In the first of a series of articles to mark Churchfields Infants’ and Junior School’s 150th anniversary, former pupil Robert Batchelor (class of 1955) reflects on his memories of school milk and rationed toilet paper
I started at Churchfields County Infant School in 1949. I didn’t like school from day one. As my birthday was in December, I started school in the January term. I was shown into my class, which consisted of children who had started together the previous September and had formed friendships and did not take kindly to a stranger being thrust into their midst.
Having been brought up virtually as an only child, I had no wish to meet other children and would prefer to be back home with my mother. By the time morning playtime came around, I had had enough of the whole thing and set off to go home, hotly pursued by the teacher on playground duties, who pulled me back, much against my will.
The school day was broken up by playtimes, lunchtime and the morning milk round. Schoolchildren were each allocated one-third of a pint of milk each day. Older children were given milk monitor duties, which involved collecting the crates of milk and delivering them to classrooms, then later collecting the empties. I enjoyed this job; it got me away from my classmates and out of the classroom. Children often played with their milk bottles, spilling milk over the desks and floor, giving classrooms a strong smell of stale milk. This put me off drinking milk for life.
At the end of the three years we could read, write and recite our times tables up to 12. On the last day, the top-year classes were marched into the playground and divided into four groups. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were being streamed into ability classes for the junior school next door. Much criticism is levelled today about streaming children by ability at 11 years old, but here we were, at seven, going through this process, purely on our teacher’s judgement and without any tests or exams. I went into the top class.
I entered Churchfields County Junior School in September 1951. My first-year teacher was Miss Pettit, with Mr Walford as headmaster. We were taught in classes of 60, with several classes to each year. If you needed to use the toilet, I recall the teacher would issue a regulation four sheets of toilet paper. Everything was still in short supply, after all.
My last winter at Churchfields was marked by heavy snowfall. One afternoon, the whole school was led out into the field, divided into two and told to attack in a snowball fight! When the time came to leave, I had mixed feelings. I realised the standard of education had been very good, and I had enjoyed good relations with all the teachers, and latterly made friends. However, I still regarded school as a necessary evil. Sadly, I didn’t keep in touch with any of my friends, and it wasn’t until many years later, through the medium of Friends Reunited, that I was able to contact some of them again.
For more information on Churchfields Infants’ School and Churchfields Junior School, visit swvg.co.uk/churchfields
