Dodgy hygiene practices

[kerrensimmonds]

Very confusing! I'm glad I am not at school these days!

[englishangel]

It is quite straightforward in state schools, they just go from Reception through the years fro 1-13, though years 12 ands 13 are usually Lower and Upper sixth, with a separate common room and either no uniform or a different one to lower down the school.

[Katharine]

As has been said Senior Sixth was third year Sixth form, Oxbridge entrance. I left school the same school year as Kerren but at Christmas. There were just 6 of us (4 of us in 6s) who did Oxbridge that year and we were the first such group for ALL to leave at Christmas, even the Head Girl. Previous years the Head and most years the Deputy had stayed on until the Summer - I haven't a clue what they really did all the time!!!

[Alexandra Thrift]

This is a reply to Liz Plummer ( Jay).......I remember the "alpha" stream.
I think there were mysteriously too many of us in that year.This could have
been because Years One and Two had been phased out and those girls had joined the normal intake in the third year.....people like Mary Lyon,Jane Stephens,Sue Boggett, Fiona Topliss, Judy Furnival and others who had joined the school aged nine or ten years.......

I suppose to make up the school numbers after losing two forms, they admitted more into the third form in 1965 ( does that make sense ???).

Anyhow I remember you being in the alpha stream ,although you came into the "A" stream for English as you, Liz , were the very,very best at that subject.You must have because I distinctly remember us BOTH writing our autobiographies ( illustrated) for Mrs Betterton....and yours being fantastic and with highly amusing anecdotes about your Dad trying feel some semblance of control over his FOUR beautiful and talented daughters.There was something of Pride and Prejudice ( now let me see, Judith,Elisabeth,Elinor and Susan) about it all and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him somehow !!! Why were you ,Liz, the only one to get "sent away" to boarding school ??

Also I went to the alpha stream for Maths which actually helped me a lot as I couldn't keep up with the likes of Mary genius Mc Donagh and the others (Englishangel no doubt !) in the A stream.

Mulholland and his eyebrows taught both of us maths.He was everlastingly patient while we treated him gigglingly cruelly, and he was actually a good and very kind teacher.I'm sure I have him to thank for passing GCE O level.Despite his endless detailed explanations I never could get the hang of "Calculus" and all those "dx" es and "dy"s, but I memorised the formulae Polly Parrot fashion and somehow got through.

Imagine that in those days we had to answer a CALCULUS question for GCE "O" level.., I don't even know if they do it for "A" level these days !

Hope you drop by and read this Liz Best wishes to all.

(Please read my other post on the singing thread....as I am trying to track down the Benj. Britten CH CD.........and am ready to get Carols from CH 1967 copied for those who would like it. My friend Chris has copied it onto DVD. )

[Katharine]

Imagine that in those days we had to answer a CALCULUS question for GCE "O" level.., I don't even know if they do it for "A" level these days !

I well remember my introduction to Calculus beofre O level, we were so badly taught I couldn't see any point to it, and vowed I would never ever answer an exam question on the subject! After O levels when I had Joy Holmes teaching me, I was soon able to appreciate its power and beauty. What a difference a teacher can make! (I had to forego my earlier vow!)

[kerrensimmonds]

I'm going to stay with Joy next month, Katharine. I will tell her about your comment. She must have had a good teacher too (.....at CH Hertford in the 1950's...)

[englishangel]

I seem to remember doing calculus for my entrance exam ?? then not doing it again until I did additional Maths for O level, yes Alex I could do maths.

I think our year was a 'bulge' because Katharine's had been a bulge if you read one of her posts from last week.

In 2's we had 8 in the third form in 65-66. By the time we got to Upper Sixth there were two of us left, Jane Erskine and myself.

Incidentally a tfurnivall is the latest member of the forum, I have pm'd him to ask idf he is Judy's brother.

I emailed Judy on FRU but she didn't reply. A social worker in Scotland according to her notes on there.

[Liz Jay]

[quote="Alexandra Thrift
I distinctly remember us BOTH writing our autobiographies ( illustrated) for Mrs Betterton....and yours being fantastic and with highly amusing anecdotes about your Dad trying feel some semblance of control over his FOUR beautiful and talented daughters.There was something of Pride and Prejudice ( now let me see, Judith,Elisabeth,Elinor and Susan) about it all and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him somehow !!! Why were you ,Liz, the only one to get "sent away" to boarding school ??

Gosh Alex

I can very dimly remember writing that autobiography, but what do you mean by "illustrated"? I'm blowed if I can remember.

Please don't feel sorry for my Dad, he wasn't that nice....
When he and my Mum moved to Germany to start a new life, taking their two youngest and prettiest daughters with them, it was conveniently AFTER I had been shuffled off to boarding school and Judith farmed out with friends in England as a paying guest while she completed her "A" levels.
I was conned! - by being fed on Mallory Towers propaganda and assured there would be ponies galore at my new school.
I hated being parted from younger sister Lin (Elinor) with whom I was very close, part of the con was the line that she would be joining me before too long, I eventually twigged that wasn't going to happen, and made an enormous fuss (luckily my mum took my side) and prevailed upon my parents to let me leave CH and become a part of their new fun lifestyle in Germany.
My Dad took it badly, he was a dreadful snob and LOVED the image of daughter away at posh boarding school. He never let up on the subject of me "throwing away my chances" and was never mollified even when I became permanently top of the class and gained a fistful of "O"and "A" levels.
It was years before I realised that trying to earn his approval was an impossible task. I'm sure that his attitude to his daughters accounts for the self-esteem problems I and all my sisters faced later in life. It's lucky we ended up as normal as we have, we should be all laid in gutters drinking meths!!!!!!!

My Dad took over my Maths tuition, I blame the long sessions (sometimes past midnight) of him yelling at me, for my now permanent Maths phobia!
Mr Mulholland must have given me a good grounding though as I did pass Maths. No-one was more surprised than me!

[Katharine]

I'm going to stay with Joy next month, Katharine. I will tell her about your comment. She must have had a good teacher too (.....at CH Hertford in the 1950's...)

I only had Joy as a teacher in the VI form when she was excellent. She was part of the reason I became a Maths teacher and developed a lifelong love of the subject - previously it had been something I could do well but ....
My Applied Maths teacher was a totally different kettle of fish - can't even remember the woman's name. I think she was straight out of training and to be given a LVI of two very bright Oxbridge bound girls was quite daunting for her!

I put in a thread last year, that my husband (John) had met Joy in Nigeria just after she had left CH. They both went in a group to Ghana one Christmas holiday. I only discovered this last year, after 35 years of marriage!

[kerrensimmonds]

Hi Katharine.
I will mention that (connection) with your husband when I go to Scotland next month, as well. I remeber Joy being tied up in knots by a mathematical genius (Mary Dellor)when I was in the Third or Lower Fourth forms (and not being mathematically enclined myself I had no idea what was going on) . They BOTH remember the occasion - but I think that at the end of the day, Joy was vindicated!
Kerren

[Jude]

[
Please don't feel sorry for my Dad, he wasn't that nice....
When he and my Mum moved to Germany to start a new life, taking their two youngest and prettiest daughters with them, it was conveniently AFTER I had been shuffled off to boarding school and Judith farmed out with friends in England as a paying guest while she completed her "A" levels.

I was conned! - by being fed on Mallory Towers propaganda and assured there would be ponies galore at my new school.
I hated being parted from younger sister Lin (Elinor) with whom I was very close, part of the con was the line that she would be joining me before too long, I eventually twigged that wasn't going to happen, and made an enormous fuss (luckily my mum took my side) and prevailed upon my parents to let me leave CH and become a part of their new fun lifestyle in Germany.
My Dad took it badly, he was a dreadful snob and LOVED the image of daughter away at posh boarding school. He never let up on the subject of me "throwing away my chances" and was never mollified even when I became permanently top of the class and gained a fistful of "O"and "A" levels.
It was years before I realised that trying to earn his approval was an impossible task. I'm sure that his attitude to his daughters accounts for the self-esteem problems I and all my sisters faced later in life. It's lucky we ended up as normal as we have, we should be all laid in gutters drinking meths!!!!!!!

I know the feeling - my father wanted boys - and in his 2nd marriage got 2, however I was a problem so took the exam entrance to several Schools early - I got in to all of them (at the time I was top of the class in Maths English and Geography etc.... goodness knows what happened!) But Ch said I was too young as did the Sussex Council - how I wish I had been allowed to go then instead of doing it all again the following year. It mattered not what I achieved I could never please my father - and until recently only found out that they had told the boys I was at boarding school as I was not only a danger to them, but it cost too much for them to go too...It is another grudge held aginst me by my eldest stepbrother and my step-mother. I know what fees they paid - and they were even in those days - peanuts. Such is life and boarding schools and parents!

[EvilAkela]

I think that in 1982 when I changed schools to go to a grammar school, it was unusual to have done calculus for O level.
I had Mr Mulholland in the alpha Maths group. I think they only split maths into 3 groups, as I was in the A stream for everything else. Although being the bottom of the A stream was depressing as you knew that the top of the B stream was better than you. I did do German rather than Latin, and when I was struggling with languages I was told I would have to give up German rather than French, and I could only do Cookery for O level if I was in the B stream. I ended up doing Art, and I still failed French O level.

[sejintenej]

I still failed French O level.

Heather; don't worry about that!
My mother's employer inspected my O level French exam paper and pronounced that it was so hard that he wondered whether he could do it.
Fair enough except that he was brought up for 13 years in France (couldn't speak proper English then) and was seconded to General de Gaulle's staff during WW!! His French in about 1958 was still fluent: O level was hard!!!

[EvilAkela]

I think my problem is my dyslexia, which has got worse as I have got older and is certainly bad in the evening.
I don't 'hear' what is being said, so I could never do dictee or oral work, but was fine on translation; but the rules were that you had to get over a certain number of marks for the oral to pass the O level. I still have problems when people spell out words or say phone numbers quickly, as I can't visualise what they are saying.

[Angela Woodford]

I just had to share this effort from today's Grauniad:

"Over the years, advertisers of sanitary protection have tried, repeatedly, to convince us that a woman's period is a glorious time. A hallowed time. A time to ice skate, bungee jump and rollerblade. A time to leak blue liquid and listen to soft rock. And a time when we feel compelled to wear our tightest, whitest shorts."

"Dodgy Hygiene Practices" seemed the only place.