With all the technology that is around us it is easy to forget that when I started at school aged five we did still use little black slates for some of the work, we did have coloured sticks to help us learn to count and I have more than glanced in the direction of an abacus. Nowadays all you have to do is scan and send your recent graduation photo to your 22 year old son and suddenly you are starring in a short feature film on the internet…..Watch this!
Phyllis Stephen blogs 
That’s very cool. However, I can absolutely confirm that slates were not used, though coloured sticks were.
Ah yes but I started off at a different school before I learned arithmetic with you & Mrs Bruce Jim!