Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

This question may seem naive to some, but please bear with a Hertford Old Girl confused by today's school uniform details.

I received my copy of Housey! today and looked at the photo on the front showing last year's Oxbridge entrants. It is obvious, to me, that all the boys have their Buttons. I am not so sure about the girls - particularly the two at the front right. Are Buttons awarded for academic excellence? How often are they awarded? Does an Oxbridge place mean academic excellence nowadays? Does a girl Button Grecian have the buttons on her dress uniform as well as her everyday one?

Great to read that at long last there will be equal numbers of girls by 2008 - not before time in my opinion!

I must admit I too thought the two girls on the right didn't have their buttons which I thought a bit odd considering they were Oxbridge candidates

Certainly when I was at Horsham buttons were awarded for academic excellence. They were also awarded to school monitors.

Vonny wrote:Certainly when I was at Horsham buttons were awarded for academic excellence. They were also awarded to school monitors.

Thats still the case - academic buttons are awarded at various points throughout the year.

Katharine wrote:Great to read that at long last there will be equal numbers of girls by 2008 - not before time in my opinion!

It will have only taken 23 years.

But the 'fairer sex' do seem to have had their share of Senior Grecians, or is that just in high profile years like the Queen's Jubilee?

englishangel wrote:

Katharine wrote:Great to read that at long last there will be equal numbers of girls by 2008 - not before time in my opinion!

It will have only taken 23 years.

But the 'fairer sex' do seem to have had their share of Senior Grecians, or is that just in high profile years like the Queen's Jubilee?

What about the previous 400+ years? We were always the forgotten ones at Hertford as you well know. As for Senior grecians, we know that females of the species are more mature in their late teens so is it surprising? (Ducks fast to get out of slingshot!!)

Katharine wrote:

englishangel wrote:

Katharine wrote:Great to read that at long last there will be equal numbers of girls by 2008 - not before time in my opinion!

It will have only taken 23 years.

But the 'fairer sex' do seem to have had their share of Senior Grecians, or is that just in high profile years like the Queen's Jubilee?

What about the previous 400+ years? We were always the forgotten ones at Hertford as you well know. As for Senior grecians, we know that females of the species are more mature in their late teens so is it surprising? (Ducks fast to get out of slingshot!!)

I don't see why you are ducking, it is a known fact.

I meant 23 years in the same institution.

I don't know if there were ever equal numbers in days of yore.

englishangel wrote:

Katharine wrote:Great to read that at long last there will be equal numbers of girls by 2008 - not before time in my opinion!

It will have only taken 23 years.

But the 'fairer sex' do seem to have had their share of Senior Grecians, or is that just in high profile years like the Queen's Jubilee?

It seems to be alternate years - of course, no-one will say it IS like that, but it has since we`ve been here! Bit of a pity really , cos if you`re male and it`s a female`s "turn" (and vice versa of course!) you know you don`t stand a chance of being SG.
On the other hand, the girls have had their chances in a school dominated by boys, so that can`t be bad.
Personally I`d like to think that the best person is chosen for the position, whoever it may be.

Mrs C. wrote:

englishangel wrote:

Katharine wrote:Great to read that at long last there will be equal numbers of girls by 2008 - not before time in my opinion!

It will have only taken 23 years.

But the 'fairer sex' do seem to have had their share of Senior Grecians, or is that just in high profile years like the Queen's Jubilee?

It seems to be alternate years - of course, no-one will say it IS like that, but it has since we`ve been here! Bit of a pity really , cos if you`re male and it`s a female`s "turn" (and vice versa of course!) you know you don`t stand a chance of being SG.
On the other hand, the girls have had their chances in a school dominated by boys, so that can`t be bad.
Personally I`d like to think that the best person is chosen for the position, whoever it may be.

Absolutely

englishangel wrote:

Mrs C. wrote:

englishangel wrote: It will have only taken 23 years.

But the 'fairer sex' do seem to have had their share of Senior Grecians, or is that just in high profile years like the Queen's Jubilee?

It seems to be alternate years - of course, no-one will say it IS like that, but it has since we`ve been here! Bit of a pity really , cos if you`re male and it`s a female`s "turn" (and vice versa of course!) you know you don`t stand a chance of being SG.
On the other hand, the girls have had their chances in a school dominated by boys, so that can`t be bad.
Personally I`d like to think that the best person is chosen for the position, whoever it may be.

Absolutely

And so say all of us!!!

Katharine wrote:Does a girl Button Grecian have the buttons on her dress uniform as well as her everyday one?

When I left in 97 girls had a housey coat same as the boys, worn all year except Summer term when they wore a "jacket" (a silly light jacket but it had a good place to hide cigarettes if you liked that sort of thing).

Both had 'buttons' if you were awarded them, the jacket had velvet cuffs. Not that I got my buttons.

Oh, and the jacket was worn with the ceremonial (long, straight) skirt and jabot (sp?) as ceremonial dress, whatever the time of year.

Thanks for answering that question, Ruth. I had been wondering.

I was wondering about buttons and male to female ratio - as when I left in 1980 we had already reduced our 350 girls and it had to go to 280 was it? with 800 boys that was a tad unfair! Plus the Horsham Band was teh best etc... and everyone knew about teh Blue coats, so we in Hertford were definately the poorer for not being there.

Can't they allocate both Head boy and Head Girl?? That's whats done in all the otehr schools I know of - Millfield had a system where you were a head boy or girl for one term only - this meant that you didn't loose out on any of the benefits, but also you didn't have the arduous task of a year being really good!!

Jude wrote:I was wondering about buttons and male to female ratio - as when I left in 1980 we had already reduced our 350 girls and it had to go to 280 was it? with 800 boys that was a tad unfair! Plus the Horsham Band was teh best etc... and everyone knew about teh Blue coats, so we in Hertford were definately the poorer for not being there.

Can't they allocate both Head boy and Head Girl?? That's whats done in all the otehr schools I know of - Millfield had a system where you were a head boy or girl for one term only - this meant that you didn't loose out on any of the benefits, but also you didn't have the arduous task of a year being really good!!

Jude, we were never as many as 350. 8 houses with 36 in each gave 288, when the extra six places in the Flat came in that went to 294.

Jude wrote:I was wondering about buttons and male to female ratio - as when I left in 1980 we had already reduced our 350 girls and it had to go to 280 was it? with 800 boys that was a tad unfair! Plus the Horsham Band was teh best etc... and everyone knew about teh Blue coats, so we in Hertford were definately the poorer for not being there.

Can't they allocate both Head boy and Head Girl?? That's whats done in all the otehr schools I know of - Millfield had a system where you were a head boy or girl for one term only - this meant that you didn't loose out on any of the benefits, but also you didn't have the arduous task of a year being really good!!

I've always thought that the best boy or girl should get the top job, regardless of sex...

KES has one of each