Country Schools circa 1940s

OldEric says :-) School in the 1940s were radically different to the schools of the 21st Century, particularly country schools. Each large or small village had its own village school. A village school would invariably consist of two classrooms and two teachers. The junior teacher would take the five to eleven year pupils and the senior teacher would take the eleven to fifteen year pupils.

Each pupil at the age of eleven years plus or minus a few months took an exam called the eleven plus exam. Those who passed this exam had the opportunity to go to a Grammar School for higher education provided you lived near a bus route or other means of transport and the nearest Grammar School was at a reasonable distance to your home. Those who didn't pass continued on at the village school until the age of fifteen years was attained.

That is a simplistic explanation in a nutshell. Village schools varied tremendously in learning content and depended greatly on an individual teachers ability. School discipline was strict and many teachers had their own ways of administering punishment. I will explain further as I progress through the years and use examples as I remember them.