In the third of a series of articles to mark Churchfields Infants’ and Junior School’s 150th anniversary, former pupil Myrtle Watts (class of 2014) reflects on her memories of writing her first book
As an only child, starting school was incredibly exciting. Always very sociable (maybe even too sociable; I often received criticism that I was “too chatty” at parents’ evenings), being thrust into an environment full of other children my age was my idea of heaven. From start to finish, I was lucky enough to have an almost entirely positive experience at Churchfields, with PE the only exception.
To this day I am inept at sports, whether it be with a ball, a racket or a stick of some kind, and this incapability fostered at a young age. As we prepared to move from the infants’ school to the junior school, we were sorted into teams that we would represent during PE and on Sports Day. Placed into the Green team, I clearly remember a fellow student telling me that “the Green team loses everything.” I certainly helped to uphold that reputation; despite being the only student given a wooden egg instead of a real one during the egg and spoon race (due to an egg allergy), I still managed to come last every year.
While other children would play sports during break time, I instead opted to print off the lyrics to popular songs to take into school and sing with my friends. In the junior school, there was a yearly talent show that I would enter as a singing duo with my friend Nia, and I’m pretty sure we won it more than once! When casting our Year 6 leavers’ production of The Jungle Book, there was fierce competition between us for the only female role in the play (an unnamed girl in the final scene with approximately three lines of singing). Instead of cause what I can only assume would have been an irreconcilable rift in our friendship, our teacher decided to rewrite the scene to have two unnamed girls rather than one.
When I wasn’t singing, I was reading: a complete bookworm as a child, I started writing my own stories from a very young age. At some point in the junior school, I remember writing a book (if you can call it that – I doubt it was more than 10 pages long) and showing it to my teacher, who forwarded it to the headteacher, putting it in the school library! I often wonder whether it’s still there and whether any other students read it. As a soon-to-be graduate of English Literature at the University of York, I can’t help but feel this was one of many moments of encouragement that fostered my love for the subject at a young age.
Eventually leaving the junior school brought a mix of emotions as I anticipated a new chapter at a different secondary school to my friends. Reflecting on my academic journey now, I feel so lucky to have had so much fun and wonder how differently things might have been had I not ended up at Churchfields.
For more information on Churchfields Infants’ School and Churchfields Junior School, visit swvg.co.uk/churchfields
