The Infants School (known as the Little School) 1938 to 1939
On my first day at school, aged 4, I can still see headmistress
Miss Cross leading me by the hand through the big hall to the
"bubs" classroom where I met my first teacher Miss Lawson, a tallish,
thin lady, with grey hair tied in a bun. She always wore lisle
stockings and a very good girl or boys would sometimes be invited
to help themselves to a chocolate from the bag she kept in her cupboard.
My other memory of the "bubs" is the blood chilling sound of slate
pencils scratching on slate as we learned our alphabet and also the
wet sponges we used to wipe our slates clean.
Whilst in the "bubs" the school was closed for some weeks due to a
polio epidemic. I can remember being sent home early one day and
being warned that we should not play with other children.
During this period we moved to Glenhuntly for a year, so I missed
out on Grade 1 and Miss Cross, but was back at Elwood for Grade 2,
where Miss Paice was my teacher. She always had the windows
slightly open top and bottom to "let fresh air in at the bottom and
your dirty germs out at the top." She also seemed to delight in
rapping tender young knuckles with a wooden ruler as she walked
The 2nd grade reader had some frightening stories such as the
Hobyahs and The Billy Goats Gruff. I recall how some of us were
convinced that Hobyahs and evil trolls lived under the bridge over
the Elwood canal and would dare each other after school to do
NRW
