I think my first teacher was Miss Parr<\/span>, who lodged in a house on Thetford Road, right next to Monkey\u2019s Style.\u00a0 She rode a motorbike.\u00a0 I was always sent in with the nursery children on a Friday when we had a story.\u00a0 I hated a story where things all went wrong for people or animals were hurt.\u00a0 I never waited for the happy ending.\u00a0 I used to bawl and get so upset that the teacher sent me off before she even started.\u00a0 I am a bit the same today, I don\u2019t bawl, but I walk out of the room or skip the sad bit in a book sometimes.\u00a0 I don\u2019t just like a happy ending I like a happy middle and beginning as well.\u00a0 I remember Miss Pollard<\/span> was Headmistress in the infant\u2019s school and Miss Risdale had taught there for years.<\/p>\n The first teacher in what was called big school was Miss Huke<\/span>.\u00a0 She frightened the life out of me.\u00a0 I remember having to knit a doll\u2019s bonnet with needles the diameter of telegraph poles and short with it, not easy, like knitting with bits of kindling.\u00a0 Boys had to do it the same as us, but I can\u2019t remember any boy in my class who would want a doll\u2019s bonnet!\u00a0 I remember cast iron stoves, the smell of wool coats drying on the fireguard, wet shoes standing underneath, chalk dust, squeaky blackboards, pens you dipped in inkwells, ink stains on clothes, blots on my work book, small bottles of milk with cardboard tops – you pushed out the hole in the middle for your straw (those milk bottle tops were used to make woolly pom poms and they were covered with raffia and joined together to make shopping bags, table mats and all kinds of things).\u00a0 I remember nature walks, all marching along in a crocodile with a tin to collect samples to write about when we got back to class, sometimes on a hot day we sat outside for a lesson.\u00a0 Sports days, I hated em, I couldn\u2019t run to save my life.\u00a0 I remember chanting the tables with Miss Stevens<\/span>, being caught passing a note to a boy, asking him to meet me after class, getting caught and Mr Cook<\/span> reading it out.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t care, I had no shame, but the boy did, he was embarrassed beyond words.\u00a0 Country dancing, again Miss Stevens, I<\/span> always got told off for being too exuberant.<\/p>\n Singing lessons with Miss Downy.\u00a0 I got in the choir by being recommended by Catherine Talbot<\/span>.\u00a0 I had to mime because as soon as I let out a sound Miss Downy said \u201cSomeone is out of tune.\u201d\u00a0 Guess who?\u00a0 Mr Smalden<\/span> who took us for geography, he had a cane in the cupboard called ‘Nothing’.\u00a0 If he asked what you wanted and you said “Nothing sir”, you got it!\u00a0 I remember having to chant all the states and cities of Canada.\u00a0 He took us for music after Miss Downy and he had a tuning fork that, when he banged it on the desk, you had to sing the note.\u00a0 He went round the class and we did it in turn.\u00a0 I wanted to die, I dreaded it.\u00a0 Mr Smalden<\/span> used to put his glasses round the door before he came into the room and we thought he was daft.\u00a0 I never realised he could see us in the reflection in his glasses.<\/p>\n Mr Jackson<\/span> was locum, he had been retired some years, so when a teacher was ill he stepped in.\u00a0 He always taught maths and the theme was always working out your co-op divi.\u00a0 He smoked like a chimney and his moustache was yellow.\u00a0 Sewing lessons.\u00a0 I was making a dress for three years, had to keep unpicking it, talk about fussy.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t fit by the time I had finished!\u00a0 I had grown about four inches.\u00a0 Art classes with Mr. Cook<\/span>.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t do that either, mine would have been more suitable for the Tate Modern.\u00a0 I went home wearing more paint than was on the paper.\u00a0 Mr Wintle<\/span> was Headmaster and so many other teachers – Mr Lee<\/span>, who was a wartime hero, Mrs Crane<\/span>, Mr Tweedie<\/span>, Mr Alan<\/span>, Mrs Hall<\/span>, Miss Dibley<\/span>, Mr Hall<\/span>, Mr Dannett<\/span>, Miss Davies<\/span>, Mr. Fish<\/span> to name a few.\u00a0 Going to see the bridge opened with Miss Killengrey<\/span>, having the ruler from Mr. Froud<\/span> – expect I deserved it!<\/p>\n We had to go to Mildenhall for the last year, picking up other pupils from Lakenheath and all the surrounding villages.\u00a0 Mr. Lee<\/span> was there and Mrs Hall<\/span> was back there as my form teacher, and I think Headteacher.\u00a0 She used to ride a bike with a large basket on the front and used to send me and Mary Adams<\/span> to the bank with the dinner money.\u00a0 She put the money in a bag and put it in the basket on the front of her sit- ‘up-and-beg’ bike, saying, “Now, keep it in there and walk with it.”\u00a0 We said “Yes Mrs. Hall”, and walked sedately down the drive.\u00a0 As soon as we were round the corner we got on the bike and pelted down to Mildenhall, giving us time to look in the shops.\u00a0 Mr Star<\/span> was Headmaster and his wife was games teacher.\u00a0 Mr Lee was deputy head.\u00a0 We had to go to Mildenhall on the bus.\u00a0 We were so rowdy and uncontrollable the Baptist Minister, the Rev Morris,<\/span> was sent to take control on the journey to and from school.\u00a0 We used to sit and flick bits of pastry from our cookery lesson at his hat, some of that pastry was as hard as hell, like firing cannon balls.\u00a0 Mum used to ask, “What happened to your cooking today?”, to which I would reply, “Dropped the tin.”\u00a0 Someone got chucked off the bus for trying to pack a parachute in his satchel and then jump out of the bu.\u00a0 He had to walk home.<\/p>\n I was rubbish at maths, although I knew my tables.\u00a0 The silly thing is I worked with figures from the time I started work, adding up ledgers and balancing books without even an adding machine in the early days.\u00a0 I wrote letters and did all kinds of office work, so I guess I must have learned something.\u00a0 I always hope my spelling is reasonable.\u00a0 It should be after having to chant the word and then the spelling.\u00a0 You learn quickly if you must stay until the work is correct and you have a date.\u00a0 They were happy carefree days.<\/p>\n We all had an autograph book in those days.\u00a0 I have all the teachers from Brandon and all my classmates from my last year at Mildenhall.\u00a0 This one is Mr. Froud, he was always popular because he did a drawing instead of a boring signature.\u00a0 Below is the autograph from Mr. Froud, the book is a little tattered now but I have all the pages.<\/p>\n Cherry Rogers remembers her school days I remember my first day at school.\u00a0 I told mum I didn\u2019t want to go and I should make a fuss, so she was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[56,101,104,110,114,121,125,128,136,147,158,170,173,184,189,203,222,223,235,244,249,261,266,267,292,306],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-memories","tag-alan","tag-catherine-talbot","tag-cherry-rogers","tag-cook","tag-crane","tag-dannett","tag-davies","tag-dibley","tag-fish","tag-froud","tag-hall","tag-huke","tag-jackson","tag-killingrey","tag-lee","tag-mary-adams","tag-parr","tag-parrott","tag-pollard","tag-rev-morris","tag-school","tag-smalden","tag-star","tag-stevens","tag-tweedie","tag-wintle","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandonheritage.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.brandonheritage.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/18447207_795231230642587_1491217154404507352_n.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"