My First School

A Memory of Ormskirk.

My family moved to Ormskirk in 1960 when I was three. My father was starting a teaching course at Edge Hill and we lived in a flat over the coal board (next door to Clarks Shoes) in Church Street. Our surname was Byard back then. I started school at Greetby Hill, early, when I was only four, in January 1961. From the beginning I hated school - when mum and I got to the school gate (we used the path that crossed the whole of the playing field, from the back), I would start dragging on her arm and screaming not to go. My teacher was I think, Mrs Jackson. I remember she was kind and had a big nose! She taught us to knit and I remember having to drink warm milk with straws out of 1/3 pint glass bottles; they had been left in the corridor next to the radiator - to this day, I still cannot stomach warm milk! For some reason, one day we had to get our coats on before going to the assembly hall. I was very slow and got left behind. I didn't know my way back to my classroom, so I tagged onto the end of a passing file of children and went with them to the hall. The headmistress noticed me and asked, 'Who is that little girl on the end of that line?' and then asked the teacher of the class if she knew where I belonged. I was returned to my class and my teacher said she was ready to send out a search party!

Another occasion, we had to have our 'jabs' before heading into the hall for assembly. We walked past the doors to the assembly hall, behind a curtain, where a nurse gave us our injection. Then we continued into the hall. Assembly was conducted with the children standing up. One of my classmates, having just had her injection, fainted and had to be carried, limp, out of the hall by the teacher. I thought she was dead - it terrified me. (Thankfully, she wasnt!) Her name was Shirley.

I dont remember any surnames of the children in my class, but there were three girls I was friendly with - Jocelyn, April and Shirley.

There was a boy in the class opposite mine - I think they were much older. When we lined up in the corridor for assembly or to be dismissed, we were always next to each other in our lines. During playtime, he would play cricket with the other boys in a part of the school grounds we younger oens were not allowed. He would lift me over the short fence and hide me behind a bush so I could watch him play cricket. I remember whispering to my mother when I got home one day 'I think Ive got a boyfriend'. She asked me his name and I said 'I think it's Trevor Shells'. His name was in fact, Trevor Shelley, but his friends called him 'Shells'.

At the end of the school day, we had to put our chairs on the tables and then our class would sing the two verses of 'Jesus tender Shepherd hear me', which I still remember to this day.

My mother would collect me after school every day. I would wait by the school gate (the one at the front of the school) for her. This particular day, she didnt turn up. The teachers began to leave and wondered why I was still there. Jocelyn's mother came by and said she would look after me. I thought she would take me home, but instead, she went shopping. Even though I told her where I lived, she did not want to take me to my house. It was market day, so we went round the market. All I wanted to do was go home and see what had happened to my mother! Eventually, Jocelyn's mother dropped me off back at the school gate and left me there by myself. Around half past five, Mum finally turned up! Apparently, there had been a water leak in the flat above ours and the clock had stopped. She only realised what time it was when my father came home. She rushed round to the school for me in a panic - and there I was, still sitting at the school gate waiting not so patiently. I remember I pulled my tongue out at her for being so late!

My parents moved (they did this frequently during my childhood) in December 1961. I had been at Greetby Hill for only two or three terms, but it certainly made an impression!