Split-out post from the Petition/FFP topic.

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, but that's still CH related.

Moderator: Moderators

rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

PETITION: 3 Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by rockfreak »

brian walling wrote:I agree whole-heartedly with David -- both his observation and his suggested general solution.

I have myself for some time been uneasy about the School's apparent increasing movement away from its original ethos. I overlapped for about four years with David at CH and I imagine that he and I share many of the same feelings about what a wonderful job the School was doing, in those somewhat difficult years after the 2WW, in providing an outstanding opportunity for less privileged children to realise their full potential -- totally in line with the School's declared and well-established mission. I certainly benefited from this myself.

To reverse direction now, away from the easy and financially attractive option of edging 'up-market', will not be easy, but I believe that this is an issue which definitely needs to be examined in a wide strategic sense by the Christ's Hospital community.

Brian Walling, Maine A 1953-60
Are you sure the school is (and was) doing a wonderful job? My impression after I launched the Politics thread was that there was a nasty strain of snobbish, self-entitled, smug, politically naïve attitude coming out of this so-called charity school. To say nothing of some pretty woolly, muddle-headed thinking - and indeed some downright idiotic juvenile comments. I was not unhappy at CH in the 1950s and I only got back in touch two years ago via this website, but I'm afraid some of what I've read on this site has dismayed me and I'm glad now that I didn't try to send my three daughters there. I'm actually pretty pleased with the way they've turned out.
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Split-out post from the Petition/FFP topic.

Post by rockfreak »

[I HAVE MOVED THESE POSTS OUT OF THE PETITION TOPIC, as had gone off topic. Julian, 25/2/16]
J.R. wrote:Thanks yet again David,

I was never academically brilliant. but I did learn discipline if nothing else at CH and as a 'deprived' child left school with a fantastic grounding for life. Two daughters, four grand-children later, AND a Sapphire wedding anniversary this weekend, AND, God willing a GREAT grand-child this coming June, I feel that CH did something good for me.

Keep the School as a place for children coming from deprived back-grounds.

If their parents can pay, let them send them to Eton or Harrow !

Just a thought, and as dear old Rumpole would say, "I rest my case !!"

(There goes my OBE and Knighthood, but who cares ?)
You do seem rather obsessed with discipline John. Could this be a result of being beaten regularly by NT Fryer (the mad, bible-bashing Welshman)? I've often wondered if ex-public schoolboys provide the bulk of the custom of those strict ladies who leave their calling cards in Soho telephone boxes. In his latest book, Bill Bryson roams Southern England in company with an American and two Brits, both ex-boarders. He notes that the Brits almost immediately team up conversationally to discuss flagellation, cold baths and sponge pudding.
johnbrougham
2nd Former
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 11:44 am
Real Name: john m brougham

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by johnbrougham »

Rockfreak, you should be ashamed commenting as you have upon Norman Fryer. A loyal member of the staff of CH for many decades. My personal experience of him as a Maths teacher and coach of the first thirty, was as a kind, devoted, and considerate servant of Christ`s Hospital, and family man. As to your abusive assertion regarding my background and experience whilst at Housey you could not be more wrong. Please grow up.
Avon
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 381
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:39 pm
Real Name: Ed Bell

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by Avon »

johnbrougham wrote:Rockfreak, you should be ashamed commenting as you have upon Norman Fryer. A loyal member of the staff of CH for many decades. My personal experience of him as a Maths teacher and coach of the first thirty, was as a kind, devoted, and considerate servant of Christ`s Hospital, and family man. As to your abusive assertion regarding my background and experience whilst at Housey you could not be more wrong. Please grow up.
Er, wrong John?

This interweb thing is tough, isn't it?
eucsgmrc
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 184
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:38 pm
Real Name: John Wexler
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by eucsgmrc »

Avon wrote:This interweb thing is tough, isn't it?
So true. I'm sure Rockfreak and John Brougham and J.R. would get on just fine over a pint, notwithstanding their obviously different viewpoints, but web conversation is a sure way to wind things up. Ah, don't you just love the brotherhood?
John Wexler
Col A 1954-62
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by rockfreak »

John Wexler, you were in Col A when I was in Col B and my one memory of you was when I was staring out of the window in Beaky Davies's Maths class one day and I spotted you among a line of other satirical youths proceeding into the Science block with your books balanced on your heads in the manner of native women. Would you perhaps have been going into Mr Goodall's class and would this perhaps have been a reference to Goodall's nickname of "Bwaana"? Did he perhaps have a connection with Africa in his CV? Like much else from CH, this image has stuck with me over the years.
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by sejintenej »

rockfreak wrote:Would you perhaps have been going into Mr Goodall's class and would this perhaps have been a reference to Goodall's nickname of "Bwaana"? Did he perhaps have a connection with Africa in his CV? Like much else from CH, this image has stuck with me over the years.
I can't speak/write for John but we did have a number of masters who had done time abroad. I remember one who used the Urdu word pronounced "oouloo" thus refering to the addressee as an idiot, moron and nincumpoop (I hope that last is not considered as offensive to faeces - you never know these days about crap rights).
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
eucsgmrc
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 184
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:38 pm
Real Name: John Wexler
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by eucsgmrc »

rockfreak wrote:... I spotted you among a line of other satirical youths proceeding into the Science block with your books balanced on your heads in the manner of native women. Would you perhaps have been going into Mr Goodall's class and would this perhaps have been a reference to Goodall's nickname of "Bwaana"?
I don't recall being in Mr Goodall's class, but there's an awful lot of stuff that I don't remember and some that I have been careful to forget. Still, it's entirely possible that this was some joke about him. Probably a joke in poor taste. If the term "Bwana" meant anything to me, it would have derived more from the works of H Rider Haggard than from any conception of a real Africa. I suppose I would have had some adolescent notion that I was being witty and risky and independent-minded.

Nowadays, with a dodgy ankle and a slightly impaired sense of balance, I still carry things on my head if I need to see where I'm putting my feet. Much easier than having to peer around a load that I'm carrying in my arms in front of me.
John Wexler
Col A 1954-62
User avatar
jhopgood
Button Grecian
Posts: 1884
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 6:26 pm
Real Name: John Hopgood
Location: Benimeli, Alicante

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by jhopgood »

Bwana Goodall was a Housemaster in Barnes B in my last year, when we had almost completed conversion to a Junior House. I can't remember whether he or Johnson was Senior.
Bwana arrived complete with nickname from the Prep, and I assumed it was related to him wearing Safari shorts as soon as the summer started.

Reading back I cannot remember Junior and Senior Chapels, maybe because we were becoming a Junior House and never went to the Senior Chapels.
If it was before Senior and Junior Houses, who controlled that the Juniors got there?

(BTW, for those that know the HHH, a fellow hasher here in Valencia is known as Bwana. Must remember to ask him how he got his name).
Barnes B 25 (59 - 66)
Avon
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 381
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:39 pm
Real Name: Ed Bell

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by Avon »

Madly interesting though this delve into CH in the 50s and 60s truly is, there are numerous other threads devoted to trying to resolve the obscure habits of obscure teaching staff.

Meanwhile CH goes to hell in a handcart - 26% FF is obscene.
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by rockfreak »

When you're my sort of age Ed, time seems to telescope and fifty or sixty years ago seems like yesterday.
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by J.R. »

rockfreak wrote:When you're my sort of age Ed, time seems to telescope and fifty or sixty years ago seems like yesterday.
Hear-Hear.
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by rockfreak »

I think all these older people submitting posts is because we increasingly see our friends dropping off their perches or losing their marbles, and we want to commit our thoughts and experiences to posterity while there's still time. When the school becomes entirely fee-paying in years to come and even Russian oligarchs are getting their children in, young Boris and Tatiana may wonder at things like Morning PT in the freezing cold, Nose blowing by numbers, and indeed the antics of mad, bible-bashing Welsh housemasters. (It may be that Fryer loosened up a bit after I left, as a result of the '60s. After all, the '60s loosened a lot of people up. Perhaps he ended up wearing a kaftan and beads and chanting "Om". In a Welsh accent).
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by rockfreak »

I've only just discovered that NT Fryer died in tragic circumstances, so I can understand why some people are upset at me. It goes without saying that I wouldn't have made my remarks had I known. Apologies all round.
yamaha
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 199
Joined: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:27 pm

Re: Is 26% Full-Fee Paying Pupils Too High?

Post by yamaha »

I don’t think you should apologize or self-sensor because a master met an unfortunate end – whatever it was.

CH under Seaman was a very strange place. There were a few brilliant masters but most were mediocre. Some were completely incompetent and had no interest in their work or the outcomes of their pupils. Others were just downright weird.

The Prep was very strange by the values of today. Anyone else remember not being allowed to wear swim trunks in the pool and two masters in particular swimming with us and encouraging boys to climb on their backs? Then the was the master with an old testament nickname who used to perch on a stool behind a high desk playing, what we referred to with precocious 10 year olds’ humour as ”pocket-billiards”, … while teaching us divinity.

Back on topic … I sent all my kids to a school with sizable number of Russian etc.pupils and I am pleased to report that they survived – actually thrived. I chose that school partly because Denis Silk had been the chairman of the governors and had installed an excellent head who had been a teacher protégée of Silk’s at Radley.

The fees were outrageous but they had a generous scholarship scheme by which I and those nasty ‘Russian Oligarchs’ subsidised the less fortunate. Thus the school fulfilled the same function as CH for a proportion of pupils.

It is a shame to change what has been an almost unbroken tradition for 460 years, but that is the model CH will likely have to implement.
Last edited by yamaha on Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Post Reply