What's CH like nowadays?

[anonanon]

Does anyone actually know? Has the bullying totally gone and is non-existent? There seems to be a no tolerance policy in place and the social media posts all seem to convey such a tolerance with all students happy & eager to be there? Please tell me second formers are no longer called squits as I hope even such belittling as that is gone now...

[rockfreak]

Let me add to that. What's religion like at CH? When I was there in the 1950s it was chapel six days a week and twice on Sundays plus house prayers in the evening. It seemed to be assumed that everyone was a believer. Clearly this could not be so. I got confirmed at around age 14 to please my religious family but was agnostic after leaving school and not really thinking much about it. But the rise in evangelical Christianity and its political ambitions has made me think about which side of the fence I want to be and I've jumped off and become an out-and-proud atheist.

I still have a lingering affection for the old CofE with its familiar liturgy because it doesn't demand literalist belief, but the rise of wild-eyed, biblical certainty here and in America has got me worried. Is religion still compulsory at CH? And in what form? Have the grand old hymns of yesteryear been overtaken by happy-clappy, arm-waving, Jesus freaks, singing songs that sound like entries for Eurovision?

[jtaylor]

As current CH students are not permitted to use or post on the CH Forum, I've removed the posts but the factual content is included here, as this was useful and interesting in answer to Old Blues questions above:-

• To answer both, there is obviously a non-bullying policy these days and it is practically non-existent across the boarding houses. Squits as a term has not been heard of.

• Chapel is now twice a week, Thursday hymn practice and Sunday morning service. I don't think it's as religious anymore as you make it out to be as the services are much more general and less focused on christianity, rather a broader message that can relate to all. There are people of all religions present, so it is very welcoming. No there are no Eurovision songs, the blue hymn books are still being used to full force.

[Foureyes]

I can't see what is wrong with the term 'squit.' It is simply an ancient English term meaning a small and unimportant person, which somewhere along the line was adopted at C.H. to refer to new arrivals; i.e., it was descriptive rather than derogatory. At today's school all pupils in their first year are compelled by peer pressure to wear their girdles with the buckle to the front and change it to the rear on the last day of the Summer Term. Similarly, pupils on special entries wear plates on their left shoulders. Are such visual signals any better or any worse than a verbal description? So, before condemning the term 'squit' it would be as well to determine how it originated and what it meant.
David