Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

It is correct the Grecians get laptops BUT they are still useful to have on the Deps. It depends on the pupil. If they are doing work that is word processing intensive as opposed to Art/Design/Drama... then a laptop is a good idea. Not vital but more common than ever before. You could get a laptop as part of a mobile broadband deal - this is sometimes quite cheap and again useful. Not necessary but useful. In the end it depends (as with most things) on you disposable income and priorities.

Printers are a nightmare - often broken and never with paper so I think a printer is a must in the Grecians. I work in a Grecians House by the way! BUT beware - do not let on to too many people or you will become the popular person to go and just get work printed! If the pupils were really sensible they would club together to get a printer and ink and then share the cost of the printing. This is popular in University halls now.

ailurophile wrote:Sejintenej wrote

ailurophile wrote:
My children complain bitterly that it's "like, just so embarrassing" whenever they do any sporting activity at home in the holidays because their swimming trunks, tracksuits etc are all clearly labelled with their name and house number! I'm afraid that our tight budget does not run to a full set of unlabelled civvies!!

I can't see a problem if normal Cash type labels are sewn on the inside; if you want to sew them on the outside in a prominent place ......................................

I don't want to sew them in a prominent place - I'm 'Only following orders'!! We're given very strict instructions as to where labels must be sewn onto sports kit etc.

The instructions have changed now for labelling clothes, and the nametapes are now in the back of waistbands, collars etc, so aren't on display. Much, much better!

will look for some sort of refurb I think unless some wonderous deal comes up between now and September - at least, knowing in advance, I can budget and website-watch accordingly.
Again it is the concern of the mounting "kit list" and reliance on public transport - is there ANY liklihood of her being able to leave some gear over the holidays at CH - ESPECIALLY the bulky stuff (duvet,bedding.............PRINTER!!)

Oh - and another question - how closely do CH terms follow those in the state sectors?

Hi,
Term dates are posted here: http://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/scho ... -dates.php

I work in a state school and my son is a second former at CH.....so far he seems to have gone back a week later each term and finished a week earlier.

But he's in a maths lesson Saturday morning and I'm in my bed!

You can leave stuff over the holidays with the exception of Easter (sometimes) and the Summer. The main 'drop off' and 'pick up' of big items is in September and July.

You will need to purchase some huge suitcases that have wheels. They seem to be popular with the train commuters at Half Term etc.

At the beginning of the academic year and the end you will need a car or transport - i am sure that someone out there will help out.

YadaYada wrote:Hi,
Term dates are posted here: http://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/scho ... -dates.php

I work in a state school and my son is a second former at CH.....so far he seems to have gone back a week later each term and finished a week earlier.

But he's in a maths lesson Saturday morning and I'm in my bed!

In practice we have shorter terms and longer holidays - the longest being the summer which is about 2 weeks longer than the state system.

onewestguncopse wrote: In practice we have shorter terms and longer holidays - the longest being the summer which is about 2 weeks longer than the state system.

That said, back in my time we had a large multiple of the amount of homework which my grand-daughter (taking GCSEs at the moment) has. We certainly "paid" for those extra days "holiday".
I can't remember much about O levels but for A levels we did all the periods in classrooms** plus homework until close to midnight and often from 5.30am., five, often six days a week and homework on Sunday as well. Tuesday afternoons were for "hobbies" - which was school work in the Scout Hut!

** Two periods a week were non-exam languages you hadn't done before and two periods were non-exam Art / handcrafts; every other period of the week was your A level subjects so education was highly specialised

The instructions have changed now for labelling clothes, and the nametapes are now in the back of waistbands, collars etc, so aren't on display. Much, much better!

Thanks Lonelymom, I wish I'd known this earlier! I'm still going by the instructions we were given when my children started at CH several years ago; it would help if changes to things like this were communicated to existing parents as well as to new ones!

Englishangel------ thanks --- now I know --- but I think I will refain from use !

What they are really good for is loading all your digital photos onto and taking them to annoy (I mean show) the offspring rather than emailing them. Or of you want to back up letters, documents etc.

onewestguncopse wrote:It is correct the Grecians get laptops BUT they are still useful to have on the Deps. It depends on the pupil. If they are doing work that is word processing intensive as opposed to Art/Design/Drama... then a laptop is a good idea. Not vital but more common than ever before. You could get a laptop as part of a mobile broadband deal - this is sometimes quite cheap and again useful. Not necessary but useful. In the end it depends (as with most things) on you disposable income and priorities.

Printers are a nightmare - often broken and never with paper so I think a printer is a must in the Grecians. I work in a Grecians House by the way! BUT beware - do not let on to too many people or you will become the popular person to go and just get work printed! If the pupils were really sensible they would club together to get a printer and ink and then share the cost of the printing. This is popular in University halls now.

Sorry, but I really have to disagree with this. Of course many people have laptops already for their own ends (gaming, music etc) and with a pen drive, they can use it to work on and then give the work to their teacher by pen-drive. (NB: Hazard alert! If you use office 2007 there is a good chance at some point you will forget to save it as .doc, not .docx - the standard 2007 format which CH computers can't read!)

For word processing-intensive lessons (I did three of them at A-Level and 4 at AS), classwork is generally handwritten anyway, even when people get their Grecians laptops. Most word processing is done for essays, and thus written in the evening during prep. While it may be true that in the evenings the house computers are taken up by second and third form playing "Travian" or "Dark Throne" or suchlike, GE+ are allowed to go out of house to work in ICT school, or the libraries, which also have IT suites.

For printing, OWGC is partly right, in that the school printers are often problematic - but only via the network! GrW (his house and mine) has two HP Laserjet 2100s and I never had a problem with printing with them. They weren't linked to the network, but instead were operated by infra-red, which all grecian printers have. On deps, printing is often not a problem either as various of the school printers, especially ICT school and the English Department, are famously reliable.

Note: to be on the safe side, you should always bring paper with you as they are almost always out of paper (except IT school with always has some).

She has been allocated to Thornton A - and is getting a bit "wobbly" about boarding now, the last thing we need in the middle of GCSE's (2 sets of aurals this week plus Drama - ALREADY !!)

does anyone know anyone with a body in Thornton???

One or two - though I'm afraid they're on the year above her :S Still, both sides of the block (which one is she in) are lovely.

How do I know "which side of the block"? @scuse ignorance. It just says Thornton A ??

do you think ant current Thorntoners/Thorntonites ???? could be persuaded to drop her an e-mail or message

Why not contact Mrs Mason (HsM ThA) and ask her if one or 2 of the current GE could possibly contact your daughter?