to music lessons (which we all thought was haunted), we had a separate dining area to the assembly hall (where we played games, had school discos and as was the craze in the eighties, barn dances!), there was a north end and south end playground and the boys in year 4 were also allowed to play football in the car park, something we challenged when we reached that age so a female friend was also allowed to use it.
We didn’t have a computer room, in fact the one computer we had in year 4 was so basic by today’s standards but we thought it was amazing!
The school had a good community spirit; we barn danced at the carnival, sang carols to the residents of Brooklands, helped tidy up dog mill pond and always collected for the harvest festival.
We were always kept informed of current affairs, I remember a ‘special’ assembly being called and the headmaster, Mr SIngleton, telling us the gulf war had started. We went back to our classes and were scared that it would be like world war 2, and the teacher took time to reassure us.
I loved my time at school and made friends for life.
I fondly remember all of my teachers;
Mrs Woods, who told me to widen my reading outside of Enid Blyton;
Mr Scully, who managed to make science interesting;
Mrs Singleton, who pushed us with spelling tests and Miss Choma (who still teaches there) who taught me when to stop talking and listen!
By chance, I bumped into Mrs Woods recently.
She remembered me and I told her I was going to write about the ‘TRY’ sign.
She couldn’t remember that, but I’m sure I am not the only one in that class who remembers.
I told a school friend I was doing this, she remembered the ‘TRY’ sign and said how much she had loved Mrs Woods as she was so full of energy.
I think that summed up the school at that time quite well, there was lots of energy and enthusiasm; learning was fun, especially the residential to Cober Hill.
When my daughter starts at the new South View, Rufford Park, this September, I hope she has as much fun as I did, and she already knows she has to try!
Ps when I spoke to Mrs Woods, I reminded her of the time capsule we planted, we don’t know where it is, she was going to find out.”
Rachel Glyn.

2013.