Your first school

[Trevor S 2,003]

Compo, Did you have the schools own pens. A long piece of pencil shape wood, with a Nib you pushed on the end. My fingers were always covered in ink!

I remember those old pens, carni. Also remember the old ink wells set into the desk tops that were jam packed with little balls of blotting paper.

[carni 10,094]

I hope you didn't flick those little blotting paper balls off the end of your pen at your enemies. Not that I would of course.

I didn't really, I was very well behaved at School, too scared not to be Lol

[Bazza 123 34]

I can just remember my first days at school,Whitemore it was,I went in to the boys toilets and saw the stalls and thought what happens if you want to do pooh theres no seats.My Dad used to drive us to school until we were old enough to go alone,he would drive us in the old Jag we had and so we wouldn't get jeered at you know the sort of thing (think youre posh) we'd get him to drop us off at the end of the street and we would walk the rest.Bye the way in we I mean't my sister and myself.

[Chulla 4,946]

At Crane school we had ink monitors, who would fill up the wells. I remember when one lad dropped some carbide into a well causing it to bubble up over the desk.

[carni 10,094]

Chulla,

Reading your post about ink monitors, brought the image to my mind, of seeing the ink wells filled! Were the fillers shaped like little "Gravy Boats" but with extra long spouts, or have I invented the image. Quite Possible! We have had a discussion this morning about the Ink Brands and Colours and came up with Quink and Parkers as the main ones. The colours being Black, Blue/Black and Blue. Was there a particular standard colour used in schools or did anything go?

[Compo 10,328]

The school ink was in powder form. It had to be mixed with water before you could fill the inkwells. In our school, the mixing was done by the caretaker - kids were not allowed near it.

CARNI: We did have the stick pens with dipping nibs - most of which were bent and scratchy. I still have a box of nibs to this day (Photo if I can find them).

LIZZIE M: I couldn't afford an Osmiroid - it was a second-hand small, pink pen with a lever at the side for filling and a silver cap. I clearly remember arriving home that afternoon with a big smile on my face and holding up my ink stained hands said to my mother "Guess what I did today.....Started in ink."

[Compo 10,328]

My first school consisted of two wooden huts (Good Shepherd church school, Thakeray's Lane, Daybrook)) and a brick built church annexe, adjoined to the church via folding doors. One hut housed two classes of about 30+ kids each and the other, smaller one, housed the dreaded Sister Benigness (Big knickers to us kids). Being a teaching nun she was vicious and always on the lookout for a boy to punish with her strap and broken off chair stave. Upon hearing my mate Pat Pardoe calling her "Big knickers" she went to town on him and beat him until he couldn't sit - these days it would be called assault. The annexe housed four more classes and the inside toilets. As with many other schools of the period, the outside bogs had no seats and no water with which to flush the urinal, so it always ponged to high heaven (pun iintended).

[Chulla 4,946]

Carni,

The ink was contained in a can, about four inches in diameter, half open at the top with a long, thin spout - tubing, really, not like a teapot spout. We always used black ink. Pens were wood with nib in one end. There were two kinds of nib - one that had a fine point, and one that had a wide spade end. We only used black ink. You could use a fountain pen, if you had one, ink didn't have to be black.

We were taught to write in the Marion Richardson style, a very bland style that had all the ascenders upright - italic writing was strictly taboo. The crossbar of a letter t had to be on the right side only. I once saw a lad in my class get the strap because he crossed the t on both sides.

[katyjay 5,090]

I also remember with the Marion Richardson style of writing, you had to hold your nib sideways so that the down strokes were thin, and cross strokes were 'fat'. I think we all went home daily with an inky forefinger. We all were given a piece of blotting paper which had to last forever. I too remember my first fountain pen, how grown up I felt!

[benjamin1945 16,139]

THINK IT WAS,Mary Richardson katyjay' one teacher taught us that and another 'italic'

[katyjay 5,090]

Definitely Marion Richardson, Benjamin. It was dinged into us.

[benjamin1945 16,139]

I stand corrected katyjay' and all these years i thought it was Mary,.............i was crap at it anyway

[tomlinson 879]

Sad to think there is coming a time when writing will depend on a a set of buttons and a power supply instead of pen and ink!

[katyjay 5,090]

I remember there were writing competitions throughout Nottingham senior girls'schools. We'd all have to write something, and the best ones were submitted by the English teacher. Don't know if nowadays, there is still the same emphasis on neat handwriting. I know when my kids were in Middle school down in Surrey, there was no emphasis on spelling correctly. When I pointed it out at a parent/teacher meeting, she said she didn't want to correct them because it might put them off their 'flow of thought' for want of a better description. What a wuss.

[carni 10,094]

I remember the writing competitions Katyjay. I was one of two, chosen in the finals to represent our Year or School (can't remember which one)

Guess what, The other Girl won the final and I was runner up. So I never got my moment of glory. I have 3 styles of writing, all depending on my mood. One is exactly the same as my Fathers. So tiny that I struggle to understand what I have written, if I leave it and then go back to it! Another is a rushed mix of scribble, especially Shopping Lists. And the one that I use mostly, is very tidy and Uniform. This is the one that I used at School for lessons and comes most naturally to me. Still didn't Blummin win though. HUH

[Michael Booth 7,364]

I can remember learning to do italic writing and I really liked it (#85). It was at Trent Bridge Senior Boys School, though, not at Arkwright School on London Road.

I've really enjoyed reading all the posts on this thread as it's reminded me of my schooldays.

[benjamin1945 16,139]

#88 yes tomlinson writing is dying out,all i do now is write a tel no.down or scribble a quick note, and yes Michael i enjoyed 'italics' but it was hard with those old school nibs,and being left handed i was always knocking elbows with the lad next to me,and i am sure them nibs were made for right handers.

[carni 10,094]

Can anyone remember how clever you felt when you learnt JOINED UP WRITING. I can't remember what age I was, or if I was taught it, or just learnt myself. Any ideas if it was taught at School?

[benjamin1945 16,139]

joined up writing ??......

[carni 10,094]

You Know....................... Double!

[benjamin1945 16,139]

Double ??

[katyjay 5,090]

Cursive they call it here. I remember that Carni, it felt good that your writing 'flowed' after that.

[benjamin1945 16,139]

Cursive ??

[carni 10,094]

Detention for you if you don't behave! You know who I mean!

[Michael Booth 7,364]

carni, did you only have to write it double? I often had to write it 100 times...lol