I have many fond memories of Thurlow school. As the majority of the pupils lived in Thurlow and the immediate neighbouring villages, quite a few of the pupils were related to me so the school had very much a family feel to it. The staff comprised: Mrs. Pearman, Mrs. Layton, Mr. Ager the head-master, Mrs. Grenville the music teacher, Mr. Salter the relief teacher, and Mrs. Fletcher the secretary.

When first attending the school we were taught in mathematics that number one was the first number, you then progress to two, and so on; so as children we found the class structure confusing since you began at class 3, worked your way up through class 2 and eventually finished up in class 1. I can remember asking Mrs. Pearman why this was so, and she replied, "It's just the way things are". I think I learnt a lot about life that day.

The blood flowed freely, I remember. There were many painful accidents in my time at the school such as Hayley Pamplin slicing her foot open on a pair of swimming goggles, Kelly Ward tearing open her lip on the back of one of the wooden chairs, and the classic of all accidents ­ Paul Felton's dramatic slip and dive head first into the fish tank. The class was awash with pints of water and blood, but the fish suffered the most, losing their home and their lives.

When I moved into class two there were a few changes to the staff. Mrs. Layton had to leave as she started suffering from a strange disease called pregnancy! She was replaced by a Mrs. Bailey. We also saw the introduction of helpers to the school, the first being Mrs. Jill Rodwell whose children also attended the school; she took us for swimming at the newly built pool and for reading.

I remember one incident that happened in November of 1975, when Mrs. Rodwell came bursting into the class, ran up to William and said, "William, your house is on fire and the smoke is all across the street". Chairs were then swept aside by a mass of excited kids all wanting to get a ghoulish glimpse of their class-mate's house being consumed by fire, leaving William collapsed in a sobbing heap at the table. In fact it was only a chimney fire, much to the great disgust of the rest of the class.