weighing and measuring

[fra828]

Does anyone remember the excrutiating weighing and measuring we had in the gym once or twice a term? We had to strip down to our 'blues' and bra and go in and be precisely 'examined' by Nellie Norman or relevant gym teacher- height, weight, waist and bra-size ; then being checked for flat feet, and being told to stand upright; there were remedial 'feet' and 'back' classes for those that were deemed to need them. It was humiliating and degrading even in those days!

[gma]

Oh dear God yes - hideous and humiliating - I was never the 'slightest' and remember reading a book in which cannibals were described as eating 'long pig' and this book described how they would prod the flesh of their potential dinner before selecting and that was exactly how Nellie Norman used to make me feel! (Second only to the witch in Hansel & Gretel poking sticks through the cage - my what a set of imprints!)

It was always cold too so those of us blessed with less than enviable physiques always had that blotchy uncooked sausage pallor that only the English can display!! I bet we're not the only ones who felt like this either!

[Angela Woodford]

"Squizzing"! Behind a cretonne screen. And the panic if you weren't wearing a school Berlei bra. I know I've written about this ordeal before, at length!

Once I read - upside down - Nellie's assessment.

(puts on Nellie voice) "Angela is tubby".

[Fjgrogan]

I seem to remember that it was commonly known as 'squizzing'? I spent half my school life in back drill and somewhere along the line they discovered by careful measurement that I had one leg slightly shorter than the other and thereafter had the heel of one shoe slightly raised. I'm not sure whether it actually did any good?

[J.R.]

Does anyone remember the excrutiating weighing and measuring we had in the gym once or twice a term? We had to strip down to our 'blues' and bra and go in and be precisely 'examined' by Nellie Norman or relevant gym teacher- height, weight, waist and bra-size ; then being checked for flat feet, and being told to stand upright; there were remedial 'feet' and 'back' classes for those that were deemed to need them. It was humiliating and degrading even in those days!

At least you went told to stand with legs slightly parted, a hand cupping personal parts of your body, then told to........

'COUGH !!!'

[gma]

Don't kid yourself JR, we had some real freaks in charge of us!!

[Kim2s70-77]

Either Nellie Norman or Miss Gravett would make us walk the length of the gym, so they could look at one's gait. I am normally relatively well-coordinated, but that particular scrutiny always flustered me to the point where I would lead with the same foot as hand, and end up walking somewhat like Frankenstein's monster. If I had had Angela's ability to read the reports upside down I'm sure the report would have been interesting - certainly not politically correct!! Incidently, when my kids brought home end of term reports, they were always computer-generated formulaic responses designed to foster self esteem. I remember ours as handwritten and 'to the point'. Sadly, I do not remember which teacher wrote this one, but in the second form, I received the following:
"Kim's work resembles that of a mentally retarded spider that has dipped its feet in ink and meandered slowly across the page". Priceless! You couldn't make this stuff up!!

[MaryB]

[quote]"Kim's work resembles that of a mentally retarded spider that has dipped its feet in ink and meandered slowly across the page"/quote]
I think that sounds like Miss Morrison.

[lonelymom]

Could you imagine the fall-out if a teacher wrote that about a pupil nowadays? It doesn't bear thinking about, does it? Reading this section of the forum makes me shudder. How and why did those women become teachers? They would have been better employed as prison officers! I'm sure the re-offending rate would decrease with them in charge!

[Barnes Mum]

Within the first week or two the new second form have a 'Height and Weight' check with the nurses at the Health Centre. If they fall either side of the 'normal' range these checks carry on at regular intervals together with dietary advise. These are held in relative privacy now tho.

[Angela Woodford]

Within the first week or two the new second form have a 'Height and Weight' check with the nurses at the Health Centre. If they fall either side of the 'normal' range these checks carry on at regular intervals together with dietary advise. These are held in relative privacy now tho.

I'm repeating it again, Barnes Mum, but I was sent for by Sister, seen by silly old Dr Jory, and questioned for a moment to establish that I was not only a fattie, but a bit slow on the uptake and bad at Maths. Then he wrote a prescription for daily thyroxin. There never has been anything wrong with my thyroid. No bloods taken of course. My mother was furious. The medication made no difference and I continued misery eating just as before.

Actually, come to think of it, weighing and measuring happened up t'Imf, and squizzing was in the gym!

[Jo]

I don't remember squizzing (it sounds so awful I suspect I've obliterated it from my memory), but I do remember the horrors of weighing and measuring.

I was terribly, terribly humiliated once. We were older, possibly 5th or 6th form, and Nurse allowed us to help her out with the recording while she checked feet. It was bad enough having Nurse or Sister see my weight, but on this occasion I had to weigh myself and then tell another girl in my year. I was so ashamed that I knocked a stone off. However, Nurse stopped me on the way out and said (albeit very tactfully, she was lovely really but I was annoyed with her about this incident) that she thought there had been a "mistake" with my weight as I appeared to have lost rather a lot quite quickly. She re-weighed me and corrected it, and I made the pathetic and transparently untruthful excuse that I'd misread the scales.

I also remember Posture Class, and one of my bits of rebellion, deciding I just wouldn't bother going any more. Miss Gravett sent for me and gave me a good old ticking off, but she did abolish "Backs" at the end of that term

[chaosriddenyears]

I remember squizzing - it made me walk so awkwardly that I felt as though all my joints had seized up but mercifully I never had to go to "feet" or "backs".
Weighing and measuring up t'inf was an ordeal - I put on alot of weight in about the 4th form and it was misery. The weight dropped off me when I left CH and I have been as thin as a rake since. The uniforms were not exactly designed to suit the fuller figure and they were most uncomfortable as well!

[Kim2s70-77]

I think the plentiful quantities of starchy foods and fresh bread, freely available when one was feeling at one's lowest, had a lot to do with the escalating girth through my CH years!! Weighing and measuring got worse for me over the years!
If it was Ms Morrison who described my handwriting as spider trails, then it was probably well-deserved. I had a tremendous respect for her; valued her teaching and still thank her for the mastery of English. ( "Pictures are 'hung'; people are 'hanged' "/ " 'Gorgeous' is pertaining to 'visual' beauty" etc etc ) I swear I wasn't trying to emulate her weight, though - it may have looked like it!!!

[Vonny]

I remember the weighing measuring thing but I can't remember if we had it in the gym or up t'inf The only thing I really remember is being summonsed an extra couple of times a term (at Hertford & Horsham) to be re weighed because they thought I was underweight