Comleroy Road Public School - Yesterday and Today

A Day in My Life In Year 3
School routines of yesterday and today at Comleroy Road Public School have changed so much! These fascinating differences are shown in the following two stories about life in Year 3, written by:
  • Les Dollin - a former Year 3 student of the 1950s; and
  • Tyler - a current Year 3 student of 2005.
A Day in 3rd Class
at Comleroy Road Public School in the 1950s
by Les Dollin
Getting to school was a big task. In all types of weather it had to be done and it was all the harder when it rained. Mum rode on a bike with little Carol, my sister who was three, sitting in a box tied on the carrier on the back. I rode on my scooter and away we went to school.

Riding along the muddy Comleroy Road was hard and one day Mum fell off her bike because the mud was so deep. When we got to school Mum had the job of riding all the way back home to the farm with Carol on the back. Later that year I was able to ride my new bike that my parents bought me.

Other children who lived closer walked to school, mainly in groups. Some of the bigger children had their own push bikes and rode to school.

We had no uniforms. The boys wore shorts and the girls wore dresses. The milkman would come and deliver a crate of milk in small glass bottles for us to drink later. We only had a tuck shop once a month.

The old school bell would ring at 9.00 am and we all had to go inside to do our lessons. We only had one teacher, Mr Earley. All 30 children were all in the same room, except for the kindergarten children who were divided off with a partition because they were so noisy.

All the different classes were in rows and we all had different lessons to do, from one very long blackboard divided up with chalk marks. It was a great thrill to be asked to rub the board down for the next lesson.

Reading, writing and arithmetic were our three subjects. Running writing was my favourite with a nib pen and ink and blotting paper. Spelling was really hard. I can’t remember having any books to read – we learnt everything from the blackboard.

Then it was playtime which meant lots of running and lots of talking!
We used to play games like hide and seek, marbles and rounders
Chasings was a really fun game. We had a tennis court but nobody knew how to play that game. Sometimes a vehicle would go past the school and we would all run down to the fence to see who it was.

The old bell would ring again and we would have to go into the classroom and take our seats for more lessons. We had to learn our times tables.

Lunchtime was a bit like playtime but longer. You were just having a great time when the bell would ring again and you would have to go in and do more lessons. Being raised on a farm, sitting still all day was so hard!

The afternoons seemed really long and by the end of the day, we were all exhausted from sitting still all day. Sometimes late in the afternoon the teacher would read all the classes a book. We used to enjoy that so much, and we would tell the teacher the next day where he was up to so he might read us some more.

At 3.30 pm school was over and after a quick clean up around the classroom, we were all allowed to go home. We all used to try to break the land speed record to get home, so we were totally exhausted.

Then Mum would say, “What about your homework?”

“Homework?”

A Day in Year 3
at Comleroy Road Public School in 2005
by Tyler
I am in Year 3 at Comleroy Road Public School and it is July, 2005. I get up at 7.30 am and put on my school uniform. I watch TV while I eat my breakfast. Mum takes me to school by car - it only takes five minutes.

My favourite time at school is when our class visits the library. There are lots of books to read. Every Thursday morning my class does computer lessons. You can find lots of things using a computer.

At lunchtime I eat chicken nuggets from the canteen. Mum gives me money to buy some snacks.

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday we have fitness. We skip, run and do the health hussle. After recess we have maths and spelling.

At the end of school Mum picks me up. When I get home, I like to play games on my computer. If we have to do a special project for homework, we look it up on the internet.

In the afternoons I help feed the pets. We have chooks, birds, a horse, fish and a dog. After dinner Mum lets me watch some TV before bed.

That’s a day in my life!

These stories were part of an excellent historical display created by Jan Livingstone for the 125th Anniversary Celebrations of Comleroy Road Public School.
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