Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Well as Hertford old girl I don't remember anything as fun as the sausage going round chapel during communion!
However I will share one bad thing with you, that would sure as anything have got me expelled in about 1968!

Sundays were often very boring - no less than three church services, and a compulsory walk between lunch and Evensong.
Once you were in the sixth form you could go off in pairs and find your own amusement. Not all that far from School in Hertford was a countrified area known as Foxes Holes as I recall. It had a bit of a slope and long grass in the summer. Perfect for sunbathing before getting back to being virtuous! Once I sunbathed completely naked. There must have been at least one other person there and possibly three. It was about cocking a snook at authority and daring to bare all in a public place with the slight risk of being caught - but we weren't!

Can they punish me now by retrospectively removing my black apron privileges? I also lost that for smoking in the Lower VI. I'll never make any of these CH committees now! However, looking back now, as someone said to me last year at a reunion, it was being so naughty that kept my spirit alive!

I never did anything like that at school (didn't even have a bikini), but once I got away from spotted dick etc I did enjoy the sun on my skin.

englishangel wrote:I never did anything like that at school (didn't even have a bikini), but once I got away from spotted dick etc I did enjoy the sun on my skin.

I can't tell you what sort of image that conjured up, Mary. You could have chosen your dessert more thoughtfully. Ackk....

Laprimacenerentola, I'm shocked! I remember you being one of the awe-inspiring UVI when I started as a very green 10 year old, far too responsible to do anything so wicked. Or so I thought

Jo wrote:
Laprimacenerentola, I'm shocked! I remember you being one of the awe-inspiring UVI when I started as a very green 10 year old, far too responsible to do anything so wicked. Or so I thought

I was in 3s with Annabel Parfitt and I think you're her sister? - and I do remember that you had a reputation for being not a model of virtue. Were you the same year as Kate Finch?

Hi - you are right! I think Kate Finch was the year below me. Mostly I am well behaved, but one has to let the proverbial hair down occasionally! CH was a very repressive regime when we were there. I am glad to see it is much more relaxed now and prepares the children better for life outside. I was pretty unhappy at school. How about you?

laprimacenerentola wrote:. I was pretty unhappy at school. How about you?

My unhappiness came from buying into the whole DR "being responsible" thing uncritically, trying to conform and failing. I always had a suspicion that I was missing something, but lacked the nerve to flout the régime deliberately, as some people did. But by about the UVth CH had simply become my life and I wasn't at all unhappy - I didn't have any friends or social life at home (partly because of the 4 term year, partly because I was an only child of fairly solitary parents), so being in Chichester palled after a week or so of each holiday and I was glad to get back.

I knew Kate F at Oxford and have seen her sporadically since then - she had the distinction of being the only person I ever heard of to be sent down, allegedly for doing no work but probably actually for more interesting misdemeanours.

MaryB wrote: .. she had the distinction of being the only person I ever heard of to be sent down, allegedly for doing no work but probably actually for more interesting misdemeanours.

I seem to remember a girl from my era, Anna T. who'd been in 4s, was sent down for an "interesting misdemeanour". This may have been a scurrilous rumour but from my recollection of her, it wouldn't be a shock..

Hi - yes I heard briefly about Kate but no details. Won't go there now!

Sorry to hear you were so unhappy, and you are not the first person I have been in touch with recently who says this. Being responsible, working hard and conforming at all times was absolutely drilled into us. It seems to have left many girls with a sense of being inadequate - even when they have done remarkably well! I continued to try to 'do better' - even opting of paid work out to do (and getting) a PhD in my late 40's early 50's - not that it has got me anywhere in particular except resentment from those who shall remain nameless!

Recently it has seemed to me that for most of us who came from relatively poor or even difficult backgrounds - once we had navigated the higher education system, we were left floundering with no social support networks that exist for the truly middle or upper class kids. We lacked people to encourage, support or sponsor us in our onward progress, as out families were not equipped to do so. I know some old girls have done brilliantly, and good luck to them! But many of us must still have that feeling that we never really got as far as we could and should have - in terms of recognition in our professions or careers, or even financial reward. I think this is partly because we lacked those sponsors in early adult life. Now we hear of reduced rather than increased social mobility. It all seems to tie in. However, I am still grateful that I had such a chance, and did get an excellent education, which has kept me active, engaged in society and able to bring up my own children decently when my marriage broke down. One of the best things was also doing lots of music - which I have continued to enjoy throughout my life regardless of career and children!I have even taken up some art work recently.

Last year at the reunion I asked the new head whether the school has plans to provide some kind of on-going mentoring (for life in general) to help the current generation. They seem to see it mainly in terms of career advice, but I think it needs to be broader. Not seen any proposals on these lines yet. However, I believe the school is heaps better than when we were there 40 years ago, and provides a wonderful opportunity to children that must be cherished and supported (both the children and the opportunity!) - especially as the state system seems to be dumbing down such a lot.

Bye for now!

laprimacenerentola wrote:But many of us must still have that feeling that we never really got as far as we could and should have - in terms of recognition in our professions or careers, or even financial reward.

I often think that DR would be sorely disappointed in me, seeing what I am doing now, working in the finance office of a tourist railway. I don't think it is what she would have expected of one of her academic 'swans'. However, as we celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary today, I can look back on a very fulfilling family life spent in various parts of the world. Yes I gave up the chance of a real career by marrying John when I did, but that was more because of his job with the British Council than anything else. When the boys were young, I always knew that is anything did happen to John I would be able to pick up a career and support them. Maths teachers are always in short supply!

Katharine wrote:

laprimacenerentola wrote:But many of us must still have that feeling that we never really got as far as we could and should have - in terms of recognition in our professions or careers, or even financial reward.

I often think that DR would be sorely disappointed in me, seeing what I am doing now, working in the finance office of a tourist railway. I don't think it is what she would have expected of one of her academic 'swans'. However, as we celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary today, I can look back on a very fulfilling family life spent in various parts of the world.

Congratulations, Katharine (and John)! 39 years of being contented and fulfilled are worth infinitely more than any of DR's blinkered "expectations".

Katharine - yes many congratulations to you and your husband! It is often hard seeing the woods for the trees when one is in the thick of them, and only looking back that you get a real sense of perspective!

Congratulations Katharine! We'll be joining you at 39 next week.

We were 36 on the 18th of this month.

Hang on - this is supposed to be about general naughtiness at school - and it has turned into wedding anniversaries!

Have just read the earlier posts about trying to disconcert Queenie - without success. I managed it once - quite unintentionally. I joined the school in the Lower IV - i.e. the second year for most people. School put the only other person in that position in a separate house - just to ensure we both had no obvious friends and were suitably lonely. So I was very nervous in lessons - also having missed first year French and Maths!

I was very embarrassed about blowing my nose in class, and must have dropped my hanky. I did not want to get up to retrieve it, and leant out to the right to try and get it off the floor, whilst Queenie pranced around up at the front using that famous voice as usual. Do you remember those all-in-one desks with the chair welded to the rest of it? Well I must have gone beyond the essential tipping point (I am sure physicists have some term for this), and suddenly the whole desk with me in it went crashing to the floor with a huge noise!

Queenie rushed up to check I had not actually injured myself, and made some sarcastic remark about blowing your noise before lessons instead of during. But - just for a moment or two - she actually looked quite (wait for it can I spell it?) discombobulated!

I'd love to have seen Queenie!
Most of the London Scholarship entrants went onto LVIA and had to make up the ist year of French. We were taught by Miss Bailey (she taught German) who used a strange form of phonetics, which we were still using at the end of the first year. That made joining the rest of the form the following year very difficult. We were all in the top half of the form in exams, but in the bottom half in age and about 6 or 8 of us had to repeat the LV year (too immature to do School Cert at 14)