Flaxley Road Primary School 1950 1955

A Memory of Selby.

More teachers from Flaxley Road Primary School. I started school on my fifth birthday in 1950. When it was your birthday you were allowed to play some tubular bells in assembly, first thing in the morning. I didn't dare admit it was mine.
My first teacher was Miss Wallace who left to get married, which is what all teachers had to do when they married in those days. The next was Miss Moate who was Head Teacher in the infants, followed by Miss Astley who gave everyone a threepenny bit when they achieved ten out of ten for sums and spelling. Miss Moate once slapped me across the legs for swinging on the iron framed coat pegs in the cloakroom. Every year we had a May Queen Ceremony on the large square of grass in the quadrangle.
Next teacher was Miss Reid. We had geography quizzes with teams which I hated. I skipped a class after this and had a happy year with Miss Hutchinson in a prefabricated building near the school. She was gentle and kind. She also helped her father run a toyshop in Finkle Street.
The last teacher in Primary School was Mr Gill. I believe he terrified everyone. Physical punishments were perfectly admissible in those days. I was rulered once on my hands for speaking when I shouldn't have been! It was such a relief when I was chosen to play Gabriel in the Christmas play and had to attend rehearsals. I missed Maths lessons which were the most frightening of all. In later life, Mr Gill ran an Angling Shop on Brooke Street when he'd retired. He didn't seem so scary then.
Worst of all were the broken down toilets in the yard. Dirty, smelly with doors that wouldn't shut. We had to plod through the snow to get to them. Does anyone remember that? It wouldn't be allowed nowadays. Have to say that schooldays were some of the worst of my life. Wouldn't want to relive any of it.