Mildred Morris's Memories Of Cronkeyshaw School

A Memory of Rochdale.

When I started at Cronkeyshaw School I went straight into the second class as I had missed out on the baby class. In those days some children attended from the age of 3 years and the little ones went to sleep on mats in the afternoon for a short period.
The classrooms were far removed from the ones in the present day. In my first class we had an open coal fire with a fireguard. I can remember this quite clearly. We sat on forms at long desks and each child had a little blackboard and chalk and a little board rubber. We had tiny discs called counters to help us with numbers and small cards bearing pictures with simple spellings. My first teacher was called Miss Raby. I recall she was lovely, gentle lady, quite suitable to teach children of 5 to 6 year olds. My second teacher was also nice but a little more strict as by that time I suppose we were into more serious learning. If some of the children were naughty they would get the ruler over their knuckles or a smack on the legs. I don’t recall any child being caned. There may have been a cane in Miss Thompson’s office, the headteacher but I don’t remember seeing one.

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