Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Gemmy, congratulations on being accepted to CH. On the forum you will find a varied and (on the whole) balanced account of life at CH, past and present. It really is a unique place to spend some of your formative years (the school, not the forum ...), and as the charge says, you will carry the name and benefits of the place with you forever. jt, BTaylor, Vonny and I (and a few others, boys and girls) were there at the time of the merger, when the girls school at Hertford moved down permanently to Horsham in 1985 - that sounds so long ago! It was an unusual and probably unsettling time for the school, but some of the improvements that have been made since then are undoubtedly for the better. The Grecians' houses sound fantastic. I really hope that you enjoy your time there, and having come from elsewhere I'm sure you will take advantage of what is on offer. Keep your broadie buckle when you leave, it may be worth something one day!

btw, you are taking the same A levels that I did. I loved Archaeology at CH (got a masters at uni) plus there were some great field trips (Turkey and Egypt), but unfortunately was total cr@p at Latin.

Hi, Gemma,

You will have to accept that JR is normally "joking" - we just have to grin and bare it!

He is, compared to some of us, a spring chicken ready for the pot of life. In spite of the dates he and I don't remember each other - there is only one other person on the forum whom I know and he doesn't post.

JR jokes about diptheria and that ilk but back in those days with wartime rationing and poor food, health was a potential problem; in such a close environment disease could spread very rapidly. For that reason there were regular checks for horrors like tinea pedis and tinea cruris (you just don't want to know) etc. and bi-termly weighings and taking of vital statistics. The medical records are so complete and extensive timewise that Bristol researchers used them recently in a study of teenage statistics against later health; we have a better long term outlook than the average.

We used to march into meals in houses - 52 boys at a time, but I have a photo of the remains of Col A - from memory there were 4 boys deemed capable of going for lunch and that was mirrored across the school. This was during an Asian Flu epidemic in about 1957

Internet: I'm not too sure of the present position. At one time access to the forum was not allowed by the school but it looks as if it is the more senior ones can access us freely at the moment; we try to keep the posts child-friendly. It might be that those pupils who post here have fopund some way round the obstacles or that the blocks have been lifted by the school. Things can and do change all the time.

David

I don't think there is too much problem with the net although there are sites that are restricted etc.

I believe every Grecian gets a laptop as well...

Going back a page.

kerrensimmonds wrote:You will however be joining a supportive and caring community which is unchanged over more than 500 years in that regard - the ethos of the family of Christ's Hospital has never changed and I hope that when you leave school (no doubt exhausted!) in July 2009 you will be proud to be part of its history.

"Shome mishtake shorely"

Gemmy, welcome to the madhouse - and to the CH family.
Now that you're here, have a look at some of the other threads ( the Jokes thread is worth digging into just about anywhere ) - you will see that we do not, in any way, limit ourselves here to discussing only CH-related topics ( in fact, topics tend to get hijacked at an alarming speed ) - so do join in where and when you feel like it.

cheers
B.

Mrs C. wrote:Probably because the boys who are still in Thornton will be spread through the other houses in September , taking up the space that new deps would normally fill.

How can you go and Make Thornton a girls house, my god Southern is nothing sacred anymore at that school.

Why has no one tried to stop that grey haired lanky muppet before

All i can say is Gemma that the New Headmaster can't be anyworse then the one already, so there is a plus side for you

peter2095 wrote:

Mrs C. wrote:Probably because the boys who are still in Thornton will be spread through the other houses in September , taking up the space that new deps would normally fill.

How can you go and Make Thornton a girls house, my god Southern is nothing sacred anymore at that school.

Why has no one tried to stop that grey haired lanky muppet before

All i can say is Gemma that the New Headmaster can't be anyworse then the one already, so there is a plus side for you

I thought it always was

englishangel wrote:"Shome mishtake shorely"

AArrggh Mary. Maths was never my strong point. Sorry, Gemma.. there's another 45 or so years to go before CH reaches its 500th anniversary. Hopefully you will still be around to see it - but I doubt I will be!

Just got home from school after the most horrendous bus journey imaginable, that is one thing I definitely will not miss when I go there in september. Plus I wont miss my latin teacher, she calls me 'Rat' for no apparant reason. I sit in front of her desk and I asked her for more paper. she gave it to the girl next to me and said ' give it to the rat'. anyway.....

I do hope I will me alive in 45 years. shall be.....61 years old. That is scary.

I think I did see the name 'Allison Miller' on the head girl boards. will double check tomorrow though.

Arch, Latin, Eng, Hist. sort of ok choices I suppose and Arch for me might be the best because no one else has a head start !...oh and it looks really interesting.
Those school trips do sound good though, Egypt and turkey. I've never actualy been to Africa, the furthest I've been with my school has been shang hai for an exchange.
I really should be working more on my d.t coursework but I can do this at the same time.

61 is all too fast approaching for me.

I remember at the age of nine sitting in my classroom in a town that is about 700 years old and being asked to draw what we though the town would look like in the year 2000 (when I would be 46). It was an unimaginably long time away, and of course we all drew flying cars, rockets and such like.

The town looks exactly the way it did in 1963, (and probably 1863 and 1773 come to that) but of course I look a lot different. (memo to self: must change that avatar.)

Can anyone imagine CH in 100 years? It will probably look exactly the same.....or has been bulldozed and is a car park. I hope it is the first to be honest.

Funny that.. Our Latin mistress was the Queen of Sarcasm. 'Child, Throw Yourself Out of the Window' and 'Why Am I Casting My Pearls Before Piglets?'.
But she was a very good Latin teacher and actually was quite highly regarded.
Only one of my peers ever stood up to her. We had to do some unseen translation and when the time came for someone to volunteer, my friend Sue put up her hand and this was so unusual that she was selected. With a dead straight face she recited a tale which started 'There were rabbits copulating at the end of my garden.......'. Most people think this must be apocryphal but I met Sue last year for the first time in 40 years, and she confirmed it to be true. None of us could remember, however, how our Latin mistress had taken it. Happy days!

The think is though, my lating teacher is actualy atrocious at latin. she just doesnt like be because:

1. I'm Leaving and she wont be teaching me a level latin

2. I sand nonstop for 3 hours do-a-deer top of my voice while I am tone deaf on the coach from pompeii to Rome in last year for a school trip. ah, the good times.

Teachers at Ch sound so much more lively and interesting....and good at their jobs. I've had 14 different Science teachers in the last 2 years.

what period of history are you doing? I did early modern- i loved it Henry VIII, Elizabeth and then the French monarchy-brilliant stuff!
Also English is very good at CH too i had some of the best teachers-unfortunately two left recently but the department is really rich with English teachers!
Mr Kirby was one of mine and my tutor-one of the nicest persons ever! and Dr Stuart if he hasn't retired yet is brilliant!

I have to admit that is defiantly one of the schools strongest points is the staff! They become so much more than teachers.

I'm doing Medeival History. I was going to do early modern like you did but then I saw the option for Medieval and I thought it would be much more interesting to learn about. Plus, my sister had already done early modern and I didn't want to end up comparing grades with hers.