I have just been taking a walk down Memory Lane, with little to do on a Saturday night and have just stumbled across the history section of the Holme Upon Spalding Moor school website.

 

I have just found pictures of my brother and I posted onto the website. my brother is in two of the photos and I am in  the percussion group with Mrs Coulson. I have been trying to remember the other children's names and I think they are roughly as follows, but of course, we are talking 34 years ago...

 

So starting from back row, going left to right, I remember the names as these:-

Catherine Golton, Elsie Atkinson, Joanne Coffey, Tracey(?), Jayne Stainforth, Nicola Ford, Lyndsey Butler, Mark Wilson, Amanda Smart, Paula Cairns, Timothy Morton, Peter Language, Darren or Paul(?), Mark Storey, Barry West, Andrew West, Christopher(?), Diane (?), and me, Lorraine Johnson.

 

I attended the school, I think from 1972/3 to 1977. I wasn't a local to the village, as my Dad was in the R.A.F., stationed at the then R.A.F. Leconfield and we lived in the then new houses in Chestnut Drive.

 

My memories from the school were wonderful and I was so sad to move on when I was almost 10 in 1977 as my Dad had been posted on to Germany. I cannot remember the teachers names very well, but I think one of the teachers I had was Mr Asker - he was my inspiration. He encouraged my imagination and appreciated my poetry. He taught me a beautiful handwriting style, which I am to this day complimented on. I always wanted to get my spellings and times-tables right, as if I remember rightly, when we were tested, if we got one wrong then we would have to stand up, then another wrong to stand on the chair and, heaven forbid, another one wrong, onto the desk! I don't think I dreamt this, but I am sure this would contravene all health and safety directives set out now -but it worked for me! I can't remember whether or not Mr Asker left the school before me or not, but I remember enjoying French knitting and when he saw that I was keen on this he asked me to make him a hat to go fishing in, even though the wool I was using was quite a shocking pink colour! I moved to Germany and never did finish the hat and to this day, this has always nagged at me in my conscience! I'm sure he didn't really want a hat, but he made me feel like I was a very special little girl with his encouragement. 

I remember Friday assemblies with Mr Hasler, he was another man who I adored and I collected feathers as a child and he allowed me to collect guinea fowl feathers from his garden. I loved the freedom we seemed to have, the freedom to observe birds from the classroom, bring items in for the nature table, play guitar, sing, go for walks in the village - I especially remember doing rubbings in the church yard from the graves. Playtimes were wonderful on the field, I used to imagine witches living in the hedgerows, but that may have had more to do with the popular TV dramatisation of Helen Cresswell's "Lizzie Dripping". I remember wonderful playground games, where the teachers joined in, Farmer's in the Den, In and Out the Dusty Bluebells, There was a princess long ago etc, but I was very afraid of the climbing frame and couldn't bear to think of falling off onto the playground. 

I hated the full-cream bottles of milk at playtime, especially when they were warm and I hated Sports Day - I was rubbish at sports and I'm afraid to say I would deliberately fall as soon as I could in the Sack Race, and pretend to have hurt my foot. I was always in the blue team and my brother would come home from school with his rosettes, completely ashamed that I had been in the same colour as him!! I remember the dented metal water jugs in the dining area and remembered how disciplined and responsible the table monitors were. I have so many memories, I could go on and on, but I will close now. I hope that children all remember their schooling with as much fondness as I remember my time at this school.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Lorraine Pearson (nee Johnson)