Yes, I went to school. I tried to explain to my parents that this was not really necessary since I already knew everything, but they insisted.
My first school was Brunswick House primary school in Maidstone, Kent. It’s still going strong today, although it has undergone modernisation and has extensive additions to the original building.
I don’t remember much about my first day of school apart from the fact that my mother took me to school, and it was snowing. We walked to the school – a distance of just under a mile (1.3 kilometres to be exact) and my feet were frozen by the time we arrived. I was not a happy bunny, I can tell you.
Back in those days, it was often the case that the school would hire a photographer for the day to take pictures of children in their final year of primary school. Of course, we had to be wearing school uniform and pretend to be doing school work.
These days everybody and his (or her) dog has a digital camera or a smartphone, so most kids growing up today have an extensive digital record of their lives, starting from the day they were born.
Back then, photography was a relatively expensive hobby, and somewhat more complicated. You had to have a camera for a start, and before you could take any pictures you had to buy a roll of film and load it into the camera.
Then, assuming you had done everything right and taken your pictures, you had to remove the film from the camera (ensuring not to expose it to the light) and take it to the chemist to be developed, which also cost money and usually took a couple of days. Then, assuming the development process went without a hitch, and the chemist didn’t lose your pictures, you could collect them and take them home.
One of the best things about Brunswick House, for me, was that as well as a playground there was a large sports field (seen here from London Road – the main road into Maidstone).
Many lunch hours in the summer term were spent on this field, playing football, or cricket, or just running around like lunatics with arms outstretched pretending to be fighter pilots.
Of course, I was a diligent student as well – sometimes. I was not allowed to go out to play if I hadn’t finished my homework, and school reports were always subject to intense scrutiny.
Of course, I eventually had to move from primary into secondary education. I desperately wanted to attend technical school like some of my friends, since I was more interested in science and technology than stuff like art and history.
Unfortunately my parents had other ideas and, because I passed my 11-plus exams with good grades, I was told I was going to grammar school whether I liked it or not (my mother wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer – I was more inclined towards blowing stuff up or becoming a rock star).
My first impression of Maidstone Grammar school was not a particularly pleasant one – The main entrance put me in mind of Colditz castle.
As it turned out, things were not as bad as they seemed. The school had excellent facilities and I quickly made new friends. I also joined the Royal Air Force cadets, where I got to march up and down a lot (usually out of step) and learned how to clean a rifle. Our "parade ground" was the school car park (pictured).
Sadly I was only a student at Maidstone Grammar for two years, because my father got a new job in Yorkshire, so I never got to blow stuff up. Before I left, however, I was fortunate enough to go on a week-long school trip to the Lake District. Days were spent "fell walking" (hiking over mountains with a packed lunch, basically), and evenings were spent generally larking about.
When I was thirteen we moved with our parents to Selby in Yorkshire. The first house we had there was in Selby itself and was provided as temporary accommodation by my Dad’s new company, John Rostron & Sons, a local manufacturer of paper and packaging products (I believe the company was still operating up until 2009).
My parents subsequently bought a house in Barlby, a village approximately two miles outside Selby, on the other side of the River Ouse. I attended Selby Grammar School, while Philip went to Barlby Secondary School.
Philip’s school uniform was way cooler than mine – I arrived one year after Selby Grammar had been changed from an all-girls school (Selby Grammar School for Girls) to a mixed-gender establishment, but the colour of the school uniforms had not been changed.
Having previously attended an all-boys school (Maidstone Grammar), Selby Grammar was a bit of a culture shock, although I would say on reflection that attending a co-educational institution was a positive experience.