YEAR 1 - MARKET PLACE

“your school days are the best days of your life”

I heard this countless times growing up and my jaw still drops in disbelief when I hear it now.

I hated the idea of going school before I even started, I hated being at school until the day I left nearly 13 years later and no matter what life threw at me after leaving I have never once wished I was back there!!!!!!!!!!

If they are the best days of your life I dread to think what the rest were like..................



At the time Whitwick church of England primary was split into 2 schools, the first one was in the Market place which later turned into a day nursery. The second was about a mile away on Parsonwood hill, this was expanded in later years so everyone went to one school.

At the time there was a very strange set up between the 2 schools, you first attended the Market Place school at the age of 5. You then went to Parsonwood Hill school for 3 years then went back to the Market place for the final 2 years. So you had the 5 year olds at the same school as the 9 and 10 year olds. To confuse matters even further some started the Market Place before the age of 5 and spent an extra year at Parsonwood hill.

The Market Place school was very old and had that “old smell that I will never forget”. I vaguely remember the first day I, it consisted mostly of a lot of the girls crying and wanting to go home. When your 5 year of age, 6 and a half hours at school seems like a lifetime. I did get used to the idea of going after a while.

I made new friends with the other kids and got on with everyone (unlike in later years). As for the educational side of things it soon became established that I was good at Maths but average at best with my general English reading writing and spelling. My parents taught me a lot of the basics which helped a lot.

Memories of this year are thin on the ground, I was one of the few who went the whole year without having to take a day off with sickness. This was the case for nearly every single year I was at school.



Class of 1982 - 1983

I’m third from the left on the middle row, the teacher for that year was Mrs Turner who is sitting in the middle. Standing to the right is her assistant Mrs Woolcock, I remember seeing them 15 years later and both of them looked like they had not aged a day.