“I was born in 1948 so this would have been in 1953 or there-abouts.”
I, too, was born in ‘48, and have the same memories. I also recall music classes where we had paper back books and sang hymns from them. We also learned the theme songs from the military branches; I still remember them. And we had “release time class” — “religious instruction”, where we could leave school early one day a week, and go to the church of our choice for a class there.
Yup ... I’m from Massachusetts ... left in ‘76 .... never looked back.