Do you remember your first day at school?

big syke · 24-07-2017 09:04AM

Yep - stabbed below the eye with a pencil. Still have the lead mark - no lie

True story

scarepanda · 24-07-2017 09:07AM

I do!!! And I'm never let forget it!

At one of the breaks the whole school was out the front in the playground. There was what was known as the teachers garden beside said playground. I ended up going into the garden, not realising that it was off limits! After a few minutes older students, a mixture of neighbours and my parents friends kids, may be 5 or 6 in total came up into the garden after me to get me down before I got into trouble. But I thought they had come up to play so I started a game of chance around the centre flower bed. Next thing I remember I was hiding in the corner where there was a gap in the bushes with everyone in front of me trying to grab me to bring me down. I have a vague memory of people holding my legs and arms and carrying me off the garden, at this stage I was crying! That morning I kicked my new teacher, the new principle and the local priest!

Mam and dad were gone up a hospital appointment in Dublin and didn't know what was going on - 1991 so no mobiles etc. That evening they said that they got a load of calls from people asking how I was and giving advice on how to get me to school the next morning. I just walked in like nothing had ever happened!

I love Sean nos · 24-07-2017 09:07AM

I remember bits of it. It was in May 1979. There was a fear back then that the government were going to raise the school entry age, so plenty of children were enrolled as soon as they turned 4. I was brought as soon as I'd had my 4th birthday, even though the school year was almost over.

I remember no one explaining to me what was going on. My Da brought me into a strange building and a strange room, filled with other children and then walked off. I stood just inside the door for a bit until the teacher brought me to a seat.

seamus · 24-07-2017 09:13AM

From what I've seen, most people remember the first day or at least parts of it. I don't recall being nervous or anything. I remember going in and being told where to sit, it was beside a girl whose name I still remember. Six years later she became my first girlfriend and shortest relationship at a whopping 24 hours. 8 years later we happened to do the same course in college, though I was a very quiet/shy young adult, I didn't speak to her much.

I was a very independent kid and not very attached, so there weren't any tantrums or running out the door for me.

My first is starting this September, and it's all much more structured now. They're the only kids in the school for the first 2 days, and both days are only two hours long. Parents aren't allowed near the classroom, you've leave them in the playground, but there's cake and tea on in the hall for them to hang around and chat (and presumably be on hand for kids making a break for it)

foxy farmer · 24-07-2017 09:18AM

Remember? Will I ever forgeh! It might be 40 yrs but I remember a particular day in playschool (teachers own house )where I got a dose of the trots. Teacher had to deal with the mess and had to give me a change of socks (red ones:) )I remember one of the first days in national school where a bunch of us sitting at a table. One lad who was a friend amd neighbour was bawling. He pulled out a bottle of orange out of his bag put it on the table and went to drink it. Teacher spotted him calmly tried to stop him and all hell broke loose. Cue wailing a banshee would be proud of. Same lad died about 4 weeks ago in his mid 40s .
RIP Barry.
I could list who were in my class in junior infants
I remember a few other events from early years. Lads having toilet accidents. Lads leaving as family were moving away. The principal coming in with the silver paint tin of sweets bulls eyes clove rock.
Going into the new class every year was a very emotional affair for me. Plenty tears. Fast forward to today and I'm as hard as nails and don't get phased by anything.

razorblunt · 24-07-2017 09:20AM

Another poster mentioned the getting photos taken by your parents on the day itself too. My Dad used to do this every year until I was about 10. Thing is he'd wait until the roll was done to get it developed which could be a month or 6 weeks after, meaning the "photo to show the grandparents" was a waste of time as they'd seen me every Mon-Fri in the meantime.

I get the concept now with mobile phones and the customary "stand your kid in front of a door day on Facebook".

_Roz_ · 24-07-2017 09:27AM

I have a few memories from Junior Infants, but I don't remember my first day, no. I feel like I would have been a bundle of nerves and anxiety, but I don't think I'd had sufficient experience with people for that to develop at that point, because I'm pretty sure my mum has said before that I shooed her away.

houlihand · 24-07-2017 09:30AM

barely but i know it was ****e

24-07-2017 10:12AM

I went to nursery school in England. Can't remember the first day of that as I was probably 2 or 3. My first day of play school in France was memorable because I couldn't speak the language! I remember trying to speak to the teachers in English and they didn't have a word of it. Went onto primary in the same school. First day of school in Ireland I can't remember at all. I do remember feeling like the weird "foreign" kid though!

suicide_circus · 24-07-2017 10:25AM

The year was 1989. Kylie and Jason were dominating the charts. Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers had just hit our screens. Italia 90 was just round the corner. And I bawled my eyes out at being abandoned in this large building surrounding by strangers.

s15r330 · 24-07-2017 10:28AM

30 years ago this September, I was sitting in the room. Sat down beside this lad and we exchanged names and are friends ever since.
I had a Zig and Zag copy and I remember a girl being carried in by her dad and she screamed the place down, snot and tears running down her face.

mad muffin · 24-07-2017 10:30AM

I don't remember the first day. I don't remember the last day or anything in between. I don't remember my teachers and most of the people I ever went to school with. We had our 25 year school reunion the other day and I couldn't name 99% of the people I finished high school with.

Lollipops23 · 24-07-2017 12:19PM

September 1992, having turned 5 at the end of that August.

I remember being late and the class were already seated when I rocked up with the Mammy. Turns out she had been dawdling in the garden as she was putting off the "moment" of bringing me in. Turned around to say bye and she'd already scarpered! Apparently the principal had warned parents not to hang around and to leg it before we copped what was happening. I wasn't bothered and there were no tears, as I'd been in creche and montessori since I could remember.

retro:electro · 24-07-2017 02:37PM

Yes I remember telling another girl that she has loads of snots up her nose and asking her why didn't she pick them out.

AidanadiA · 24-07-2017 02:50PM

I can remember lunch break on the first day vividly.
We had all been told the rules, sit in your chair, fingers on lips, speak only when spoken to and hand up to ask a question.
I was such a goody goody, that that's just what I did. When our teacher went to talk to another teacher at the door my cousin stood up went to the sandbox (at the front of the teacher's desk). She proceeded to pour the sand into the teachers sandwich sat on her desk. The teacher wasn't even back at her chair and I had my hand up to tell on her. I was thusly dubbed a rat and no one wanted to play me with since I threw my own cousin into the bold corner for the whole of lunch.

MilesMorales1 · 24-07-2017 02:51PM

Nope. The only memories of school I have before a certain age are the christmas parties we had towards the end of the term.

24-07-2017 03:07PM

My first day of primary school there was a Indian girl in my class. It was probably the first time I'd met a child with different coloured skin than mine. She was beautiful and I remember desperately wanting to be her friend but too shy to talk to her.

Started in a new school sometime during senior infants and I remember the teacher telling another child to show me where to sit. She asked me what age I was because baby infants and senior infants shared the classroom. When I told her my age , she answered "oh you're in senior infants, like me!" and I don't know why but I felt proud about that.

Started a new school again in 5th class, my first ever all girls school and I remember it felt like walking into a whole other world. They were all so sensitive and boring. On the break they all stood around playing those clapping hands while you sing type games and I didn't know how to join in. You weren't allowed to run. There was mass hysteria when someone saw a wasp and I was just looking around for a football or something fun.

On day two in that school one of the girls loudly informed me that her mother said she wasn't to be friends with me. I had mentioned I was friends with some... God forbid.. boys!!! So I was an unsuitable companion. It actually really hurt my little feelings.

branie2 · 24-07-2017 03:26PM

My mother dropped me off on my first day and I got the bus home

Do you remember your first day at school?

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