The brand new modern village school was still being built and was unfortunately not yet completely finished and ready for its first cohort of children in of the any age groups it was going to cater for. Completion was a matter of only a few months away but for these months, those children who were five years old or over, of school age, had got to, without any choice to go to the original old school in the village.
The old school was a large, black, hugely imposing single story building made of stone. The stones were large and rectangular, seemingly in need of a good and thorough jet wash in order to help make them in any way clean, lighter and even just a little less forbidding.
The playground was small and made of simple black tarmac; sections of which inevitably embedded themselves quite happily into the knees of a clumsy little girl like me. I was usually seen with both knees scraped, those huge light brown fury plasters covering up bloody holes and dents, or scabs half peeling off. I guess it could be the sign of a good childhood as it meant you were outdoors a lot and were able to be adventurous.
The whole school building was completely surrounded by thick, tall, black wrought iron bars with violent spiky spear like appendages at the top of each one. If this was not a bad enough barrier, there were the stone steps. Thick, black and solid moss green ridden steps of thick stone needed to be scaled seemingly with great care in order for anyone to actually make it and eventually be on school grounds. These were the two, immediate and very ugly obstacles I needed to attempt in any way to conquer before getting anywhere near entering the school building itself.
My Mum would not be able to get me up those steps or through those gates at all and had to deal with a screaming child pulling away as I flatly refused to put so much as a big toe anywhere near the large impending boulder before me!
I am not actually sure how long it took, it may only have been a couple of days or two or three weeks, I really cannot remember, although it may have been a couple of days, I do think I have blocked it out of my mind. I do remember however being dragged in, yes quite probably literally kicking and screaming. However, once I did break hold of the immense fear, I was in. I found myself inside of that awful building of trauma and memories.
Even now, over 50 years later, the memories are still deeply unhappy, having spent my early educational days in that awful place. I remember windows high up in the classroom, I am not sure I went inside more than one room. I do remember some PE outdoors on the playground so I must have been there a few weeks at least. The hall seemed large and I remember sitting on the cold wooden floor for assemblies.
HELLD IN
They’re free,
I’m helld in,
They’re outside,
I’m helld in.
Sat in silence
large blackboard
from which to copy
with pencil from chalk,
but my work got lost
in transition to paper,
as what was copied was
muddled and mixed,
to be safer,
I’d scribble my writing,
to hide and disguise
my bad spelling
and
never quite finish,
so never,
ever,
achieving.
Out of class
the nightmares continued
with toilets outside
cold and damp and spiders in multitude.
The only relief came
on the afternoons of
Friday,
although still a drill
of copying
and handwriting
onto paper
we could use
a variety
of bright coloured pencils.
Make no remark at my possible artistic use of the word ‘helld’, I originally wrote the majority of this poem in school around the age of 11 and that was how I thought it was spelt. The teacher pulled me up for my error of course in an initially condescending manner. She actually and eventually though said to keep it as ‘it made more of a point’.
So my very early days in school were pretty horrific really which is partly why they are still so vivid all these years later. I think we tend to remember the very good or the very bad times and experiences in our childhood.
So how can we far better support children in their very early days in school? Pre-school experience differs greatly for individual children and in different areas within the united kingdom. I do not even remember attending any preschool provision at all before starting school. I am not even sure when pre-schools and playgroups began but there must have been some provision available.
I did though have some pre-school experience which was actually a proper school. My mum was a teacher and the village school knew of this and asked her to teach when they were short staffed. It turned out that she went back to work for a while and I just went with her. I must have been a very young four year old as they surely would not have had a toddler in the infant classroom.
I cannot remember how long this went on for but I do remember being sat at the back of the classroom, probably to be kept out of the way of the older children, which was fine. There were lots of pictures on the walls and books in racks with a strip of white plastic covered wire preventing them from falling out into the floor. I also remember the alphabet. Fabric letters which were sewn onto a background of material, some of which was Binca. Yes, of course Binca, usually pale yellow, blue or green. Every primary school child in England remembers Binca with the fine holes with which to penetrate a needle of coloured thread and create a variety of different stitches, chain, running and blanket I remember. There must be many homes in England which still house some of these preciouses handmade pieces of primary school history. I am sure there was some involvement of another type of fabric called Ric Rac, you know that wavy zig zag trim which was everywhere in the mid 60’s to mid-70’s?
Anyway, these alphabet pockets hung on the wall behind me. Behind each individual letter was a pocket holding spelling cards with words related to each letter. Children would come and pick out a card if they needed help with spelling. It is so interesting that even at that very early age and in a pretty secure environment with my mum in the same room or at least in the same building, the lasting memory I have, is of spelling.
Today we are of course in the 21st century and it is surely very uncommon now if a child has no pre-school experience of attending a morning, afternoon or all day provision. Government funding has also had some impact here but there are also a great many parent and child groups, mums and tots, coffee mornings and more and more prevalent groups for those, predominantly mums, with children with special educational needs. Groups for autism support, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyspraxia but I have not as yet found groups for dyslexia or dyscalculia. Of course it is far too young to diagnose these learning differences where as other special educational needs are more prominent in the early years as 7 years of age is a more desirable age for a formal diagnosis.
These pre-school or playgroup sessions give a child a taste of school life and life for a short time without the added security of a parent nearby. It is good to know that the majority of children do now have at least some pre-school experience.
If preschool is not an option for a family for whatever reason, there are support groups to help. There are many individuals or pairs of support workers from the healthcare sector, education, social services, speech and language therapy as well as many more, I am sure.
Schools do offer sessions and open days for prospective children and parents. Depending on the school and area, some will offer a one form entry, everyone starting at the same time of year, usually September, or the end of August if you are in Leicester city and the county of Leicestershire. Others will have a three form entry, so the child starts the term in which they turn five years old. Often children will have a staggard start and initially attend on a part time basis, building up to full time within the first three or four weeks of term.
There are also open days and visits to school for transition from primary school to secondary school. It is not uncommon for a child’s difficulties to begin to fully emerge at a time of transition. The time when they leave primary school to begin another and new educational establishment is one of huge and impactful change. I feel the most difficult transition can be that from primary school to secondary school. But do not also underestimate the transition from foundation stage to key stage one at 5 years old and from key stage one to key stage two at the age of around 7. The foundation stage, with its ethos of play and child centred learning and initially child led learning, is often a huge jump away from the many high expectations of a year one classroom. Then again the transition from a year two classroom to a year three classroom with its sitting at desks, more formality and little carpet time if any approach.
