Dorothy C. Maguire, 83, of Arnside, recalls her time as head teacher at Underbarrow School in the 1950s and 60s

 

PLAYTIMES and games lessons were the times the children from Underbarrow really enjoyed.

The playground was marked with hop-scotch grids, which always kept the children occupied.

There were individual ball games they played against the back wall, and there was a climbing frame on the grass.

But their absolutely favourite time was in frosty weather – when they loved to make slides on the icy tarmac.

If it lost its slippiness they poured beakers of water on it to restore its shine!

They queued up for their turn and I was there to supervise.

One morning a young girl called Louise fell and cut her face and my assistant had to take her to hospital for treatment – that would definitely be frowned upon today.

In the 1960s when the numbers in the school increased to 24 I did get an assistant, and we worked well together.

One of the farmers allowed us to use a nearby field for games such as football, cricket and rounders.

The council constructed the goal posts but because of the small numbers, both boys and girls had to play in all teams. The girls weren’t too happy playing football with the boys, especially when we played against other schools. Nor were the other teams very happy when we had boys in the ‘skittle-ball’ teams. But they all enjoyed socialising with the other schools and that opportunity it offered them to have an afternoon ‘off’ school.