In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Jean Peach
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>If you want to take your exam go to ITV.com then go to that'll teach'em
>and see how you do.
I'm still trying to work out how I managed to pass it (11 plus) first
time round - I definitely didn't finish the questions in the time set!
Certain things, like standing when a teacher entered, no make up (until
we got the school rules changed in our fifth year), low heeled shoes
(not flat, thank goodness), and no eating sweets on the way home (well,
not within teacher-shot, anyway) whilst still in uniform - were still in
force in the late 60s when I was at an all-girls grammar school. In
fact, I was having difficulty remembering whether there were any mixed
grammar schools, until Phil pointed out that his had been (he is two
years younger than me). The comprehensive system that we have now, with
mixed senior schools being the norm, came in the year after I left.
They were mistresses and masters, too, not just teachers!
We treated the teachers with a respectful fear - if there was anything
at all wrong with your uniform and you spotted the deputy head (Miss
Muffet!) coming towards you in a corridor, you turned and *walked*
quickly in the opposite direction, hoping she hadn't noticed you. She
wasn't that bad as a teacher - we had her for domestic science (as it
was then - cookery one week, needlework the next).
At least we didn't have to wear blazers all the time - but in the first
and second years, if you swop their tie for one that was navy blue and
cherry pink striped, and the gymslip (the pinafore dress the girls are
wearing in the series) for navy instead of grey, add a navy blue v-
necked cardigan, navy blue knickers (remember them?!) and a navy
gabardine mac - with choice between beret or panama hat bearing the
school badge (I had a beret) and blue and pink striped scarf - that is
what we looked like in the winter term. Blazers were for outdoor wear
in the summer, over the summer dress (blue and white striped, dropped
waist).
We wore our house badge on the scarf, and on Radio 4's "Home Truths"
(John Peel, Saturday mornings) there has recently been a discussion as
to the effect that the colour representing the house you were in had on
your performance at school - ie those in the red houses always seemed to
do best. Well, our house was Dolphin, (blue, of course) and each year
in the House Swimming Gala, up against Phoenix, Salamander, Gryphon,
Wyvern and Unicorn, you can guess where our house came - year after year
- yes, last! The only event I can remember Dolphin winning was the
life-saving one year, because I had had to get in at the deep end, swim
a third of the length and then tread water until Belinda had swum from
the shallow end to rescue me, and tow me back to the shallow end - she
knew my fear of deep water, and that is why we won!
In the third year we had knife pleated navy skirts instead of the
gymslip - in the fourth, all changed, no ties, no hats, blue or pink
checked blouses with a four-gore navy jersey skirt, and, thanks to Mrs
Trelfa (a history mistress well heard around the school if she was
angry), the choice of white or navy tights instead of the old "flesh
coloured stockings". Shoes could be brown, black, or navy. In the
fifth year we were the first to be allowed to drop the uniform in the
summer term, and in the lower sixth we opted for no uniform, and make up
"as long as they could still see what we were thinking" - previous sixth
formers had worn a cherry or navy jumper with a navy skirt.
The range of variation in the uniform my daughters have worn (one still
doing so) would have had our teachers having kittens - especially the
short skirts some of them wear (my two have preferred trousers) - my
older sister's headmistress used to make them kneel for prayers in
assembly so that the staff could check their skirts were regulation knee
length! (I went to a different school - Mom got fed up of her petty
uniform changes every year). Our efforts of getting rid of ties in the
1970s didn't last, though - until last year, with a uniform change, the
winter uniform of the local school demanded one. I consider ties to be
dangerous in science lessons, particularly as at the local school they
don't wear lab coats (ours was green!) - but no doubt the powers that be
thought them smart!
--
Jane Partridge
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