Stivichall Infant and Junior Schools

Reading the topic on Miss Bashford brought back many memories of my time at one of the schools where I taught. A few of my memories. Infant: Mrs Hunt my first teacher. Mrs Bodker who had the 'earphone' hairstyle. At Christmas she brought in wallpaper sample books and we made Chinese lanterns. Mrs Leslie. Her daughter Margaret Leslie was in her class at the same time as me. 1955-58 must have still been a time for shortages. Every available space in our books had to be used including the inside of the covers. I was sent to the headmistress for losing my pencil. Juniors: Being put in lower, standard or upper classes for each year. On the last day of the year our new classes were read out to the whole assembly, no thought for the feelings of those in the lower forms. Mrs Hunt Miss Hindman who brought her poodle to school and kept it in a basket under the desk. Mrs Bee Mr Lawrence deputy head who had a plimsoll in his back pocket for slippering the boys. The girls got the ruler. Miss Morewood. Headmistress. I was her monitor in year 4 and was trusted with her keys. I also had to make sure that the fire in her office did not go out. No health and safety then. When presenting a certificate she always pronounced it 'sustificat' and we all had to chant the real pronunciation. She seemed to think this was very amusing. Lots more memories to share. Looking forward to hearing from other old pupils of Stivichall.

Would Margaret Leslie be Anne Leslie's sister?

I know that Margaret had an older sister but not sure what her name was.

I was at both infant and junior schools from 1964 to 1970. I think my first teacher was Mrs Leslie and I remember Mrs Green, Mrs Torrance, Mr Jones who taught French and whose daughter was in my year. The head was Mr Jennings and our sports teacher was a Mr Jenkins who ran our very successful football side. We played in vertical red stripes like the old Sunderland kit, and played over on the pitch on the Memorial Park. I think there was a Mrs Bishop as well. My father was on the PTA and they built the swimming pool on site in about 1967 I think, and which I had the record swim for doing 340 lengths during the open day in summer. Perhaps it was surpassed later, who knows? I remember the times there with huge fondness and believe we had a good caring environment in which to progress.

Hi I was at Stivichall infants and juniors from 59 to 65 and for the most part enjoyed the experience. I can certainly remember having lessons outside in the good weather in the 'Dell' which was undoubtedly an old bomb crater? I also remember in my last year in Mr Lawrence's class, he showed us an experiment, by covering the end of a large wooden ruler with a smoothed out sheet of newspaper with the rest of the ruler sticking out over the edge of the table. He then invited a pupil to hit the ruler as hard as possible (I cannot remeber if it was me or not?) and of course instead of the newspaper ripping as we all thought, the ruler snapped. He then turned around and shouted , youve broken my ruler! He then laughed. Just shows if you make something interesting, you will always remember it. I subsequently became a scientist for the rest of my working life!

I remember The Dell but never considered that it was a bomb crater. Maybe someone knows what its origins were. I remember that infant school photos were taken there, we all had to carry our chairs down the slope and back up again. I passed the school recently and saw that the entrance from Coat of Arms Bridge Road is closed and overgrown. I suppose children from the Baginton Road area now go to Finham School.