"ALL GIRLS TOGETHER"

[englishangel]

I remember the payphone being put in, but it din't really help me, we didn't have a phone at home, in fact my parents didn't get one until the summer I got married.

Now people don't have them because (nearly) everyone has a mobile.

[fra828]

We didn't have a phone at home either, my gran who lived in the flat upstairs did and I tried to time my calls for about the same time on a Friday eve, when my mum and possibly dad would be there. Not every week tho, 10p was worth something in those days and at school we didn't have even small amounts available did we?

[kerrensimmonds]

Just another indication of how times have changed, and I wish that people would stop judging things as they happened to us in the 1950's and 60's (or even 70's) by today's standards. We DID have a telephone at home while I was at school, but it was associated with and forwarded from my father's workplace. And I now know that DRW used it to summon my parents when things were clearly not right for me at school (I've talked about this on another thread). However, things came home to me in a big way when on an Old Blues Day, not so many years ago, there was a choir practice for the Chapel Evensong. Old Blues turned up on time and got into their places. The school members rushed in individually, scruffy, all dressed differently, one by one, and took their places - and then I realised that each one was taking a mobile phone from their pocket, turning it off, and placing it on the ledge in front of them. Wow, I thought! Things were'nt like that in my day.....

[englishangel]

Thank goodness

[olefours]

I've a copy of this novel - actually it's more like a thinly disguised autobiography - written by the late Dr. Paula Neuss. She was in 2s, a contemporary of mine. Frighteningly intelligent
& articulate but a friendly girl. She wrote amazing poetry. I recognised Mrs. Winston(e?) in the novel, as well as DR, and dear Miss Cleobury who was so kind. Does anyone else remember her? I believe she married & had 3 children, but in later life got Alzheimer's. A rotten twist of fate.

I've just received a copy of this book, via Amazon, and can't wait to start reading. The art-mistress has a double-barrelled name, I notice. Dear Miss Keppel-Barratt - she was so sweet and gentle, but as the Art School was one of the few places we dared to be naughty, some of us were.

[Angela Pratt 56-63]

Another 8's at last, Annie!
I do remember you, and have just sat and read all the comments on this topic. I know everyone reacts to things differently and find it very sad to read that so many people were so unhappy at CH, a fact I was completely unaware of during my time there, tho' of course people had bad times. I must have been very naive or very insensitive to others feelings. Yes we all moaned about staff, food, rules etc but generally felt that to be only 40-50 years behind the times over 400 years was not too bad!
I'm sorry but I loved it at CH -am I that rare? It was very like my mothers stories of school though hers was a day school. Anyway things were so chaotic at home that the structure and order at CH seemed wonderful. - well most of the time. All 7 0f us - all at CH but at different times - did well academically and I'm sure we would never have managed to get any work done at home sharing bedrooms, looking after younger brothers and sisters etc. So I certainly wasn't used to any privacy. The first week of the holidays it was lovely to see everyone again. the second week the squabbles started , the third week was full of "I shall be glad when I'm back at school! "Don't get me wrong, I love my brothers and sisters very much (We still all get together regularly -35 of us at the last count!) but we were very different emotionally, and reacted very differently to CH, both Hertford and Horsham. I was glad to be on my own ( my sisters were Nos 6 &7, I was No 2), I wonder how I would have enjoyed it if we were all on one site...
Anyway it has been so good to read all the talk of staff and customs that I knew.
Angela
(Pratt 1s and 8s 56-63)

[anniexf]

[quote "olefours"]
I've just received a copy of this book, via Amazon, and can't wait to start reading [quote]

I hope this book isn't upsetting you, Sally; remember it's the product of a very troubled mind. You can see Paula was still haunted even after so many years - rather like us?

[kerrensimmonds]

I've just bought a copy on Amazon, too (about five times more expensive than the cover price!). I read it many years ago but decided I wanted to re-read it in the light of the discussions on this Forum.

[anniexf]

Angela Pratt 56-63 Another 8's at last, Annie!

Hi, Angela, it's good to hear from you. I think I remember you! Don't apologise for having loved CH, we need someone else to redress the balance, poor Kerren has been fighting a rearguard action virtually alone! I think DR chose her allies well - do you remember Marie? I'm sure you will, everyone adored her. She became DR's Mon. I believe, then after Cambridge married an Old Blue. She'd told me how she hated the school but she named her first child Ruth, and sent all 3 to CH! She did pull the youngest out after a while when it was clear CH wasn't suitable. But I recall thinking she must have had a spectacular conversion of Damascus road proportions!
Anyway, I wonder where all the other 8s from our era have gone? Perhaps one or two may yet turn up, who knows?

[kerrensimmonds]

Funnily enough, I was not an ally of DR's while at school (apart from having a talent for cricket). I was scared stiff of her, and so were my parents, especially my father! I got to know her later in life, and found a totally different person - this gave me a better perspective on how and why she had been as she was, while I was at school. I meant to answer your post last night, Angela... to say it was good to hear from you again, and to have met you last year. Hope you are well.

[anniexf]

In the 80s DR used to head an Appeals Tribunal at which dissatisfied DHSS claimants had their cases heard. Where the appeal was against the refusal of a discretionary grant for an item, they usually lost. I was surprised DR didn't get a gong for Savings to the Public Purse!

[Kim2s70-77]

I would like to say that, other than some tough times that were discussed in the 'Housemistresses' thread, and the fact that my last term at CH was a disaster, I too loved being at CH. I needed the stability and structure (especially with traumatic events going on at home) and was utterly lost for many years after I left. I did have nightmares and little self confidence, and have always had a tendency towards depression - but I loved the school in spite of it all. Any negatives are seen from a position of hindsight. I was lonely at times and would have benefitted from more loving adults - but there were always very kindly souls among the girls. I was proud to have been a pupil - and still am.

[kerrensimmonds]

Good on you, Kim. I think many of us would resonate with that. 40+ years on, most of my close friends are those with whom I was at school in the Lower and Upper Sixth. My very 'best' friend is someone who I met in 5's on my very first day in September 1957. We are still as close as anything, and I value that above everything.
There were elements which we hated at the time when we were at school, but if we had been elsewhere then, who knows if we would have been any happier? And at the end of the day we at CH were (I think) privileged to have access to an education which was not really equalled in the 'outside world' - even if some of us as individuals made a mess of it at the time.
I did not really appreciate the opportunities which had been given to me at CH until several years later, when I had funked the higher education into which I had been proud to go after school. The outside world proved too much for me, and then I found that I had to make the most of my life, as best I could. I am just so fortunate that, in those days, employment opportunities were available and these enabled me subsequently to forge a career which has ended up in Quality Assurance in Higher Education. I still find it bemusing that I am regarded by my colleagues as the guru when it comes to Regulations and entitlement to Degrees, etc. - when I myself do not hold a degree level qualification!

[Jo]

Well, this might look like a complete volte-face but it's not - I wasn't actually unhappy at school. If I had been, my parents would have taken me away - they offered a number of times and I refused. There were ups and downs - small pleasures became surprisingly important - and I particularly remember enjoying the Fourth Year, as I dropped subjects I was less good at and started on my O Level syllabus. By that time I'd ceased being so desperately homesick, we had a reasonable housemistress, and I'd settled in (it only took four years ). By the 6th form I was still enjoying the work but getting increasingly frustrated by the petty rules, and I remember the last few months as an interminable stretch to freedom and adulthood.

I think it was with hindsight that the rot really set in, when I realised how unsocialised I was (you made a few close friends in the early days and then didn't meet anyone new - we didn't mix with other schools/clubs, etc), how little self-discipline I had because all the discipline was done for us, and so on. I don't think CH in those days really equipped us to go out and function in the outside world as adults. But enough complaining - as I have said before, I am coming to terms with it now and feel much more positive about CH in the past few years.

[Katharine]

Another one here who wasn't unhappy at school. I think I was very accepting of whatever life threw at me, I couldn't change it so I might as well accept it and get on with life. Yes, the Hag regularly made life h*ll but then we also laughed at her behind her back. I enjoyed my time in Guides, and achieving Queen's Guide, similarly with DofE getting Gold. I thoroughly enjoyed two of my three A levels and found Joy Holmes' teaching inspirational. I have no memory of being scared stiff of DR or anyone else on the staff - more likely of the VI form when I was a junior!