Tower and Town, December 2016

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Changes At St Peter's Over The Decades

St Peter’s Junior School was situated in The Parade in Marlborough and opened its doors to pupils aged from 7 to 11 from 1962 until 2016 when it closed. By interviewing past pupils an insight was given about the educational experiences through the decades.

1960s Experiences

Mr Trevor Dobie attended the school from 1962 until 1966. He was one of the first pupils to go to St Peter’s when it relocated from what is now the library building. At this time St Peter’s gave you textbooks, though you had to bring in fountain pens and pencils. Some of the lessons were in different rooms, such as the current office was the music room, the ICT suite was a science lab and one of the downstairs classrooms (Miss Burdge’s room) was an arts and craft room. The punishments were very severe back in the 1960s, like doing lines, getting slapped by the cane on the back of the legs, hit on the hand with a ruler or standing under the clock in the library waiting for the headteacher. At this time the uniform was more formal with the pupils wearing a green and yellow tie, a green blazer, a green jumper, grey trousers, shorts or skirts and grey socks. In the 1960s the use of technology was not part of daily life and all they had in the classroom was a blackboard with chalk and a blackboard rubber. Also playground games were a fun thing to do and different games were tag, Dinky toys, cricket and ball games. The children would also enjoy swimming in the summer in the outdoor pool situated close to the school.

1990s Experiences

Lydia Dobie attended St Peter’s from 1989 until 1993. St Peter’s gave her all the stationery she needed, plus paper, books and textbooks. In the early 1990s, the lesson timetable was very much like nowadays. The punishments were not as severe and were normally just a telling off. Uniform was not as formal as in the past as blazers were no longer worn. Grey trousers and skirts were still worn but with polo shirts. In the summer girls could wear a green and white summer dress and would roll their socks down. In the 1990s there was some evidence of the use of technology in the classroom. There was one computer in each classroom, which only had a black screen with green writing and the only fun thing they could do on the computer was play a special maths game about angles and measurement. They did have calculators to help them with maths as well. On the playground, the games they played were British Bulldog, fifty-fifty, handstands against the wall and Top Trumps.

2010s Experiences

At this time the children were provided with pencils, handwriting pens, home school books, rulers, rubbers, whiteboards and reading books. However, the children often liked to bring in their own pencil cases with some of this equipment too. The timetable, in recent times, was very similar to the 1990s. The behaviour system used cards, with yellow cards as a warning and red cards for a time out. This could lead to being sent out of class or to the headteacher. The uniform had remained the same from the 1990s, with green sweatshirts with the school logo being worn. Technology was at a high in the 2010s, so all the classrooms had computers, interactive whiteboards and speakers. In the playground more of the children liked to chat, but ball games were still played and the introduction of the Play Pod enabled children to use their imagination with the items they found in there.

Key Differences throughout the Years

Despite much staying the same, many things have changed throughout the years. Back in the 1960s and 1990s the toilets were outside, rather than in the building and were not a pleasant experience. Punishments were another big difference and were much more severe in the 1960s. Playground games have changed dramatically with Dinky toys giving way to chaos tag and the Play Pod. Rewards also changed with house points in the past and yellow stickers, green cards and thumbs up in more recent times.

To conclude, St Peter’s has had some more dramatic changes as technology has enhanced how teachers teach and pupils learn over the past decades. However, the green sight of the St Peter’s uniform has been seen until recently. Now a colourful red will fill the streets of Marlborough as a new beginning dawns.

Adam, Year 6