FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Area for current parents, past parents and future parents of Blues or Old Blues.

Moderator: Moderators

midget
Button Grecian
Posts: 3186
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:49 pm
Real Name: Margaret O`Riordan
Location: Barnstaple Devon

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by midget »

I don't know whether it was the effects of being evacuated and only seeing my parents once a year, or if I was simply an unfeeling child. I wasn't homesick at all as far as I can remember, and it was a case of like it or lump it. Certainly if I had any grumbles my parents (particularly Mum) would have assumed that the school could do no wrong.
Until I met Joe, I was certainly happiest for the 3 or 4 years I spent living on my own.
Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit a social science.
lonelymom
Button Grecian
Posts: 1767
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:56 am
Location: Maidstone, Kent

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by lonelymom »

Vonny wrote:Do pupils HAVE to go away for leave weekends?
I don't think so, but it is certainly encouraged that they do so, and I think they all do. Those who live too far away from the school to go home often go and stay with school friends.
lonelymom :rolleyes:
Momto2
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 205
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:47 pm
Real Name: Mom2Two

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by Momto2 »

I think you're right Lonelymom as there are always host houses listed.
IQ84
2nd Former
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:48 am
Real Name: Stephen Cullis

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by IQ84 »

[quote="Katharine"]I don't want to belittle anyone's feelings so please take this as a genuine query.

It was never easy saying goodbye, but I don't remember the traumas that some of you are describing. When we were overseas we never saw them from one end of the term to the next, but we did see them every holiday, unlike earlier generations of expat parents.

Was I an unfeeling Mum - or was I lucky, I don't know?

Katherine - I was sort of glad you posted this. You were not an unfeeling Mum, any more than I am an unfeeling 'Dad'. My daughter had her first Leave Weekend and apart from an emotional reunion (a few tears!), we (my wife and I) have been trauma free and don't seem to be anxiously peering at the calender wringing our hands etc! I suppose everyone is different in terms of how they approach the boarding experience. Its our first but so far, everything is fine. My daughter is getting on well and is enjoying school very much.

So not to worry! there are others like you out there! :)
Katharine
Button Grecian
Posts: 3285
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2005 10:44 pm
Real Name: Katharine Dobson
Location: Gwynedd

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by Katharine »

Thanks IQ84, and welcome to the forum! I did wonder whether I should post it or not!

Seriously though, our two were brought up to expect to go to a boarding school, I can remember their shock and horror when they discovered that their father had not been to one! I'm sure the expectation made a difference to them and us.
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
User avatar
Great Plum
Button Grecian
Posts: 5282
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:59 am
Real Name: Matt Holdsworth
Location: Reigate

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by Great Plum »

I know from experience that the staff also like having the weekend off, especially after an inspection!

When I came to CH in 92, there was one leave day (just Saturday) and one leave weekend a term... The exception was the summer term where there was one leave weekend and no leave day - Parents' Day counted for the leave day...
Maine B - 1992-95 Maine A 1995-99
User avatar
NEILL THE NOTORIOUS
Button Grecian
Posts: 2612
Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:01 pm
Real Name: NEILL PURDIE EVANS

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by NEILL THE NOTORIOUS »

This has become a very interesting Topic.

I can't analyse the gender of those contributing, or of their Offspring BUT ---- do I get the impression that the Girls are more affected by Homesickness, both as Parents and also as Pupils ?

Is it a contributing factor that Boys are expected to exhibit the "Stiff Upper Lip" --- no matter what their inner feelings are ?
and of course --- tears would be unthinkable after the age of, say, 13 ?

I noticed that one Post implied that their time at CH,-- like mine, was during the War Years.
Travel, of any sort was restricted "Is your Journey really necessary ?" Even our away Matches were only in the regions of Dulwich, Lancing and Brighton.
So under those circumstances, Boarding meant just that, and Visits by Parents (Mine) meant Saturday and Sunday, accommodated in one of the Railway Cottages, and some boys got one or none a Term !

"Times is Different" now--- and perhaps Homesickness was easier to cope with then ? I don't know, it would be interesting to hear from other "Geriatric" OBs --------- Perhaps I was just insensitive ! :oops:
User avatar
englishangel
Forum Moderator
Posts: 6956
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:22 pm
Real Name: Mary Faulkner (Vincett)
Location: Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by englishangel »

YOu went as far as Dulwich? I was never in a school team but I don't think they played any matches more than about 10 miles away? Kerren would know.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by J.R. »

Your beloved Head Mistress probably belived that 10 miles was already 10 miles too much temptation for her young impressionable gels ! !

:roll:
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
Fjgrogan
Button Grecian
Posts: 1427
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:56 pm
Real Name: Frances Grogan (nee Haley)
Location: Surbiton, Surrey

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by Fjgrogan »

I never made it into a school team of any description, so the only away matches I can remember hearing about were Poles Convent (which I think was in Ware) and Herts and Essex - presumably a school, rather than a counties team? As you say, Kerren will know; she was sporty.
Frances Grogan (Haley) 6's 1956 - 62

'A clean house is a sign of a broken computer.'
anniexf
Button Grecian
Posts: 1898
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:29 pm
Real Name: Ann Wilkinson 8s
Location: England

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by anniexf »

We played the Royal Masonic School occasionally.
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by J.R. »

anniexf wrote:We played the Royal Masonic School occasionally.
Aprons with rolled up trouser legs, one wonders :?:

:shock:
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
User avatar
englishangel
Forum Moderator
Posts: 6956
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:22 pm
Real Name: Mary Faulkner (Vincett)
Location: Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by englishangel »

It's a girl's school, just along the road from us here, in Rickmansworth. My older son had a girlfriend at RMS. I had a boss a few years ago who was at Poles, she would be about Kerren's age.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
Katharine
Button Grecian
Posts: 3285
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2005 10:44 pm
Real Name: Katharine Dobson
Location: Gwynedd

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by Katharine »

I think it may be more like 25 mile radius Mary. Herts & Essex High School was in Bishop's Stortford, other places we played included St Albans Grammar (some of my primary school friends were there and played against us!), and Hitchin High School. Poles Convent was just north of Ware on the A10, it was about the southern boundary of my father's parish - the northern being St Edmund's College (RC Boys school). He had good relations with both and talked about his A10 ecumenical movemnet.
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
kerrensimmonds
Button Grecian
Posts: 9395
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:34 pm
Real Name: Kerren Simmonds
Location: West Sussex

Re: FIRST LEAVE WEEKEND

Post by kerrensimmonds »

This has turned into an interesting reminiscence for an over 60's person who is now disabled (blue badge to prove it - but I still wonder how much CH is to blame). I remember going to Poles Convent for Cricket and Hockey in my later years, and to other places for those and also for Tennis. But I have no recollection of distance - just the time we had to endure in a rickety coach which was pretty horrendous in itself. The longer the journey, the less prepared we were to enter the sporting arena at the other end. Sorry to disappoint the readers of this thread....
The best encounters were, of course, those which were At Home. On our own territory, we trounced everyone in all sports, in my day. And I am sure that I have posted elsewhere on this Forum my recollection of pride in escorting a visiting Team to Dining Hall for a post-match tea. I threw a CH rock bun up towards the ceiling in Dining Hall, and down it came - totally intact still! - accompanied by a clump of plaster. OOhhhh dear!

Back to the first Leave Weekend. I hope that all the children who went home for the first time (especially the new Second Formers, who have only been in the school for a couple of weeks) got back to the school safely and soundly - albeit maybe a little tearfully - and that all will go well with them for the next few weeks until Half Term.

It's a stark contrast to 52 years ago (aarrgghh!!) when I was admitted to Hertford and left to sink or swim until my parents came to take me out on the first Long Saturday, which must have been about five weeks into the term. I have a photo of me and my Dad, taken in a stiffly composed position, outside the gates of Hatfield House on that first Long Sat in 1957. I look so proud in my CH uniform, including velour winter hat! In those days, mobile phones and e mail had not been invented. It was just the regular Sunday letter - which had to be read by the Ward/House mistress before it could be posted to one's mum and dad. But that was how it was, in those days. I'm not complaining.....
Kerren Simmonds
5's and 2's Hertford, 1957-1966
Post Reply