EADT Journalists reminisce their fond first day of school memories
Paul Geater
Saxmundham Primary, 1964
I started school shortly after my 5th birthday in 1964 at Saxmundham Primary (the old one, in Fairfield Road). The picture was taken a couple of years later when I was seven. All I can really remember about my first day at school was that there were several of us who started on the same day who were sat at the same desk because we had all learned how to read. We became friends and it turned out all our parents were teachers in schools around the area!
Elliot Furniss
1992 Stoke-by-Nayland middle school aged 12
“I really liked going back to school. Holidays were family time so school meant fun with my friends!”
Kate Dodd
1991 Birchwood High School Bishop’s Stortford
Kate’s eldest daughter is starting school this week and she is somewhat dreading it! Her own experience of school was good though, once she got day one out of the way!
She says: “This was the first day at secondary school and I was terrified, especially because I had to go on the bus.
I’m surprised I wasn’t ripped to shreds by the bigger kids for that ribbon in my hair and the bright pink bag. I remember feeling totally out of my depth. Thankfully, I survived – just! But the ribbon didn’t make any more appearances after day one!
“By the way, when my husband saw this school picture of me, he asked if there was a get out clause!”
Brad Jones
Britannia Primary school, 1978
This picture wasn’t an official school one – I’m sure that wasn’t the official Britannia uniform. There would have been a riot if it had been. But it was taken at about the time I started there. I can’t specifically remember my first day but I have very fond memories of the school, including some brilliant teachers and memorable school trips to North Wales and York. And there was a huge fire in 1984 which burned down a large part of the school and made us front page news!
Callum Maclean
5th September 1996 – first day at Wickham Market Primary School aged four
I don’t remember too much from my first day at school, other than I started a couple of days later than everyone else because my family had just moved up from Croydon. Though that didn’t stop me from making friends and getting involved in games at playtime. I also remember one day I took seven ‘Biff and Chip’ books home and read them all in one night, and I wasn’t a massive fan of the school dinners either!
Liz Nice
1976, St Edmundsbury C of E primary school in Bury St Edmunds
It was the end of the long hot summer and I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about leaving my garden to go to school every day. I cried solidly for the first few hours, only to learn life’s first lesson: crying gets you nowhere. You’re stuck in the system and there is no way out! Of that first year, I remember getting smacked once although I can’t remember what for. I also remember the strange smell of the place, probably sweaty plimsolls. And I remember that I was the only girl in the glass who had grey socks instead of white ones. How I hated being different – though I have just about learned to relish being the one who always manages to get it slightly wrong by now...
Matt Bunn
1999 St George’s College of Technology (my secondary school) in Lincolnshire.
I remember secondary school better than primary, especially the amount of freedom I suddenly had. Going where we wanted at lunchtime (within the school) spending lunch money on sweets (not recommended, you’ll be hungry) are two things that stick in my mind. It was a complete change for me. In terms of primary school, my main memory is football in the summer. Anywhere between 15-30 a side and that one glorious goal I scored.
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