Following the appeal for readers to send in reminiscences of their schooldays in High Wycombe, many have responded. 

These include Paul Davies, who, like several other readers, has particularly fond memories of his time at Sands County Primary School, which he attended from 1949 to 1955. Paul writes:

“I think our school days were rather special for a host of reasons, the quality of the teaching and the wonderful woods, streams and open spaces in the surrounding area being just two.

The teachers
Many of the teachers lived within a stone’s throw of the school, adding to a community spirit: the head teacher, Mr Berry, Mr Anning and Mrs Morgan in New Road, Mrs Smith, who taught infants to read with the help of stories about Old Lob and Dobbin, in Mill End Road, and Mrs Maddox on the Booker Hill Estate.

Despite the classes being as large as 46 pupils in some years, as a result of the post-war baby boom, I cannot recall any serious disciplinary issues. Low-level misdemeanours were dealt with by an occasional slap on the back of a boy’s legs or backside.

The lessons
On many a day, the morning began with a mental arithmetic test. A seven-year-old might be challenged to work out how much change he/she would receive from half a crown when buying eight buns at a penny farthing each. In Arithmetic, our learning was helped by such sayings as “A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter” and the chanting of the “times” tables.

Spelling and handwriting were considered important. Basic pens were dipped into inkwells slotted into the desks; biros and fountain pens were not yet standard equipment at primary school. Squares of pink blotting paper were always on hand to soak up any spills.

Instead of clarinets, flutes, trumpets and guitars and the junior orchestras that feature in the modern primary school, pupils bashed out a rhythm on triangles, castanets, tambourines and cymbals in the main hall, with Mrs Morgan on piano. Specialist peripatetic music teachers to teach particular instruments did not exist. 

Music lessons also involved singing folk songs like “Bobby Shafto” and “Blow the Wind Southerly”, marches such as “Hearts of Oak”, rounds like “London’s Burning” and girly ballads such as “Who is Silvia?” and “Drink to me only with thine eyes”. 

Not for us the songs of Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow that junior choirs sing today. How teachers in the two pairs of classrooms adjoining the hall managed to get any work done with such a din, I’ll never know. Lessons might close with a hymn, such as “Let us with a gladsome mind” and “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

Every year, schools in the Wycombe area sent a choir to perform at the Town Hall. It was taken very seriously. I well remember Mr Berry getting our choir to go though “Little Lamb Who Made Thee?” umpteen times until he was satisfied. Music from a scratchy gramophone was also a feature of our musical education.

Another lesson that might be enjoyed in the main hall was a radio broadcast. It was here that we first heard tales of Brer Rabbit outwitting Brer Fox.

Along with the standard subjects, such as History and Geography, pupils were given Art and Craft lessons. Boys had to learn how to mitre the corners of a book cover, whilst the girls did needlework. Nature Study lessons also featured on the timetable. 

One day, Mr Berry took around to each classroom a wasps’ nest that had been retrieved from the roof of the girls’ toilets (girls’ visits there were probably brief after that !). On the occasional summer’s afternoon, pupils might be taken out into the surrounding countryside for a nature walk.

Lacking a playing field, the school football team had to play its home matches up at Fernie Fields, Booker. Just occasionally, the senior boys might be taken down to “the Rec”, the recreation field behind Mill End Road School, to play cricket, but most sports activities were confined to the playground.

Another much-anticipated event was the District Sports Day, sometimes held at Turner’s sports field.

In their final year, the 11+ examination loomed over pupils. It consisted of arithmetic, a composition and I.Q. puzzles and was preceded by a preliminary test. It was a nerve-racking time for all.

Break times
In winter, when there was a severe frost on the ground, boys arriving early would make a glass-smooth slide that stretched several yards across the level, lower playground. 

The days of health and safety were well into the future and Mr Berry, to his credit, did not discourage this daredevil pastime.

At break times, it was the boys who had the privilege of playing in this part of the school grounds. The girls had to make do with the upper sloping areas for their skipping and handstands, or seek shelter in the open shed that stood on the west side of the buildings. 

Playtime football was eagerly anticipated throughout lessons, though other games were also played, such as Kingy, in which a ball was hurled at would-be escapees, their only protection a fist bound by a handkerchief. 

The unfortunate who was hit became the new Kingy. Conkers, sometimes collected from beneath a tree that stood across the road near the school canteen, and marbles also had their season.

In the lunch break, school dinners would be taken in the canteen across the road, though without the means to cook hot food, the meals were brought in from Green Street School in metal containers. 

The smell of cabbage and the sight of tapioca (“frogspawn”) no doubt still linger in many a former pupil’s memory.

Visits
There were special days out organised by the school, such as a visit to Harrison’s stamp factory in Hughenden Avenue and a coach trip to a festive ice show in London one Christmas.

And there was a week’s camping trip as far afield as Sheringham in Norfolk.”

To be continued, with Paul’s memories of the “great outdoors”.