Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

in the spring before we started we got sent a little yellow booklet of school rules, some of them absolutely hilarious. i got it sent in 1996, and it was the 1993 (or possibly 1992) edition. when i got there i found that most of the rules no longer applied. grrrrreat.

michael scuffil wrote:

englishangel wrote:

J.R. wrote:What was 'lynching' with respect to CH ?

Doesn't ring any bells with me !

Irony goes right over JRs head doesn't it?

No, it's his memory going. These lynchings were quite spectacular occasions. The victim would be hung, drawn and quartered, and then ceremonially roasted on Lamb Asphalt in front of the Manual School. (This would take place during a Staff Meeting). It was generally reckoned that a tender junior would feed about 15, so he would be served up at house captains' high tea. (But JR was never a house captain, maybe that's why it slipped his memory.)

Quite correct - I was the original rebel WITH a cause !

A. Hitler Esq., had more chance of becoming a curator of a Holocaust museum !

MIchael, your last post was a cracker &, to date at least, has made my Christmas.

As Eurorest (Spelling?? It's on the previous page..) points out there are "codes" now - of conduct, anti-bullying & ICT - as well as an alcohol & drug abuse policy. Note that it's not an anti drug & alcohol policy...

The bit I like best is:

"Further detailed regulations regulations on many matters from bedtimes to nail varnish are posted in Houses & on the school intranet. It is not possible nor desirable to seek to cover every situation in a comprehensive Rule Book. It is no defence to say something has not been ruled out so it must be acceptable!

If something is sensible & courteous, then it is unlikely to be wrong; behaviour which is inconsiderate, dangerous or bad-mannered is invariably wrong"

So there!

Michael had me ROFL and I agree with huggermugger, credit the young people with some common sense and they will apply it.

I never gave curfews because they would just be broken but I always insisted on knowing where someone was and when they would be home, even if it was "I'll be home aroung 2", or "I'm staying over". I have also always slept with my mobile phone under my pillow, and I have, on occasion (the most recent being last Friday) been called at a very unsocial hour to collect someone, but my trust has never been abused. I hope you are all as fortunate.

michael scuffil wrote:

englishangel wrote:

J.R. wrote:What was 'lynching' with respect to CH ?

Doesn't ring any bells with me !

Irony goes right over JRs head doesn't it?

No, it's his memory going. These lynchings were quite spectacular occasions. The victim would be hung, drawn and quartered, and then ceremonially roasted on Lamb Asphalt in front of the Manual School. (This would take place during a Staff Meeting). It was generally reckoned that a tender junior would feed about 15, so he would be served up at house captains' high tea. (But JR was never a house captain, maybe that's why it slipped his memory.)

If we were to vote for Post of The Year this would be right up there!

Classic.

I don't remember ever seeing any written school rules at Hertford. It was always "it's against the rules if someone in authority simply didn't wany you to do something. I bet it was never in the rules to leave a note for a boy behind a loose brick, but in one of my junior years a senior got expelled for it!
Maggie

huggermugger wrote:MIchael, your last post was a cracker &, to date at least, has made my Christmas.

As Eurorest (Spelling?? It's on the previous page..) points out there are "codes" now - of conduct, anti-bullying & ICT - as well as an alcohol & drug abuse policy. Note that it's not an anti drug & alcohol policy...

The bit I like best is:

"Further detailed regulations regulations on many matters from bedtimes to nail varnish are posted in Houses & on the school intranet. It is not possible nor desirable to seek to cover every situation in a comprehensive Rule Book. It is no defence to say something has not been ruled out so it must be acceptable!

If something is sensible & courteous, then it is unlikely to be wrong; behaviour which is inconsiderate, dangerous or bad-mannered is invariably wrong"

So there!

And of course, the annoying thing is that there are no such details except on the most mundane matters which people already know. So actually, it's not officially wrong to walk across quad!

Hendrik wrote:in the spring before we started we got sent a little yellow booklet of school rules, some of them absolutely hilarious. i got it sent in 1996, and it was the 1993 (or possibly 1992) edition. when i got there i found that most of the rules no longer applied. grrrrreat.

I think the edition was actually 1991. The reason I remember it so clearly is because that year, for the house singing competition "harmony" number, we in Lamb A sang a selection of these school rules to Anglican Chant as a quartet - IIRC it was myself, Guy Wilkes, Adam Holladay and Joe Chacko (hilariously singing soprano in falsetto). I particularly enjoyed section D, Prohibitions. I seem to remember "joss sticks" getting quite a laugh.

Of course we had to make up the "Gloria", or rather I think Adam Holladay did, but it went something like:

"Glory be to the Headmaster, and / to the / SMT: And to / all the / almoners and /governors.
As it was in 1902, is now, but probably /won't be . for much / longer: One school without end. A / - / men."

I do remember some stony faces from the back of Big School at this point. But then, it was their fault, wasn't it? I mean, what do they expect to happen in a school where choral music plays a significant role, when they bring out a book of school rules that looks just like a psalter?

midget wrote:I don't remember ever seeing any written school rules at Hertford. It was always "it's against the rules if someone in authority simply didn't wany you to do something.

There were written rules when I was there, 6 closely typed pages if I remember. Jane Hayward caught Lindsay Morton and me in the shrubbery one evening and told us to write out the rules as a punishment. She seemed quite surprised when we dutifully took our sheafs of paper along to her; I don't think she really expected us to do it.

Anyway, one of the rules was that the shrubbery was out of bounds, but I think there were also rules about how many jams and how much tuck we could bring from home, and when we could have them. Oh, and no putting hands in pockets, or you had to stitch them up, and if you wore a blazer/coat it had to be done up. And how many people you could write letters to on a Sunday. Lots of really important stuff like that I don't remember anything about boys - I guess they thought some things just went without saying