Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I had a year and a half of grecians serving alchol (only allowed in when truned 17!) We had a card we could put money on and could not spend more than £5 at any one time in the club!

I think its changed due to licensing nothing else

We used to buy books of chits from the house mistress. If I remember correctly half a pint of lager/cider was 35p A pint 70p

Bed Rest is when you are unwell and the infirmary is not open, so matron lets you go to bed and lets you miss lessons or an active.

alot of people use this technique for skiving. however it proved helpful to me when the infirmary refused to believe i was ill (when i had tonsilitus) and matron put me on regardless because she actually paid attention to me and looked at my throat.

there is a school council however the general feeling amongst the pupils (the older ones at any rate) was that the SMT were not listening to what was being said.

Grecians Marching- my year grecians 07-08 were asked if we wanted to march in grecian houses and we said no. the headmaster and deputy head asked the monitors aswell and the monitors relied no. the grecians are now marching in their grecian house.

Since the head has come it has become alot harder for grecians to communicate with their old houses and i know a lot of people have felt outcast. my house for example only invited one grecian back for a house barbeque and this was deemed exceptible by the SMT, that a housemistress can pick and choose who she invites back, refusing to consider our feelings. And denying she did it delibrately when asked about it (even though she emailed that one grecian and not the rest of us).

The think the general unrest in the school is purely due to the lack of tradition and lack of respect teachers have for pupils. some people may argue that teachers should not have respect for pupils, on the other hand it is hard for a pupil to co-operate if they have privalages taken away with no good reason. i know it might seem petty to you but a disco is very important thing to a teenager and something that most c.h pupils look forward to. without good reason they are being cut down and it seems (i know what i am saying is not neccesarily corrrect) so the teachers have less to do. Surely the reason the teachers came to teach at C.H is to help and mentor pupils. By appearing lazy like this it is disrespectful to teachers who put in their everything to give pupils an enjoyable time such as the late Clive Kemp. Teenagers would be allowed to have parties if they were not at school and I believe C.H pupils should get all the same experiences that a teenager outside the school would get (and much more of course).

I have spoken to some pretty senior staff (i will not name names) and she said that she thought it was perfectly acceptable to let the senior members of the school alcohol, this way teachers can monitor what pupils drink and teach them the appropriate amount to drink. Otherwise pupils will go and drink regardless and most probably drink to excess. Everyone here is or has been a teenager and most of you would have liked to drink (and smoke) and its merely a part of growing up and experimenting. I agree it should not be done to excess but why not let it be done a little?
I do not want to appear rude i simply wanted to give a different opinion on the matter. i agree that some of the younger kids are making ridiculous comments but a few people have some intelligent things to say, and everyone agrees that the atmosphere is not quite the same.

Hello hunta42

What you say is very thoughtful and certainly not rude -as some of the posts on here have been. I see that you and some of the other recent members are from the Facebook arena and have now chosen to put their views on ths forum . One of the things that bothers me is how you can be so sure that everyone agrees with everythng you say- which is the impression you give even if you don't mean to.
As I understand it, with the Grecians marching issue- the man objectos were pupils who skived off marching. Grecians were getting fewer and fewer in number and it was not possible to know who was there and who was not. Staff have better things to do than chase up 17 and 18 year olds who won't obey the school rules. If they March as Grecian houses it is easy to see who isn't there. The staff have a duty of care to account for every pupil at every minute of the day. Inspections by Ofsted and Social Services require it by law. If a pupil does not attend marchingt the school is required by law to prove that they had done everything in its power to ensure that all pupils were there. You may not be aware of the huge number of pupils that are very vulnerable and whose whereabouts has to be know at every point in the day.Why do you complain about something so trivial which is merely ensuring the safety of the pupils and complying with the law? You seem to be blissfully unaware of the outside world and how much work goes into keeping the school safe.

i did actually say (at some point im not sure where) that i may be wrong.

i understand that marching might seem trivial to you but to a pupil it is a big deal as that person has marched with their house for 6 years. i for one actually enjoy marching. however the grecians are usually on the marching roll call and so can be signed in this way. Hunt A actually took the grecians off the marching roll call last yr ( i dont know why).

I very much appreciate that the school is trying to look after the pupils and keep them safe but i was just expressing what the pupils felt as a whole and as i am sure u r aware as a mother, that children do not generally think about their own safety. when i was at school i always felt safe especially with CHPD roaming around. why this has changed in the last yr is unknown.

I would like to say what i am writing is not my own thoughts but what i have gathered from actually being at school and what everybody is feeling. People were asking for their opinion and i supplied.

also i did not intentionally write what i said expecting that everyone agreed with me. Most of the stuff I have said i dont actually have an opinion on i was just writing what i felt certain pupils felt having actually spoken to them and lived a year at the school under the new headmaster (who i actually find very pleasant).
I ask for no personal attacks just for everyone to happily use my information.

Hello hunta42,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your posts they are balanced and very interesting to read.

As an out of touch Old Blue, who also happens to be the father of 3 daughters, I could easily get splinters in an uncomfortable place as it would be easy to sit on the fence since I can see aspects of this from all points of view.

I have to take the side of the School on smoking since there is now overwhelming evidence that smoking is a health hazard. (As an aside my Grandfather died of cancer in 1964 aged 61 and the hospital attributed it to his smoking from a very early age. The link between cancer and smoking was not generally acknowledged back then). The School acts "in loco parentis" (I think the Latin is right, the late Tom Keeley despaired of my Latin..) in other words they have to act as a responsible parent would. I shouldn't encourage gambling amongst all the other vices you youngsters seem to have but I would bet a decent sum of money that the majority of parents are grateful that the School are proactive in trying to stop children smoking. Another consideration is that the School could possibly leave itself exposed to legal action if it neglected to take steps to prevent smoking and pupils subsequently suffered health problems as a result. A few years back in the USA a smoker with lung cancer won millions in compensation from Philip Morris Cigarette Company because they did not warn him that he was harming himself by smoking. You can see the possibility of that legal principle being extended to "carers" being negligent in their "caring" by not taking reasonable steps to prevent smoking.

Drinking is a more difficult area. I think in principle as you do that it is a good idea to educate youngsters by introducing them sensibly to alcohol with a meal or at a family celebration. The equivalent at CH would be the Grecians Club (missed it by a year! ). However again I believe the law of the land prevents alcohol being served these days. In other words it is out of CH's control. Regarding taking a few bottles of cider to Shelley's Wood or whatever again the School has little option but to take action because if it does not firstly it could be held to be breaking the law by condoning under age drinking. Secondly "in loco parentis" comes in to play again. Responsible parents may well be happy with SUPERVISED drinking but not UNSUPERVISED drinking.


Finally regarding some things I've read on the facebook link like suddenly making the Rock Concert Grecian only even though the younger pupils had rehearsed long and hard my sympathies are firmly with you the pupils.

Sorry to ramble on at length!

Hello hunta42!! I know, as you say, that many pupils do enjoy marching. I was in band for my last four years so I only marched a few times with house, but everytime I felt proud to be on front row, looking smart. But looking back to last year, most Grecians did not bother or want to turn up for marching and I reckon that was not the only, but the main reason why WE rejected marching as a Grecians house.

I don't think it was a good idea to make the new year of Grecian's march in blocks because they WILL want to march with their houses!

HuntA42: I think Hunt A just wanted to forget about our year! haha. She definately will invite them all back next year to every single BBQ, she loves them. I don't know what issue she really had against our year! Do you remember what happened at our last house photo?!
xx

Alice: yes she didnt like our yr and thats why we had a bad relationship but when a few people spoke to the deputy head and we complained it was shrugged off.

The point I was making about smoking is purely to explain why people were smoking. I do not condone it in anyway. It is important for people to remember what it is like to be a teenager to understand why alot of pupils are so upset about the changes. They feel cheated to have privalages such as discos taken away from them, especially when they are not told to their face or the reasons behind it but in a letter recieved during the summer holidays. To a teenager this looks a bit cowardly.

Again I am only explaining how people are feeling. I myself couldn't care less seeing as I have left. Only reporting feelings as I have nothing better to do (trying to find a job)

Having lived in Europe since 1994, I will bring back that sweeping generalisation that young Europeans have a more mature attitude to drinking and often show their horror when confronted with images of drunken English rolling out of pubs etc etc.
We all know that the French introduce the vino bianco e rosso at an early age and most teenagers prefer to drink a cafe in a brasserie than knock back pints...

Having seen my 2 year old son sip contently this summer on champagne, Pimm's and a Coke Vodka, I realise that I am being a totally irresponsible parent but at the same time in talking to my wife (she's French..mon dieu!), I understand that there is no harm and that in later years our son will undoubtedly be more mature vis a vis C2H5OH...an early exposure seems to be natural and have longer lasting effects! He must have been a bit tiddly on the champers for his birthday as he spent most of the afternoon running around the table in circles...

So my first experience at CH was when we got an ex pupil to buy us some stout for the House Disco. Three of us seemed to have paraded around that night oblivious...the next day JED called us in and we were fined £1 and a letter home! That's a light punishment! JED's comment on the report was "another excellent term apart from one isolated blemish"! Then I joined the Club at 17 and became its President in my last year!

I recollect that we were more responsible with the Club and as there was always two members of staff behind the bar the control was good. Sure there were other drinking offences going on outside, but supervised drinking was a good way to keep the 17/18 year olds in place.

Even as a schoolmaster at Oakham School in the early 90s there was a Club for the 7 form and in the senior Houses it was quite common for the tutor to take his tutess out to the restauarant and allow them a pint or two. Parents had in advance approved of course!

Having read all the changes at CH, it seems that a lot of freedom has been taken away and this is rather sad. Visiting other houses after prep was a nice way to see friends and round up the day...but if that has gone too, then maybe I am inclined to agree that today's pupils have a lot to gripe about and that someone on the staff needs to pacify the situation by challenging the head...

Haven't seen any staff entries for a while but remember a contemporary was here (Ian ?). Be interesting to get a perspective...

I think the Grecians' Club was / is a superb idea... (I would say that though... just look who one of the founding pupil members was)...

I'm surprised that even if they can't serve alcohol so often, that it isn't open more often almost as a common room for the Grecians... is there still a Grecians' Club committee?

I was taken out for a drink on my Grecians along with others by some teachers -I'm sure this was probably checked with my housemaster before hand... Having said that, Dr Stuart often would invite the grecians up to his flat for a tipple...

Who was none of the Founding members Great Plum?

Chaz, I suspect it was the one and only Plum Senior.

I was there when the club opened - we thoroughly enjoyed it (I think we were allowed a pint a day), and although we didn't go around praising the Powers That Be (not very cool), I think we appreciated that we were being given a bit of trust and responsibility.

Alcohol wasn't a demon in the 70s. Most of us got horribly drunk occasionally, usually on cheap cider or wine - surely that's how you learn? Mind you, thinking about some of the staff at Horsham in the 60s-70s, I would imagine they'd have had few real problems with the pupils having a drink every now and then...

Fings ain't wot they used to be - sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

I am appalled by the comments that one avenue houseparent only invited 1 grecian back for a bbq! Unfortunatly it was partially the same betwen my house grecians and our avenue house. In the avenue houseparents eyes two could do no wrong as they were very sporty in all the teams and helped our house win a lot of house leagues...i think they also played on this slightly to their advatnage. However for some of the others we were not really made to feel welcome coming back either by the houseparents and staff or the deps who were happy ruling the house.
As for teachers having no respect for pupils i find it hard to belive. I know many staff who would jump through hoops to help the kids and act as confident. I was lucky to have very good relationships with my greican housparents and my tutor who i think is one of the best teachers ever, along with many of my subject teachers i had what i feel was a relationship based upon respect. Respect doesnt just happen it has to be earnt from both sides!

What i think the main issue of all this 'unrest' is that the seniors are all missing southern and the atmosphere/moral he installed. The juniors who either have had none or very little experience of Dr Sourthern are possibly not fully realising the concern the senirs have about the loosing of privaliges etc.

I think time will tell.........................

CHAZ wrote:Who was none of the Founding members Great Plum?

Plum Senior...