School Dinners

David Bush: No Talking


David was born in 1948 in Slough, Berkshire. After spending over two years in hospital and one year at home with a tutor, David was sent to a residential special school at the age of eight. He remained there until he was sixteen, when he attended a mainstream college.

Here David describes the school dining room and the ‘no talking’ rule.

  • David Bush
  • David Bush
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/no-talking.mp3

Transcript

The school dining room had a massive window, and we all had wooden benches, and there was a warden there, well in supervising table manners, and there were certain parts of the meal where you weren't allowed to speak, so you had to sit there in silence and eat your dinner and they used to ring the bell and say, 'You may now talk,' and so all these, children would suddenly start babbling away.

Explore more

Explore stories by theme or view the timeline of significant events in education for disabled people

A selection of other stories...