Some people of course stayed on in the same Standard if this was thought to be necessary. There must have been an age range of nine to 14 in the one class. I think the younger ones sat on one side away from the older ones, but there were times when the older ones used to help the younger ones. For instance, I remember a girl teaching me to do multiplication and division of fractions on the back of the blackboard and I went back to my seat having mastered them.
We had exercise books for writing in, but we also had sand trays filled with silver sand in the infants' classes. When you finished doing your work you shook the sand ready to start all over again writing with a wooden skewer. We used a lot of plasticine and squares of coloured gummed paper to make patterns. We would stick these into our completed exercise books over the top of our writing. Sometimes we made little boxes and baskets with the coloured gummed paper. The lessons in school were much more regimented than they are today.
We were taught to knit. We knitted dishcloths with dishcloth cotton and very thick needles. There was a great emphasis on getting a chain edge on your work. We used garter stitch, which of course leaves a lump at the end of the row unless you know how to make the chain edge. I started knitting a pair of socks but I was moved up to the next grade before I was taught how to turn the heel of the sock, consequently I have never learnt how to knit a sock properly.
Sewing consisted of practising hemming and running stitches on strips of material. When you were proficient you did a run-and-fell seam on two pieces of material. Later on we learnt to make camisoles, knickers and pinafores.The camisoles were finished with a scalloped edge. A halfpenny was used to draw the scallop, going halfway round the coin, finishing the curved edge with buttonhole stitch and neatening by trimming with scissors.
As it was a Church School we had a Scripture Inspector. He used to come about once a year and question the class. We had to learn our Catechism, some psalms, hymns and the Ten Commandments, although I'm not sure that we actually understood what we had learnt. We also had to learn poems by heart in our English lessons. I can still remember Hiawatha, Morte D�Arthur and parts from �As You Like It�. When you knew the piece you were learning you went out and recited it to the teacher. It became almost a competition to see who could learn the most.
The school had a netball team and a Sports Day. We used a field down Mill Lane. It was just a meadow with short grass. It didn't have a proper surface. Major Thompson, from Oaken, gave us a cup and little replica cups for the winners of the races. I remember
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