Starting School

It was the night before when the nerves kicked in. I was panicking. I was wondering: what if it was bad? I would have to go there for six years. I was trying to comfort myself with toys; so was my mum but I fi nally dozed of. My mum got my Bob the builder bag ready the next morning and I watched Bob the builder. That morning I was very scared. Jack Hamilton, Downpatrick Primary School P7

Giilian McCormick, Nigel Keenan and Julie-Ann Walker beside the Wendy House, 1982 My Mum was from the south of Ireland and I knew, even at that early age, that she talked diff erently and she didn’t do things like other people did but she didn’t care. She told me that I was going to see people. Th ey were going to teach me things that I wouldn’t really know that much about. Th ese were very special holy ladies and they had no husbands and they had no children and I was not to ask them why. My mother had, funny enough, no experience of nuns. I couldn’t wait to get there, busting to get in through the door but being mindful about the holy ladies. Dying to see them, I didn’t know what they were going to be like. I thought right, I’ll get a good look at them. … I could spy up in the corner a book case and books and I just couldn’t wait and I thought I wonder when she (the nun) is going to let us go into the book case.

Kate Hannah, e Convent of Mercy Primary School

My teacher had this doll called Molly and I would hold it until I stopped crying- she was nice and cuddly. Claire Morrissey, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School I think my mum was sad because she didn‛t want me to go. Reece Mathers, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

4 STARTING SCHOOL

I was almost 6 when I started school. My parents were very democratic and they consulted me about when I would like to start. Perhaps, on refl ection, they were ahead of their time and I remember on the very fi rst day I went to school, I was taken by an older girl. She was about 14. Her name was Mena Fitzpatrick. Mena collected me and delivered me to school. Th e school was a 2 room school with a coal fi re, behind each teacher’s desk of course. Th ere were 2 teachers in it. Moving to Th e Boys’ Primary, I remember my fi rst teacher in that school. It was a Brother Ignatius. He was a very good teacher. Th ings seemed to be much more serious in the school. Th ere was a very serious programme of work to be done and we would have prepared for tests – intelligence tests to verbal reasoning tests and a written paper in English and arithmetic. I remember doing a Christmas test and I got 1st in the class and I got a prize. I got a harmonica, the only time in my life.

Pat Higgins, Legamaddy Primary and St Patrick’s Boys’ Primary School

Infants boys class, Convent of Mercy, 1940 Lindsey Beckett’s Mum saying goodbye as she starts school in Downpatrick Primary with Mrs Wilson, 1990 Th e memory I have is that it was a Nissan hut, the P1 classroom and there was a big black potbelly stove in the middle of it; that was how they heated the room. Th ere were little seats round it and that is my memory of that fi rst day, that big stove. I had a bow in my hair because my mum was very fond of putting big bows in our hair and I probably wore a dress. Mary Lowry, Millisle Primary School

I was cuddling up to my mummy – my mum‛s eyes were tearing up – my mum said she was going to the toilet but she was actually going home – then I calmed down. Rachael McAteer, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

STARTING SCHOOL 5

My fi rst day at school was with a teacher called Mrs. Leake. My memory is of a house and being able to dress up as witches. I went into the house to play with the children who were already in reception. I remember being quite nervous because initially, I didn’t want to leave my mum and I sat on her knee for a wee while and eventually then I was able to go and dress up and have a wee look around. … I remember I did cry and I do remember being given a peg with a wee picture on it but I can’t remember what my picture was. You would hang your gutty bag on your peg. Hazel McCrea, Millisle Primary School

The night before I started school I went to bed early. I couldn‛t sleep because I was excited and a little scared. When I got up the next morning … My uniform felt a bit strange. I had never worn a tie before. Ian Holland, Downpatrick Primary School P7

I think the fi rst day we went, I arrived home again before lunch time. I probably run out to the door and then home again… Th ere was a small girl and I must have known the girl and both of us left and went home but the parents brought us back round again. We slipped out … I don’t think we did it again you know.

George Ca rey, Bonecastle Primary School and St Patrick’s Boys’ Primary School

6 STARTING SCHOOL We went to school in my mum‛s car. On the way there I wondered if I would make new friends. I thought about my friend Katie who was at my old school. I missed her a lot. When I got there I met my teacher Mrs. Cooke. She was a lovely teacher. All the children seemed nice and friendly. Our classroom assistant was called Mrs. Maynes. She was lovely as well.

Louise Kimpton, Downpatrick Primary School P7

P1 class, Convent of Mercy, 1981

I remember running into school, I just lived round the corner from the school and I can remember running down the path, and straight in and into a Wendy house. Th at is my most vivid memory and not even saying goodbye to my mum… I was of the time when there was no school uniform so, probably for the fi rst day I was put into something good. I remember a tartan skirt and I can remember being dressed up to go my fi rst day. I can remember there being toys and the desks and that and the milk bottles sitting out with our milk, and straws. Th at morning I saw nothing but that Wendy house. Gillian McGimpsey, Millisle Primary School

The night before I was so excited I couldn‛t wait. I packed my bag with stationery; I tried on my uniform and hung it up. My mum read me my favourite book: What Shall We Do Blue Kangaroo! Next day I was so thrilled. I put on my uniform after I had my Ready Brek. I sat on my beanbag and watched Charlie & Lola. For the walk to school I had a horsy bag so I jumped over the pavement cracks and pretended that I was a show jumper. When I arrived at school, I wasn‛t clinging to my mum...When I look back on that day I wish that I was little again.

Jade Kelly, Downpatrick Primary School P7

Betty Kelly on her fi rst day at school I was the eldest – it doesn‛t mean I never felt small. I didn‛t want to go – I felt nervous and very, very small. I felt my childhood was coming to an end.

Beth Mc Dowell, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

P1 class, Millisle, 1958

My fi rst memory is of me and my friend sitting in the P1 classroom and there was a big yellow teapot type thing but it was like a house. You opened the teapot out... I remember being scared of teachers … my parents made it so that I was wary of the adults in the school… you had to be good or they were going to be cross. Gemma Vaughan, Convent of Mercy Primary School

STARTING SCHOOL 7

I was clinging to her hand – people crowding the hall – then I felt comforted knowing I had some friends. Niamh O‛Neill, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School I started there in the early days of the war. And one of the memories that my mother told me was when she took me to school. I was the fi ft h in a family of six and I had three sisters at the top end of the family. Th e youngest of those three was 10 years older than me. So when my mother took me to start school at Southwell Primary school the principal asked my mother, “Is this an evacuee?”

Anne Ferguson, Southwell School

My Mum felt very proud of me for going to school.

Ronan M C Kinney, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

P1 class, 1979-1980 Downpatrick Primary School My big brother was 7 years older than I was so he was at the upper school and he took me by the hand and marched me up the back of Bridge Street, up to school. When we got to the school gates, I pleaded with him not to take me in and to let me go home again. He took me in, Miss Ellis let him sit with me for 5 minutes, and then he had to go on into the big school, which was next door to the infant bit. Bobby Skillen, Southwell School, Downpatrick

When my parents left, I was still a bit scared but felt more welcomed as there wasn‛t as many people watching me. Alanna Crane,Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

8 STARTING SCHOOL

In P1 when I walked in the door everybody was looking at me – I asked my dad, “Do I really have to go in here?” – he said, “Yes.” Eoin Douglas,Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

P1 class, Convent of Mercy about 1976.

As a teacher, the fi rst day was mad. In those days, the whole way up the school, the class that had been there the previous year had to graduate, so what happened was that my new P1’s were there, 38 of them with their parents and the previous P1 ready to move to P2 were also there. ... So I had about 60 children and all their parents in my room and I was on my own. In those days, you didn’t have a classroom assistant… In fact, once the old P1’s had moved on and I was left with the children I was fi ne.

Rosemary Wilson, P1 Teacher, Downpatrick Primary School

I remember the very fi rst morning getting up and getting the school uniform on, the excitement in the house. My friend John Taylor and his mum and dad came down and we all walked, a big posse of us all walking down to school together. Th ere was quite a number of us living in the locality all going down to school. We didn’t have that far to walk to school; it was probably a couple of hundred metres to the school from Knocknashinna to the school in St Anne’s Avenue. I remember just walking in and going “Wow”. I saw the big doors and the big classroom and all these people and everyone going around; the classroom teacher, Miss Cahalane coming and being there and meeting us with a big smile on her face. It made us really feel at ease as soon as we walked in. Th ere was a big competition very, very quickly to see who could build the highest blocks without it falling over. We all got into that very quickly and I think, because of that, we didn’t notice our parents drift ing away and that was really a very happy memory of the fi rst day at school.

Paul Gilchrist,St Patrick’s Boys’ Primary School

On my fi rst day of school I remember the night before I was worried. However when it happened and my Mum was crying, I was just thinking, “Why is she making such a big deal?” I was so pleased with my shiny new shoes and smart navy skirt and top. I wasn‛t so keen on the tight tie though.

Treya Dorrian, Downpatrick Primary School P7

STARTING SCHOOL 9

Rebekah Hyndman, with her sister, Emma starting school in 1996 I can remember a mix of excitement about starting school and the nerves and butterfl ies in my tummy about going… As we were waiting to go in my mother said to me, “Th ere is Mrs Pentland with the twins.” Th ey were a boy and a girl who were also starting school. Th e girl was called Susan. She became my best friend that fi rst day and we have been best friends ever since. So I made a lifelong friend on my fi rst day in P1.

Gill Kimpton

My sisters were already sorted - my Mum told them to look after me.

Ania Crolly Kelly, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

I was very nervous - I thought no one would like me – we had a doll called Molly - we liked her ginger hair and blue jumper, red jeans and black shoes. Colleen Curran, Our Lady And St Patrick Primary School

We didn’t have a uniform. But to school I would have worn short trousers. Long trousers were only worn by men in my days, even up to the age of 14 boys wore short trousers and jumpers or ganzies as we called them, just a sweater.

Pat Higgins

10 STARTING SCHOOL

Mrs Wilson brought in a lamb to meet her P1 class