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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Contributed by听
Warwickshire Libraries Heritage and Trading Standards
People in story:听
Mrs Eleanor Thornton
Location of story:听
Nuneaton
Background to story:听
Civilian Force
Article ID:听
A4085354
Contributed on:听
18 May 2005

I was an infant school teacher in Nuneaton, in charge of a class of five-year-olds. They were mainly working class children from the mining or manufacturing community and they were not very well-clothed. They stayed for school dinners and I remember the food as being quite adequate. We had no school kitchen so the food was delivered in big metal containers. Paper was in short supply and we wrote on both sides of every page, using every scrap. Fortunately there were enough school books in the school stock to keep us going. The children had often spent the night in an air-raid shelter, but I do not recall any of them falling asleep in class. They learned to read and write according to their individual ability. My five-year-olds were too young for needlework but modelled in plasticine and drew with wax crayons. The older children in the school and their parents seemed to have no expectation of grammar school education. They probably looked forward to a life in one of the many industries in Nuneaton. At playtime the infants I taught played at skipping or ball in the yard.

Sometimes the siren went while we were in class. The children, in an orderly line, marched down into the air-raid shelter where they were kept amused by story-telling and a sing-song of nursery rhymes or were asked to recite poems. I do not think they they were frightened by the experience. They appeared to find it quite fun.

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Working Through War Category
Rationing Category
Leicestershire and Rutland Category
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