The Villa Belamonte (a private house) prior to becoming Ryebank Preparatory School - it still had the cannon outside the door when I went there.
In those days you didn't start school until the age of five but because I was going to a Prep. School I was allowed to start at the age of four, in January 1954. After a few weeks it was realised that I had learned enough at home to be in with the five year olds so I was moved up from Kindergarten to Miss Dowling's class. That meant I had missed the first term and a couple of weeks more and I remember having a dictation that included a comma and I just wrote 'comer' because I didn't know what a comma was.
Being a year ahead of myself also meant that I took my 11 plus at the age of ten and was still ten when I started at the Holt. That backfired on me but that's a tale for the sixties…
