"Screw Kick!"

Share your memories and stories from the Hertford Christ's Hospital School, which closed in 1985, when the two schools integrated to the Horsham site....

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sejintenej
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Post by sejintenej »

englishangel wrote:Don't worry Kay, I am 5'7" and I am 'mini-mum ' too. What do we feed them?

At a family funeral on Tuesday my three and their 2 cousins had an average height of 6' and an average BMI of about 18. Their parents average height is 5'8" with an average BMI of 28.
You sound like a near giant; SWMBO is 5'2" and used to tell Robert "Sit down so that I can hit you" - he did! He was 6'3" whilst my son in law is 6'4" - married to a girl of 5'4".
BTW, our grand daughter of 12 was taller than my wife!

I put it down to all the drugs (so-called vitamins) and chemicals (fluorine for example) they load into the food we eat
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I'm 5'6" , and the whole family, including enormous offspring, call me " La Naine " ( the dwarf...)!

6'2" son once hung the bathroom cabinet in one of our removals, and had to be told to rehang it as I could not see into the mirror.... enormous laughs all round as he, his sister and father could all see themselves perfectly :x
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J.R.
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Post by J.R. »

Euterpe13 wrote:I'm 5'6" , and the whole family, including enormous offspring, call me " La Naine " ( the dwarf...)!

6'2" son once hung the bathroom cabinet in one of our removals, and had to be told to rehang it as I could not see into the mirror.... enormous laughs all round as he, his sister and father could all see themselves perfectly :x
Thats happened to us !

Jan is 5 foot and a little bit and I'm 6ft-2" as some of you know !
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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Post by EvilAkela »

For some reason I ended up as Miss Gravett's messenger. Ones had to do this, one person in maybe 4th or 5th year, and those who played an instrument or played in a school team were let off - I seem to think there was a problem the following year as everyone did one or the other.
I was allowed to leave breakfast early to fetch the list and then rush off to catch people as they came out of breakfast to go and see her.
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The Hertford swimming pool was unheated and we could only use it in Summer, thank goodness-it was freezing whatever the weather!! I love swimming now, but at school I often tried to get out of it. Nellie Norman - Edwina Currie lookalike- only ever gave me a 'stripe' (?) for breaststroke style. And similarly for games I got my longjump 'standard' and that was about all! I did like tennis, and though I say it myself was quite good. Was disappointed not to get in the school team. Did get the feeling that was because I wasn't good at other games. :?
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Post by Vonny »

fra828 wrote:I love swimming now, but at school I often tried to get out of it.
Me too - we had Gravvy & she could be quite scary! I remember one term being told that Gravvy wouldn't be teaching us for the whole of that term & we would have Miss Clarrycoats. I was delighted! She was far more of a pushover than Gravvy ever was! :lol:
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fra828
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I remember Miss Gravett, Gravvy (I don't think we called her by that nickname then) when she first started, early 70's ,striding across the cricket pitch, she had a kind of peroxide blonde female Rod Stewart haircut at that time! I think she was ok for those who were VERY sporty, otherwise, as you said Vonny, a scary figure! She was very different from Miss (Nellie) Norman who must have been senior PE teacher then- she was more 'old-school' type of mistress, though probably only in her 30s. You couldn't get away with much with Nellie either!
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Post by Vonny »

fra828 wrote:I think she was ok for those who were VERY sporty, otherwise, as you said Vonny, a scary figure!
That's exactly right! I WAS very sporty but not that good at swimming. She loved me when I was playing rounders, tennis, hockey, athletics etc etc but she was a different person when we had swimming :lol:
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Post by fra828 »

Off topic a bit, but does anyone else remember Nellie teaching them Geography in second and third years?
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Post by Jo »

Yes, I do. Not sure about third year, but certainly in my second year (which I repeated so I had the same thing twice over). South America, Australia/NZ, and Africa.

"What's alfalfa, Lower Four Alpha?" in her inimitable accent is probably apocryphal but I like to imagine that she did actually say it :lol: :lol:
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Post by Angela Woodford »

Ditto her pronunciation of Hawaii as "Haye - why".

I never heard this myself, but - let it be true!
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Jo wrote:Yes, I do. Not sure about third year, but certainly in my second year (which I repeated so I had the same thing twice over). South America, Australia/NZ, and Africa.

"What's alfalfa, Lower Four Alpha?" in her inimitable accent is probably apocryphal but I like to imagine that she did actually say it :lol: :lol:
Inimitable accent is so right! Can't place it regionally-maybe Brummie with a definite twist :lol:
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And I remember the sentence we learnt to remember the Great Lakes: some men hate each other. And the capitals of South American countries- they come to me automatically sometimes when they come up on tv quiz programmes. I definitly preferred Nellie for Geography than for PE!
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Post by Angela Woodford »

I still remember the exercises we did with Nellie - I can still do them - they needed suppleness and strength! Nellie, at the front of the gym, demonstrated with a firm-muscled determination. Despite being the school fattie, I could do her shoulder roll on the gym mat, but climbing up a rope, no..o...ooo!

I can see the gym layout now - the "horses" ready to be dragged out, and the ropes hooked to the wall side where the bars were. Mats piled up, and the weird smell of the place.
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Post by fra828 »

Angela Woodford wrote:
I can see the gym layout now - the "horses" ready to be dragged out, and the ropes hooked to the wall side where the bars were. Mats piled up, and the weird smell of the place.
.
When I used to go to aerobics classes a few years ago, there were the mats piled up there also, CH- like! I never liked vaulting, or trying to vault!- :lol: over the 'horses' or climbing ropes and bars either. Am trying to remember if there were any other PE teachers as well as Nellie in the late 60's; I think Miss Gravett started in the early 70's didn't she?
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