The intoxicating smell of the fresh purple ink from the Mimeograph machine, and the warmth of the paper if you were the lucky student selected to go the office to collect the copies.
Learning about vitamins and how to brush your teeth from TV Public Service Announcements.
Pretending not to stare at the boy who was just ‘caned’.
Doing star-jumps to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Da for early morning exercise.
Free dress days where everyone was wearing a Hypercolour t-shirt.
The never-ending lengths of computer paper with green lines and holes punched down the side, otherwise known as Continuous Form Paper.
Laughing at the teacher when they put the transparencies on the overhead projector back to front.
Carefully peeling a sticker off your worksheet so you could add it to your sticker collection at home.
Lining up with a hundred other kids with red and white skipping ropes for ‘Jump Rope for Heart’.
Getting your Bicentennial Memento for School Students coin.
Walking home by yourself in Year 1 and letting yourself in with a key left under a brick until your parents got home from work some hours later.
The excitement of having the TV being rolled into the classroom so you can watch an episode of BTN.
A love/hate relationship with Young Talent Time because it was awesome but it also signified it was Sunday evening, so… school tomorrow!
Spending 20c on a toffee at tuck shop and pulling a wobbly tooth out.
A bucket of sand or sawdust at the front of the classroom in case a kid vomited.
What are your favourite memories of being a school kid in the 80s?
Shannon Meyerkort
Shannon Meyerkort is a freelance writer and the author of "Brilliant Minds: 30 Dyslexic Heroes Who Changed our World", now available in all good bookstores.