Just stumbled upon this site.......sounds like fun...

[Fjgrogan]

I also remember putting fruit flans out on the window sill. My other main memory of cookery lessons is of almost being sick into the pan whilst stirring lemon curd. There were only two things about school food which I really could not stomach - one was lemon curd (I forget the other!) My daughter Maria and I had the dubious honour of both being taught to cook by Miss Jukes - we still both have almost identical school cookery notebooks - and neither of us much enjoys cooking to this day! I can produce bakery - bread, cakes, biscuits - but have still not learned to co-ordinate meat and two veg so that they are all ready at the same time. In later years I used to claim that my other daughter Kirri was the only person in the house actually 'qualified' to cook - she did Food and Nutrition for GCSE at Horsham in a group of nine, five of whom were boys. (How very sexist of me to notice that!)

Oddly enough, I too nearly did Latin at A level. However there were only two of us interested, and during the summer holiday between UV and LVI the other person decided to be a scientist, so I was left alone. I had never really shone in Latin classes, but, having a photographic memory, used to swat up under the bedclothes for exams and then come top in exams with 90% +. Not surprisingly Miss Blench was not too keen on running a whole A level course just for me, and had the perfect excuse not to, in that for that particular term Miss West was on a sabbatical in America and Miss Blench was acting headmistress, so I was gently persuaded to choose another subject and opted for History with Miss Mercer - a choice I have never regretted. I also did French and German. The other possibility would have been English. Many many years later I chose to take A level English Lit, because I became aware that I knew a fair bit about the literature of France, Germany, Spain and Italy, but almost nothing about the lit of my own country. I still regret that I never had the chance to study the linguistic side of English, but if I had done so at school I would have missed out on Mercer!

Shalom
Frances

Shalom
Frances

[Angela Woodford]

There were only two things about school food which I really could not stomach - one was lemon curd (I forget the other!)

Miss Blench was acting headmistress

I've never met anybody with a horror of lemon curd! Whenever I've made it, it's been received with rapture and admiration - as if it's difficult to make! But sometimes - Tuesday, or was it Thursday? the school kitchens would produce a lemon curd tart. Thick stodgy pastry (bottom pricked with fork) spread with the most ghastly brilliant yellow "lemon curd". It had a completely weird flavour which fought with the accompanying tin jug custard. Hey, I'd forgotten all about that pudding! Occasionally it masqueraded as lemon meringue pie with some sort of powdered meringue substitute stickily plastered on top.

Have you any "Queenie as Headmistress" stories, Frances? Did she take over DR's office, and was she guarded in that lair by the gloomy surly Miss Gamble? Did she do a daily chapel attendance in DR's seat?

Imagine - a photographic memory! What a wonderful asset... To scan through "Kennedy" under the bedclothes, and to retain all the grammar!

[Fjgrogan]

So much for the photographic memory - I really don't remember anything about Queenie during her term as headmistress, beyond the fact that it let me out of doing Latin! Obviously the galloping senility is taking over! Some years ago I actually bought a second hand copy of Kennedy, but have hardly looked at it. What does anyone else feel about the CH habit of making us memorise things? Or was it only our particular generation? I can still spout tables such as 'amo, amas, amat ......' or 'der,die, das, die, den, die, das, die ....', also almost a whole chapter of Isaiah (prep set by DR), and I was once given a punishment by one of Sixes study to learn the first lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in translation 'When the sweet showers of April fall and shoot .............' . I recently astonished a quiz team by being able to instantly identify the 20th book of the Bible, because even prior to my time at CH I had learned the order of the books of the Bible for a test in the Campaigners - a bit like Brownies only green! I felt decidedly smug, because both the vicar and curate were on our team - it was a Churches Together in Surbiton event for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

On the subject of food - strangely I no longer dislike lemon curd; and we mustn't confuse lemon curd with the filling that went into Miss Jukes's lemon meringue pie - that was something totally different. I remember absolutely adoring school bread (always very fresh), porridge and scrambled eggs which were bulked out with bread. It is no wonder that I have had a problem with carbohydrates ever since, but presumably all that compulsory hockey counteracted the carbs in those days. I am one of those people who actually finds that Atkins worked for me, when I could be bothered to stick to it, which is exactly what I need to do right now because I am ashamed to say that I currently weigh 50% more than I did when I was 9 months pregnant!

[MKM]

In general I approve of the way we had to learn things by heart, at any rate the poetry, even though I found it difficult at the time. But I've recounted before how we had to learn the Carmen, word perfect, in our first year, before we'd even started Latin. I don't think that was right - 7 verses of gobblydegook!

One night a group of us in sixes got overexcited, and out of hand. I don't remember why. Miss Haughton called in DR, who brought us downstairs to the dayroom (it was late evening), sat us down, and instead of lecturing us, set us to learn Revelation chapter 21 ("And I John saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. ..."). OK, I've just looked it up, and it's not quite right, but it was nearly 40 years ago. I think this was one of DR's better moments - we were all ready for a big fight, and didn't get it, and learning by heart was surprisingly calming. It's a chapter worth memorising too. I wonder if she used the technique more than once.

On another occasion, a few of us were set a punishment of learning by heart the rsults of the Fathers vs School cricket match, as recorded on a board in the cloisters. It made quite a good chant.

I used to be able to recite the list of books in the New Testament - I learnt to do it at an Evangelical Free Church Sunday school, and was rewarded with a copy of the Bible, which I still have. I couuldn't do it now.

[Fjgrogan]

Learning by heart Reminds me of an expression of Mercer's on that subject. If you haven't learned anything by heart 'what do you have to pull on on a black Tuesday?' - very true!

[mvgrogan]

ok Mum, you lost me on that one....

Just been browsing again - compare & contrast and now this thread....

What would the current state schools establishment make of DR making a whole group of children learn bible passages by heart?

I have to admit in my day - relatively recent - only 20 something years ago - I don't remember having to learn chunks of the bible (or anything else for that matter) - as punishment, sedative or education! I don't think it's done my faith any harm at all!

I do remember learning other things by rote... "An Irish Airman foresees his death" (reading & recitation comp... later heard in Memphis Belle!! I stunned a few friends by joining!)...Latin: amo, amas, amat (which for our generation was skewed to adamo adamas adamat adamamus adamatis(?) ADAM ANT!!) and french - chanting "ai a as avon avez ont" - my spelling may be off but this was a chant, accompanied by the french teacher - name escapes me - banging on the desk with a wooden rule - same teacher always told us to underline that three times in red biro... Vonny - help me out here!

Of course I remember most of the communion service word for word but that was more about hearing or reciting it once a weeks for all those years, rather than learning it!

oh, and I never liked lemon curd in any form....

[Vonny]

the french teacher - name escapes me - banging on the desk with a wooden rule - same teacher always told us to underline that three times in red biro... Vonny - help me out here!

Mr Watson? I've mentioned him on here before - I was scared sh!tless of him!!
If it wasn't him then Miss/Mrs Pickard? Very small petite woman.

[mvgrogan]

Mr Watson it was!

I was never good enough to have Ms Pickard!

Thanks Vonny!

[Vonny]

I was never good enough to have Ms Pickard!

I was rubbish at French but I definitely had her teach me at some stage.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Ever since hearing that Einstein reputedly told people that the important thing was not to remember strings of facts, but to remember where to look things up when you need them, I have proclaimed that I too subscribe to this philosophy. However, I wonder whether my refusal to fill my head with not necessarily useful information is less to do with my struggling to remember where I have parked my car, than a reaction against compulsory rote learning. Which, I suspect, was not confined to CH, but more a product of teaching practices at the time.

On the other hand, I do love to stun/entertain people (or merely confirm their opinion of me as being slightly gaa gaa) with mnemonics (? spelling) - only uttered at appropriate moments, of course:

Repeat after me:

fiddly dee dum, fiddly dee dee, once round the moon is ..............................

Little babies bottoms crash nicely on floors

Every good boy deserves favour (was trying to remember what that refers to, other than the title of a Moody Blues album. Decided it had to be something to do with minor keys, as it didn't seem to fit any major pattern).

and one for Davebythesea and all our other nautical forumites

the wind it comes from where it blows, the current sets to where it goes (learnt that one long after leaving CH, while pregnant with #2 and studying for my Oceangoing Yachtmaster Cert).

Off to the shops to buy the book that has been chosen for Feb Book Group. If I can just remember which book we chose .....


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Fjgrogan]

Every good boy deserves favour = the lines on a musical stave - I think. I am not in any way musical!

[jhopgood]

Every good boy deserves favour = the lines on a musical stave - I think. I am not in any way musical!

Treble clef, which I always remember by the spaces, FACE, much easier.

Not much good for a Trombone player, although we were made to learn the tenor and treble clefs, as well as our normal bass clef.

[Fjgrogan]

Treble clef - of course! The only clef I ever really understood. My musical experience was very limited, in spite of CH. I originally taught myself to play the recorder - hence the treble clef. Later at CH I had piano lessons for one year only and discovered that my right hand was OK but could not read the left hand so well, so total lack of co-ordination; at the end of the year I gave up; my parents couldn't afford it anyway. However what CH did give me was a lifelong love of choral music, but again just as a spectator (or whatever the aural equivalent is - surely not auditor?!) because I never mastered the art of sight-reading, although I could learn music by heart.

[thamesmudandbarges]

Just read through this thread ( skimmed) and have a few corrections to add...

Munch, the Sylvester and the Morgan Twins were not the only twins in your time, but the only identical twins.
You can't possibly forget the Bonfanti twins who were both delightful but totally and utterly unalike. Susan has posted here in the past (can't remember her monika) and Anne ( who was always as good as gold and in our house...6s ) was expelled by DR for going to a Rolling Stones Concert in memory of Brian Jones in Hyde Park on Long Sat. ( without permission).

Miss Jukes did like to bwing us down a peg or two.I had come top in an exam set by her when she taught us Science for one term, so when I first started doing Cookery she was swift to spot my tendency to verge towards chaos regarding practical issues.
" Alexandwa " she said " You may be good at Science...but you can't even whisk an egg pwoperly ! ". I was quite devastated...but have turned out to be rather a good cook (though I say so myself ! )

As for "nice" teachers...I honestly think there were quite a few that suited me and seemed generally kindly. Miss Dawson ( art ), Mrs Topliss ( Latin or History ?) , Miss Mercer, Chemi T , Mrs Betterton , Miss Taverner ( who was actually lovely but Munch was disappointed in her for a personal reason I can't remember), Miss Cordery , Mr Mulholland and I'm sure others whom I can't remember.

Gotta go now. Like Caroline down-under I also work full time (teaching) and that's why I am often absent for long periods. I am also doing a post-grad. Diploma and learnt today that I passed the first part ( an exam !...it honestly is a miracle) but I've now got endless ghastly assignments to write.

So pleased to hear you are still playing Bridge, Mary. I think DR taught us both.Mary,could you please send me your email address ? tks.

Bye for now.

Ah! Mrs Topliss! That rings a bell! She had a daughter, Fiona, who was in eights for a while....

And...didn't they come from Sark?

[chaosriddenyears]

I've just stumbled upon this site as well - I actually meant to start on a translation but then decided to look up CH (got the newsletter a few days ago) and ended up here.
Miss Jukes was so convinced I would create havoc in the cookery school that she fixed me with her beady eye as soon as I came in the door for the first lesson and said "You will come HERE", which was at the cooker right under that beady eye. It was terrifying. In the end I wasn't the one who created havoc, it was Helen who couldn't get her oven to light but in her panic, forgot to turn the gas off. She called to Miss Jukes for help; there was a great boom and BJ went round for the next few weeks minus eyebrows. For some reason I wasn't there, something I have always regretted!

And what about Lenten Addresses? Every wednesday Jenny and I used to ask ourselves how we could possibly have been sinful enough to deserve these. And all through Lent we sang those really dreary responses in Chapel instead of the lovely ones that Miss Taverner composed. To say nothing of St.Patrick's Breastplate, which also fell to our lot in Lent.

Does anyone remember the "Naughty Seat" in chapel? It makes me giggle when I think of it; I seem to remember sitting in it myself but I can't remember why.