Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

there has been for as long as I have lived at CH which is almost 12years

Well I signed the petition. I don't mind change so long as it isn't damaging to the spirit of the school. And where would a school be without its students?
If you can't have some fun while you're learning then what hope is there for when you leave? Backsliding into drunken student-ness or perhaps on the flip-side becoming incredibly boring. I'm speculating here but I think students should be let off the leash a bit. Other-wise they'll hit real world and crash and burn!

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Foureyes wrote:I wouldn't have paid to join the club, ... donation.

If I might say so, that seems a bit contradictory. There was no joining fee for the Club. The ANNUAL fee/subscription was £18 per year, and I would be most surprised if the monthly donations you refer to above come to less than that. As I said, there were 4,900 members, so they must have found something satsifactory about it, and I doubt very mnuch that there are anything like that number of active members of the CHA.

Yes, I probably didn't explain very well. I have not felt very well disposed to CH since I left, and I wouldn't have subscribed to the CH Club in order to keep in touch with the place, however reasonable the amount. However, receiving communications automatically as a "free" member of the CHA in the last few years has gradually pulled me back in, and with the aid of this forum (for which I will always be grateful), I now feel quite differently about the place. To the extent that, yes, my monthly donations, while modest, are certainly more than £18 per year!

Can't speak for other people though, and it does seem as though the CHA is detrimental to CH finance-wise.

Wuppertal wrote: 2) No bed-rest? That is morally, medically and legally wrong. I'm sure the law wouldn't allow a school that is in loco parentum to prevent a genuinely ill child from having bed-rest. If I was a parent and my child was ill and being denied what is medically correct for him/her, I would be outraged, seeking legal advice and informing the press. They might as well demolish the infirmary and forbid any doctors from entering the site. If a parent consciously failed to help their ill child, they would be done for child abuse. If a boarding school sinks to this, it deserves the same label. This is utterly outrageous. Please correct me and accept my apologies if I have misunderstood this no bed-rest thing.

And also not true. When one is ill, they do not go back to house/go to matron, instead they go to the infirmary. If they are indeed ill, and not just putting it on (which we all know does sometimes happen), they are then sent to bed, either at house or in the infirmary itself - I'm not ill so often so can't say.

In short, bedrest is still there - but to get it you can't just go to matron and groan that you have a headache, you get Infirmaried (temperature etc.) first.

Most older OBs will be rather confused by a list of what are mostly exceedingly trivial changes to institutions that (apart from the fee-paying thing) were not even thought of 30 years ago.

CH has one fundamental feature dating back to its foundation (no rich pupils, no fees for poor ones) and one other feature (the uniform) which is (I think I am using the term properly) iconic.

Obviously, the quality of the education and the welfare of the pupils are central, but that applies to all schools.

The rest is froth.

Wuppertal, you missed my point (which may well be the way I wrote it )

The original thread implied that the changes were going to the heart of the ethos of 5 centuries of the school ibid.

Many traditional elements of the CH way of life are being altered or even abolished completely. Aspects of education at CH aren't as they used to be, and while some change should be embraced, it is still imporant to maintain and preserve it's heritage. And of course, to make it an enjoyable environment to grow up in.

While the changes to assessment of individual need and therefore fees is of major concern, most of the other 'traditions' actually have very little heritage at all. They appear to be driven by a change from what was a quite liberal regime to a more focussed (possibly) conservative regime with the change in the SMT. To invoke the founders pledge over whether there is a rock concert or not is a bit extreme!!

Secondly, read my response about bed rest

What on earth is that? - if it is medically recommended OK, otherwise get out of bed you lazy layabouts

absolutely if there is medical need assessed by the School Doctor, or a house parent acting in loco parentis advising rest it should happen, however the way it is presented in the original petition is ambiguous, and could be interpreted as a 'duvet day' by the less generous reader.

The substance of my issue is this is nothing to do with taking the poor and needy off the streets of London for their education, more about a few 21st century rules being reversed. As can be seen in many places on this forum, the school changes, and I would not have liked to be there in the 50's as much as today's children would not have liked the 80's, just get the right context for your complaints

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Two things --- In an earlier Exixtence I was invited to be on the Platform at the Degree Ceremony of a University.
We (I and the other guests ) were advised that we should not applaud any Graduates .
I suggested , and the others agreed , that any Graduate who had attained a "First" Should be applauded -- I still think so, although not now in a position pf any influence !
Secondly, about sick children being transferred to the Sicker (Is it still that ?)
There was , in my time, a sure deterrent to "Malingerers" --- Dr Friend ordered that on entry, andd each day thereafter a dose of CASCARA would be administered ---- URG ! BLECH ! and YUCK !
I think, on another Topic , this has been discussed as being beneficial to keeping the bowels open ------- but there are LIMITS !

As Wuppertal implied earlier.............

"If It Ain't Broke - Don't Mend It !"

The term "Bed Rest" has gone, but pupils can be "Ill in House" if not well enough to attend lessons yet do not require admission to the Health Centre.

thriftymatron wrote:The term "Bed Rest" has gone, but pupils can be "Ill in House" if not well enough to attend lessons yet do not require admission to the Health Centre.

Who decides how ill is ill?

Matrons do. My daughter was on 'bed-rest' for a morning recently while having a migraine. She's had them before and gets over them fairly quickly if she's given painkillers and allowed to be in a quiet, dark room. I certainly wouldn't expect her to go to the Health Centre for that, and I know that the Matrons are experienced enough to know what ailments can be treated with bed-rest, which children need to go to the Health Centre, which need painkillers and back to class, and which children just need some kind words.

Perfectly put Lonelymom!

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