'Posh School' at Hertford

Great Plum · Post by **Great Plum** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 2:08 pm

mr tall wrote:
Great Plum wrote:
englishangel wrote: It wasn't, ask your Dad.
But at least they got into Horsham...

And I have heard that it wasn't too difficult to see girls from Horsham High School for Girls...
Seem to recall that school's name was usually Spoonerised. Somewhat like opening a tea-shop in Horsham, or at least we thought that was what was said.

Apparently the headmistress of that school was called Mrs Hoare - which I don't suppose helped...

Katharine · Post by **Katharine** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:22 pm

englishangel wrote:
Katharine wrote:
englishangel wrote:I don't know if Katherine and/or midget had brothers at home, we know Barbara had a brother(though Horsham and Hertford holidays did not always coincide)
Take care, Mary with your spelling!!!
Humble apologies Katharine

You are forgiven, my child!!!

fivethreeone · Post by **fivethreeone** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:49 pm

AKAP wrote:The attitude at Horsham was different to that described at Hertford.

It certainly was - I can remember reading in a house newsletter from Horsham that one of the boys was to be congratulated on having fathered a child - the equivalent in Hertford would have meant immediate explusion, although I heard that this was waived once when it concerned a head girl...

I also remember the conductor of the school orchestra being sacked for 'over-friendliness' with one of his pupils, although they waited until after our performance on speech day to let him know!

UserRemovedAccount · Post by **UserRemovedAccount** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:24 pm

fivethreeone wrote:...I can remember reading in a house newsletter from Horsham that one of the boys was to be congratulated on having fathered a child...

I find that it very hard to believe that in those prudish times a boy actually at the school would have been "congratulated on fathering a child" - let alone in a house newsletter. Whilst the consequences were far less serious for a boy, nevertheless I do not think that it was something to brag about.

fivethreeone · Post by **fivethreeone** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:00 pm

petard249 wrote:I find that it very hard to believe that in those prudish times a boy actually at the school would have been "congratulated on fathering a child" - let alone in a house newsletter. Whilst the consequences were far less serious for a boy, nevertheless I do not think that it was something to brag about.

Possibly I misinterpreted it and the boy had left, though I didn't think so at the time.

AKAP · Post by **AKAP** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 9:35 am

fivethreeone wrote:
petard249 wrote:I find that it very hard to believe that in those prudish times a boy actually at the school would have been "congratulated on fathering a child" - let alone in a house newsletter. Whilst the consequences were far less serious for a boy, nevertheless I do not think that it was something to brag about.
Possibly I misinterpreted it and the boy had left, though I didn't think so at the time.

I remember uncovering editions of a magazine called the green and black, whilst in mid b. They were handwritten and could possibly be refered to as a house newsletter.
They were full of "in" jokes aimed at various members of the house (similar to house notes in the blue). I could imagine such an entry appearing in such a forum, the circulation of which was limited to other boys in the house.
When the number of boys who have attended CH over the years is considered there can be little doubt that at some point a pupil has fathered a child whilst at school and having done so I am sure that the fact would be refered to by his fellow pupils.

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 9:39 am

fivethreeone wrote:
AKAP wrote:The attitude at Horsham was different to that described at Hertford.
It certainly was - I can remember reading in a house newsletter from Horsham that one of the boys was to be congratulated on having fathered a child - the equivalent in Hertford would have meant immediate explusion, although I heard that this was waived once when it concerned a head girl...
I also remember the conductor of the school orchestra being sacked for 'over-friendliness' with one of his pupils, although they waited until after our performance on speech day to let him know!

If it is the head girl I am thinking about she had already left when her pregnancy was confirmed. She only 'jumped the gun' by a matter of weeks (or even days). The last I heard she and the baby's father had been married for 27 years.

I believe House notes often mentioned recent OBs as well.

Alexandra Thrift · Post by **Alexandra Thrift** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:09 am

englishangel wrote:If it is the head girl I am thinking about she had already left when her pregnancy was confirmed. She only 'jumped the gun' by a matter of weeks (or even days). The last I heard she and the baby's father had been married for 27 years.

Er Englishangel...we were at school at the same time....I'm obviously thinking of a different headgirl who was pregnant when she left CH. She most certainly didn't stay married to the father ( lasted about six months ). Her son went to Horsham and she remarried much later and had twins. It seems to be a headgirl thing. The headgirl I'm thinking of was a lovely and talented person.I saw her at a Horsham Blues Day about six years ago and she was still just as nice.

Anyhow I just wanted to mention about the Thread header and CH Hertford being "posh". Looking back ,I think it was, but it could have been a lot posher.I guess we weren't rich enough to be truly posh ! I know that actually many of us came from truly impoverished backgrounds and that was the incredible thing about the school and what made ( and I hope still makes) it special. I have a er gentleman friend

who went to Kings School Canterbury, who teases me for not being "posh" enough even though I went to public school.

My nearly 14 year old son, Louis

goes to the local very rubbish Secondary School and by comparison CH was posh beyond belief. He gets stick for his slightly posh accent. I loathe the local ( failed OFSTED a record 3 times) school and wonder about these sixth form places they now offer at Horsham....anyone know anything about that?

Talking of sport at CH. I remember Gaye Linskill was pretty brilliant at everything sporty and quite terrifying to play against. Fab swimmer too.

Talking of Haileybury....I remember walking up there several times and attempting to meet the boys unofficially.Not very successful but we didn't get caught.

I did visit Horsham a couple of times with some other girls as we knew some boys there we had started writing to.We also met them on St Matthews Day at the Mansion House.Somebody put Gin in the orange juice.
Very naughty.

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:31 pm

Contact Admissions in Counting House for details of 6th form entry.

Alexandra Thrift · Post by **Alexandra Thrift** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:53 pm

Thankyou Mrs C.
I will.

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:13 pm

......or Dave by the Sea - his son`s here this year as a new Dep!

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:14 pm

When I was at University I was a real scatterbrain. In my first year I went to the Pharrmacy department cheese and wine party in the dirties old plimsolls ever. It wasn't deliberate but I had been to fencing club beforehand and forgotten to pack my smart shoes with my smart dress.

One 'Tory boy' took a fancy to this woman who obviously 'didn't care' and we had a few dates. We weren't made for each other so a few dates was all it was but a couple of years later I bumped in to him with someone I knew from CH and said 'Hello' to them both. Next time he saw me he asked how I knew her and I said we had been at school together. He said '(classic) "but she went to Christ's Hospital!"

Hmmmm.

I 'Googled' him the other day when this thread gave my memory a tickle and he is a Pharmacy Professor somewhere or other.

WildOne · Post by **WildOne** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:47 am

I've noticed a few references in these threads to the way the 'CH girls' were 'different' from many other girls in general... Hooligans on the hockey field, demon bowlers at cricket, easily identified on a D of E course because of their confidence, and this prompts me to voice a few thoughts.

I really think that being in an all girl environment freed us from the pressures of having to be sweet young things so that boys would approve of us and be attracted to our vulnerable femininity, etc etc. We were free to be our natural selves, and as a result we developed a confidence and a healthy degree of aggression without fear of seeming less attractive to boys.

We also didn't need to 'dumb down' academically in case a favourite boy felt diminished by our higher achievements.

Personally, I have never been able to be a 'girly girl' from that day to this... for it would require me to pretend to be less than I am, and I am unwilling to do that. (The genie is too far out of the bottle )

This attitude has undeniably cost me a number of relationships with men, but isn't it up to them to accept a strong, clever, confident woman, rather than for a female to be trained from puberty into an unnaturally inferior person? When I see the timid, vulnerable, weak, giggly air-heads that many males feel drawn to, (not all men I hasten to add, but too many), I feel sad that so many girls in mixed schools end up adopting these characteristics, and end up being more attractive to males as their reward!

I'm not trying to persuade anyone to any particular point of view here, but just voicing my observations on one aspect of human potential which too often goes unrealised.

To be sure, there are many negative aspects to single sex environments, and I can't pretend to know what is best really, but as far as girls developing their full power and potential, it seems necessary, unfortunately, to keep boy-pressure out of the picture in those formative years, and pre 1985 CH girls seem to be evidence of this.

Gaye
4.24 1965-1970

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:33 am

Here Here

However this does seem to be a case of 'unto the next generation' as my daughter is at a mixed school and while some of her best mates are boys she is not a 'girly-girl' and she sets great store by her intellectual capacity. She does not suffer fools gladly be they boys or girls and is what is knownas a 'blunt speaker', to the point of rudeness sometimes.

Katharine · Post by **Katharine** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:13 am

There is a theory that girls do better at an all girls school, whereas boys do better in a mixed environment. This is of course an impossibility to achieve for everyone! Yes, I think we were confident young ladies about many things - but we really did lack contact with boys which made for some problems later on. I did not get into any serious relationships while at Uni, partly because most of the men I met had also been to single sex public schools and we were all learning our way around this strange world we were now living in!!!

The best mathematician I ever taught was a girl; she had been transferred to the all girls' school I was teaching at because her life had been made such HELL by the boys at her mixed school.