Reminiscing about old school reports and photos

I love reminiscing, looking back at old family photos. N had a history family tree project, and that meant I got to dig out all the old albums and bags of random photos I inherited. Which bizarrely included my old school reports. Cue some comedy.

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Old photos

The photos were interesting as usual. I’m just sad my own childhood photo album disappeared in the moving it from my mum’s house to ours. I’m gutted about that. But we’ve got all the old photos from my mum’s and my grandparent’s time living abroad, with my grandad being a mechanic in the air force.

N was interested to see some of them. A totally different life for my grandparents who were working class people – living abroad in Jordan, Cyprus and Singapore, meant having a maid.. And seeing old school and Brownie or guide photos were so different to how the same situations were in my school days.

My grandad’s photos are the best historically. There are photos from his forces days – in the desert with King Hussein of Jordan meeting them. In Antarctica, And photos of General Montgomery and another of Winston Churchill.

Old school reports

Looking back found some funny school reports. And quite cheeky ones for me given I was really shy and quiet at school. 

I was a bit of a swot as well, a ‘square’ as we would have said back then. 

I didn’t like writing reports every year though. We had to comment on how we thought out year had gone, and I thought it was a waste of time. I actually wrote that on my reports. (I feel like that nowadays whenever we have to get round to doing our objectives and personal development plans for work!).  I’m surprised I didn’t get marked down for insolence.

Instead my tutor commented back that it was important to spend time reflecting on our performance as it would help prepare for the future and understand our weaknesses and strengths. She also said I should find other words for boring, but I couldn’t even find that in my comments. 

She was a little odd – when our careers quiz results said I should become a postal worker or sewing machinist, she told me maybe I was aiming too high in planning to go to university. This despite me being in the top handful of children in all my classes except science. She really had no idea what made teenagers tick.

I also commented that I hated when others in the class messed around. Sounds about right, I’d feel the same nowadays too. 

I’m surprised I said anything because rarely would I rock the boat at school. It was obviously the start of me being opinionated and having something to say.  Not just one year but several years running.  

It’s not the same with secondary school reports nowadays.  Just a table stating pathway level, currently working at level, and then a level for behaviour, engagement and homework where relevant. 

For end of year, there were also comments from the teachers on the year’s work, and tips for improvement going into next year.  But the children don’t seem to have to comment on them. A relief for them although they do write comments on their learning objectives following doing work.

Hopefully I’ll track down some other old pictures and reports so I can have some more laughs.

Do you enjoy reminiscing over old photos and reports or school work?