Sheffield retro: 13 things you'll only remember if you went to school in the 70s, 80s and 90s

We do – and that’s why we have put together a picture gallery to take you back to those days, with a collection of archive photos, and pictures of items that all who were in the city's schools in those days will warmly remember, including those Sheffield Council exercise books and certificates we were all given.

There were no interactive white boards, like youngsters get in today’s classrooms. Instead, the teachers had to manage with a blackboard, with the more sophisticated ones having a long roll of rubber ‘board’, attached to rollers at the top and bottom, allowing them to move parts of the board up and over the top.

The smell of chalk permeated the air, and there was always one youngster who would bash the ‘board rubber’ against a desk to create a choking cloud of smoke before the teacher came in.

If you were lucky, you may have been shown something on an overhead projector, shining words or pictures onto a screen, or just a wall, for the children to see. And even photocopying was rare. If anything was given as a handout, it was normally done on a banda machine, a hand operated copier that produced worksheets for the class with their own distinctive smell. Later, a video recorder was sometimes brought into classrooms, pushed in on a trolley.

No one had to have their mobile phone switched off. They were years away. If you needed to call home, you had to put a coin operated phone, dropping the coin in when someone answered, or get the school office to call if it was really important.

We’ve also found pictures of school dinners, bringing back memories of the pastel coloured plates, and the items on the menu, like the jellies in square white pots.

Have a look through the 13 pictures in the gallery below. If you have any pictures from your school days you’d like to see in The Star, email [email protected]