IVs, 5s, and 6s

[lonelymom]

Obviously I didn't got to CH, either at Hertford or Horsham, and whilst it didn't take me long to get my head round the Second Form, Third Form, Lower Erasmus etc, I am completely flummoxed by the terms that are used for Hertford. What are the IVs (4s?), 5s, 6s? Do they relate to year groups, or are they the houses you were in?

[su523]

References to 1s, 2s etc up to 8s are to the houses we lived in. When the girls' school took children at 8/9/10, 1s and 5s were junior houses; when you were 11 you moved to one of the other, senior, houses. When the school stopped taking such young girls, and everyone started at 11 or older, all the houses were the same, so you went into one and didn't move.

I can't fully remember what the years were called. The year I did O levels was the Upper 5th; so there was the Lower 5th before that, and Upper and Lower 4th for the 2 years before that. So did we start at 11 years of age in the Third form? Actually that would make sense, because the 1st and 2nd forms would have been for younger girls, and no longer existed by 1967, when you could only go to CH at the age of 11.
Does this make any sense?

Su
5s, 1967-73

[Kim2s70-77]

There were eight residential houses ( One's through Eight's - or 1s through 8s ) that each housed about 36 girls of all ages. I was in Two's, and there were originally nine of us in my year and in the same house. That dwindled down over 7 years that I was there, so that there were 6 of us who left at the end of Upper VI year. Every one in the house was given a number when they arrived at CH, from 1 through 36 or 37, and this number was used to identify us specifically - ie all clothing etc was labelled with our house number and individual number. I was 2:31 for example; Lynn was 2:14 (is that right, Lynn?) Mary was 2:17 etc etc . The numbered houses were in Hertford and the named house (Barnes A etc) were in Horsham.

[lonelymom]

Thanks su523. It sort of makes sense, but I'm still a tad confused. So if 1s and 5s were junior houses, were the senior houses called 2s, 3s and 4s and 6s? And did you, say, start in 1s, then move into one of the senior houses and stay in that house, or did you have to move every year?

[lonelymom]

Thanks Kim. So by the time you started it was more or less like it is at Horsham now, ie you get allocated a house, which you stay in for the duration of your time at CH (apart from Grecians) and the house has 7 or 8 kids from each year group? And they are given a number which is their number for their entire time at CH.

[Katharine]

Shall I confuse you even more, Lonelymum?

When I started the boarding houses were formally called Wards so I was in Ward 6. The word Ward was very rarely used, and I can remember being laughed at by a very senior girl on my first day in the school for saying I was in Ward 6. We always used 6s when speaking about it. Letters were addressed to Ward 6, Christ's Hospital - and that led to confusion in the outside world. This was the main reason that the formal name changed to House 6. Letters were now addressed to 6, Christ's Hospital.

The vast majority of girls arrived age 10/11 and went into a Junior House, 1s or 5s for one or 2 years. A few started the school earlier, Kerren was one of those. I was one of the few who arrived aged 11/12 and went straight into a Senior House. The majority of the year group 11/12 were in Senior Houses but a few stayed in the Junior Houses for that year. In the normal run of things, you did not change your house at any other time.

At 11/12 I went into a form called Lower IV, (LIV). Below that there were the very small 1st and 2nd forms and the much larger Third form. After LIV the progression was Upper IV, Lower V, Upper V (O level year) then VI form.

Has that helped or hindered your understanding?

[Jo]

Shall I heap on even more confusion?

When I started, the junior forms I and II, and the junior houses, had only just been done away with. However, as far as form numbering went, the old system was still in place, so we started in Form III. Latin numerals were normally used for form numbers at this time, so from III form we went into Lower IV, then Upper IV, LV, UV, and then into the VI form, Lower and Upper.

However, a year or two later it was decided to simplify the form numbering to simply 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (though still with Lower and Upper Sixth). So those over about 50 or so on the forum will typically talk about being in (say) the UIV, whereas those below about 50 would talk about the 3rd form.

And yes, there were usually around 6 people from each year in each house, who would normally be your closest friends. Certainly the two people I've stayed continually in touch with since leaving CH (as opposed to rediscovering and picking up again later) were in my house and year.

[Fjgrogan]

It wasn't just that the people in the same year and house were your closest friends. We were actively discouraged from having friends in other houses, and there was a rigid system of seniority which precluded friendship with anyone older or younger. It could be a major problem, if for example your best friend was kept back a year.

[mvgrogan]

Good point, even in the 80s, I can remember being resented by other girls in my year in my house when I started because, with a birthday in November, I was one of the oldest in my year, which gave me immediate seniority over girls who had already been there a year longer than me! I started a year later than most people (not for lack of trying - I failed the entrance exam twice).

However, my best friend at CH, and still to this day, was a girl in the year above me! Both my year and her year had an odd number of girls in, so when it came to allocating pairs to share cubicles, we were the 2 rejects! By the end of a year of sharing we weren't necessarily ready to do it again, and even now, when we holiday together, we know our limits... never more than a week

[lonelymom]

Has that helped or hindered your understanding?

Definitely hindered , but I'll re-read all the info a few hundred more times til I get it!

[lonelymom]

However, a year or two later it was decided to simplify the form numbering to simply 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (though still with Lower and Upper Sixth). So those over about 50 or so on the forum will typically talk about being in (say) the UIV, whereas those below about 50 would talk about the 3rd form.

Oh, so that's why I've read people's posts about IVs, and other people talking about 2s and 3s! I think, just maybe, I'm beginning to understand it all now... sort of

[Vonny]

I failed the entrance exam twice).

Did you take the exam a year early first time then? I didn't fail the exam but was on the reserve list. I guess several must have declined the place at CH for me to have been offered a place!

However, my best friend at CH, and still to this day, was a girl in the year above me!

I'm trying to think who this was but can't!

[lonelymom]

It wasn't just that the people in the same year and house were your closest friends. We were actively discouraged from having friends in other houses, and there was a rigid system of seniority which precluded friendship with anyone older or younger. It could be a major problem, if for example your best friend was kept back a year.

No! Really? Why on earth was that? At CH nowadays the kids are encouraged to make friends from out of house, and I know that some of my daughter's best friends are from other houses. Does anyone know why you weren't allowed to be friends with girls from other houses? Was it, perhaps, just another way to control you all with mind-games?

[Katharine]

Lonelymum - we didn't know the reason for anything in our lives!!!

[mvgrogan]

I failed the entrance exam twice).

Did you take the exam a year early first time then? I didn't fail the exam but was on the reserve list. I guess several must have declined the place at CH for me to have been offered a place!

However, my best friend at CH, and still to this day, was a girl in the year above me!

I'm trying to think who this was but can't!

Yes - the first time I took it a year early & failed - so did my sister but she passed!
Come to think of it I may have been on the reserve list 3rd time... Mum would know...
Fiona Stevens