We had four houses and the idea was you got stars for good behaviour and black marks for bad and every term the winner would be announced in assembly.
Well truth be told I got my fair share of black marks and I didn’t get many stars either.
Little Teresa would have sold her granny for a star and I remember on one occasion her loudly saying in utter despair.
“How can we ever win with both Michael and James in the greens”
One term things were building up to an exciting climax and amazingly the greens were in the lead closely pursued by the reds, or maybe it was the blues.
Miss Ross had caught Michael and I fooling around with the powder paint and the stuff had gone everywhere.
She was really furious and gave us one black mark each.
Poor little Teresa was inconsolable
“Please Miss Ross don’t give them black marks, can’t you smack them instead” she wailed.
She was a cruel woman that Miss Ross, she knew how to hurt a boy.