What was primary school like in your country?

9 comments

1. Grew up in rural ireland. Midlands. Through the 90s, school roughly from 92 to 2000. Boys only school. 2 teachers with 3 classes each , female principle with 1st 2nd 3rd class in one class room and mix of teachers over the yrs taking 4th 5th and 6th in the other. (Junior infants and senior infants were done in the local girl school)
   24 pupils. If you were advancing it was easy for the teacher to let you do the class aboves work too.

   We done p.e once a week. But had ONLY gaelic football at every little lunch and big lunch. I learned how to eat my lunch in 10 seconds so id get more football in.
   We got new goals one year and we spent 1 or 2 weeks in may picking the field of stones everyday in school.
   We had a school band mostly tin whistles, 2 keyboards (o e guy was so bad you can see in the videos his was plugged out at shows bit it looked better , more symmetrical to have 2) , 2 accordions, 1 fiddle and a drummer at one stage.

   Soccer and hurling were actively discouraged and opposed. The school had a good football tradition.
   We done swimming lessons. Even if you didnt want to. One lad shit himself with fear in the pool showers (local pool not schools)

   it wasnt perfect, but by god did i get a great headstart there from the input of the teachers. I adore that school and have mostly great memories and still feel a closeness to it even though it no longer exists and to the other boys went to it.
   Downside: used to cry with how much homework we got. Literally. But upside to that i was streaks ahead in terms of being ready for secondary school.

   Love that school overall. Some great aspects some less great aspects.

   Edit: i dont think this was the average kind of school in ireland at the time in terms of no.s and the prevalent culture.

   Edit 2: in good weather we had classes outside and in snow we would get alot of schooltime building snowmen snowball fights and such.

2. Primary school in the ’90s, when communist uniforms for kids were still the norm, and it was still socially acceptable to hit kids over their hands with a ruler.

   However, I had what could be considered a very progressive primary school teacher (ironically, she was close to retirement).

   She did not approve of hitting or yelling at kids. She decided that all kids should get 1st prize at the end of the 1st grade.

   She ditched the uniforms for jeans and light coloured shirts. We also had comfy shoes to change into, at school, and small carpets under our seats, for an extra home feel.

   She commissioned a large mural in the back of the class, featuring the Romanian map, with examples of flora and fauna, and various fun bits. She brought a piano in, where we could play.

   She moved mountains to find extra curriculars for kids, a concept that was almost unheard of at that time. She found teachers willing to sacrifice a couple of hours a week, and offered a wide range of extra classes:
   – starting in the 1st grade – English, piano and dance lessons.
   – starting in the 2nd grade – computer programming (in 1995!)
   – starting in the 3rd grade – French and German

   At the same time, she also pushed kids far beyond what was usual. The 8-12 schedule became 7-13 (or 14 if you had extracurriculars). Most of the time we did math or Romanian.

   Only when she saw kids were tired, or there were special circumstances, did we do the “fluff” subjects. This one time, teachers were having a one-day strike. She decided that was a good moment to catch up on arts.

3. Went to a Catholic single-sex primary school like 90 percent of Irish kids. I mostly enjoyed primary school. Communion and confirmation were pretty big events and I remember how much preparation went into them. The pay out was good in the end ha.

4. I had a different experience than probably most around my region. I went to a primary school that employed a sorta semi-[Montessori](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education) approach.

   I say “semi”, because we did have grades, no mixed-age classrooms, and often it was “complete all these tasks, in any order that pleases you” rather than “pick from these options” :P. But it was still gentle, with lots of freeroaming activities. Often, the teacher would set up different small activities that would require you to move around the room to complete them. Mostly I have fond memories of it.

   Had a bit of a culture shock when I once had to sit in on class for the non-Montessori part of the primary school, haha. Their lessons were more traditional, with everyone facing the blackboard and such. It was so different to the way we were taught, and it was the same school!

5. Even within Germany primary schools differ greatly. Some friends of mine who attended a different school in the same town had very different experiences so take what I say with a grain of salt.

   In most federal states primary school is four years, roughy from the age 6 to 10.

   At least in my case, the difference from kindergarten, which was very playful and kind to primary school was pretty harsh.

   I’d say my school (I started in 2001) was still pretty old fashioned. They did emphasise order, respect, discipline etc a lot. I was intimidated by some of the teachers and the other staff there. I definitely didn’t feel loved in my primary school. However, I have to say that compared to other friends the level of the classes was pretty high especially in maths and German so when I attended a different school starting from class 5 I was already comparably advanced.

   Interestingly, (and luckily for me) my secondary school (Gymnasium) was much more modern and friendly and teachers there managed to give pupils a much better feeling that they were valuated as human beings and I generally liked that school unlike the primary school.

6. Late 90s in post Sowjet central Europe. Everything was changing and lots of things were tried out. It was trail and error, I feel like a trial rabbit looking back.

   There was a shift from more frontal and harsh teaching to free spirit and talking, no authorities.

   We did learn writing by hearing, which was looking backwards a complete nightmare to me. 
   Our teacher was all about talking and not a real authority. 
   She sat there with a bell we should be silent lol 
   Tests were corrected in Green what was right, no marks until grade 3 or 4 or so. 
   Not getting grades, and then going to secondary school made the first year unpleasant.
   I don’t believe in that concept until today. 

   My family is from Eastern Europe it’s maybe a bit harsher, but loving education there. Imo it’s a teacher/authority and not your friend. 

7. Our education system here in Bulgaria tends to be pretty academic from the very start. Back in my day (90s), it was kind of strict, nowadays, I’m not so sure. But it’s not really play oriented or modern unless it’s a specialized private school.

   I personally had great teachers and had an absolute blast.

8. I have fond memories of primary school. I actually enjoyed going to school and learn new things. We didn’t have a set timetable dedicated to different subjects, rather it was more flexible from what I remember. It would vary each week I think. We had one main teacher, a PE teacher, a Music teacher, and an English teacher.

   The school building was quite old, but in the fourth grade we were transfered to a new school building that was quite nice. The school grounds were nice, with a lot of trees and plants and places for us to play during breaks.

   5th to 9th grade was also a good time, but high school not so much. My high school was really old, and a lot of my classmates from before went to different schools. 12th grade was alright though. Primary school and university were the only times I remember enjoying going to school tbh

9. Went to a mainstream state primary in the late 90s to early 00s

   It was quite academically driven. At this time children did SATs (tests in English, Maths and I think Science) aged 11 and 7(?). Schools and teachers took these very seriously because it was essentially how schools were graded. I would say 3-4 months of Year 6 (aged 10-11) went to SATs prep and it definitely stressed a lot of children out. As well as those core subjects we had history, geography, religious studies, PSHE (sort of a mix of health and civics) and some French towards the later years.

   We wore uniforms from the age of 5 or so. It’s a bit liliputian to see children that small in uniforms, they tend to just be a white polo shirt and a branded school jumper with ties and blazers coming at secondary school.

   There was a healthy variety of sports and games. Gender-split, so tough luck if you were a girl who wanted to play football or cricket, or a boy who wanted to do more indoor gymnastics.

   At the end of my time there we went on a 5 day trip to Wales. This was a fairly standard thing to do, not sure if it’s still such a big thing. For more than a few kids it was the first time they’d left the county, let alone left their parents.

   Teachers were a mixed bag. Corporal punishment had long been banned but plenty of them thought little of berating, belittling or verbally abusing children. I was tormented over my poor handwriting, and children with what should have been clearly diagnosed learning difficulties got a tough time if they weren’t so disabled as to be removed from mainstream education. Some of the teachers were excellent though. Very very few male teachers and the more academic environment at that age seemed easier for girls to deal with.

   The main unifying primary school memory is of course the Jesus Bangers. Every assembly (daily) ended with a couple of hymns, usually quite modern and easy to follow evangelical hymns such as ‘Lord of the Dance’ or ‘Give me Oil in my Lamp’. These are indelibly marked in all our minds, one upside is that it means you can get witty chants going at the football and everyone instantly knows the melody if it’s from one of these hymns.