I nearly went to High School, but we moved...
I went to three Grammar Schools and a Comprehensive instead. Even the basic terminology is different when you cross the Atlantic. I passed my 11+, which I took a year early, just before I was 10, and should have gone to Stafford Girls' High School (where Carol Anne Duffy would have been the year below me, oddly enough), but my father was promoted to Chief Inspector and moved to Uttoxeter, the other side of rural Staffordshire, just as the school year started - indeed, for the first two weeks at my new school we commuted, about an hour each way, from Stafford to Uttoxeter, where Dad had taken up his post at the start of September.
Sixteen months later he was promoted again, and moved across the county to Stone, a small market town just south of the Potteries. Oddly, the new school had the same name as the old - a priest, Thomas Alleyne, founded both (and one in Stevenage) by his will of 1558, so both were Alleyne's Grammar School. The Stone school "went Comprehensive" while I was there, hanging from a small, selective school of perhaps 450 ppils aged 11-18, to a big, non-selective school for well over double that. It was a bit of a culture shock - while my friendship group stayed much the same, I was badly bullied by other girls in the year who joined when the school changed.
Two years later, another promotion, another move, right across the county to Burton-on-Trent, home of brewing. (To this day one process in making beer is to "Burtonise" the water.) There I attended my last school, where I stayed for the remaining three and a half years of my secondary education, though we lived in two houses during that time. Most of my answers therefore relate to Dovecliffe Grammar School from Jan 1970 to July 1973. A long time ago and in another county...
Thus there are a lot of differences in my experience and those of my American friends - and most of my Brit friends probably stayed a bit less peripatetic than we were!
Snagged from everywhere but primarily enigmaticblues:
Class of:
Does this mean when I left school? 1973.
Class Size:
Another terminology issue. To us the 'class' was the specific teaching or registration group, while to Americans I believe it means what we would call the "year group". Up to 1971 I was usually in classes of about 36, but the whole Sixth Form in my year was only 48. There were 36 of us in LVIA - Lower Sixth Arts - though some left after the first year. At least half a dozen had joined the school for the Sixth Form, including Maureen, who became my closest friend.
Did you know your spouse?
No. We didn't meet until I went to Durham University, where we met in my first year.
Did you carpool?
After we moved to the other end of town my father took it in turns with a lady down the road whose daughter also went to our school, but we found our own way home by bus.
What kind of car did you have?
I didn't even learn to drive until I was 27.
It's Friday night. Where are you going?
Almost always staying in and getting some homework done. Saturday was when the gang went out. Quite often I took my work to babysitting, for which I earned the princely sum of 50p, or £1 if I stayed overnight.
What kind of job did you have?
My parents were very much against my having any paid work, though I did work as a salesgirl ove the Christmas of my last year at school, at Ordish and Hall, a traditional department store rather reminiscent of Grace Bros in Are You Being Served? I also did babysitting on and off in the Sixth Form.
Were you a party animal?
Not really, though I had a fairly active social life in the Sixth Form. Before that I was miserable, lonely and isolated.
Were you considered a jock?
Not a term that meant anything to me at the time, but I was almost the exact opposite. I wore heavy glasses and could rarely see a ball coming. I have particularly miserable memories of shivering on the hockey field at the other end of the pitch from all the action. In the Sixth Form we did self-defence one year and fencing the other and I was genuinely astonished to discover sports lessons could be fun.
Were you in choir/band?
Sometimes, but always in any drama that was going. I was a fairy in Iolanthe.
Were you a nerd?
Not a word we knew, but definitely a swot. Work helped me survive the loneliness and the habit perssted after the isolation ended.
Did you get suspended?
Good lord no. I was annoyingly well-behaved except in Games and Domestic Science.
Can you sing the fight/school song?
No idea what a fight song is. We had a school hymn in two of the schools I attended.
Where did you eat?
In the dining room until I was in the Lower Sixth, when we were allowed to eat in our form room. In the last year we were all prefects and ate in the Prefects' Room unless we were supervising younger kids.
Where was high school?
See above. Uttoxeter, Stone, Burton-on-Trent, all in Staffordshire in the English Midlands.
What was your school mascot?
We never had one. There was a crest on our blazers - the two Alleyne's schools had old Fr. Alleyne's family crest, while Dovecliffe had a half-arsed thing with a corner-post and some wiggly lines supposed to symbolise the Trent. (The post, a highly-decorated Jacobean thing, is now in the V&A I believe. I have no idea why I was considered symbolic of the town or school.)
If you could go back and do it over would you?
Good grief no. Far too much sadness. University, now... In a way I suppose that's what I am doing.
Do you still talk to the person you went to prom with?
We didn't have such a thing. I am in touch via FB with only one friend of that era. My parents moved away while I was at Durham, and then Dave and I married and lived elsewhere, so we all lost touch.
Are you planning on going to the next reunion?
I don't know how I would find out if such a thing happened. The school has been merged and renamed twice since then.
Are you still in contact with people from high school?
Only Rose, on FB.
Did you skip school?
More than my life was worth! Our responsibilities as the children of the local senior police officer were soundly drummed into us.
Do you know where your high school crush is?
Nope. There wasn't really anyone in my last school at all.
What was your favourite subject?
English, with History a close second, followed by languages.
Do you still have your high school ring?
Is that really a thing? I had my prefect's badge until we were burgled a few years ago.
Do you still have your yearbooks?
No such thing. I do have a copy of the school magazine I co-edited in my last year, unillustrated.
Grammar School in the 60s/70s was clearly a very different experience from a HS of the same period in the USA. We had to pass an admission exam and it was made very clear that academic excellence was expected of us in the top class - yes, everything was steamed and setted. I was very lucky that the system existed then - it's almost vanished now - because I would probably have sunk without trace in bigger schools; I always seemed to have a lot of academic work to catch up on because things were taught in different ways and different orders.
Sixteen months later he was promoted again, and moved across the county to Stone, a small market town just south of the Potteries. Oddly, the new school had the same name as the old - a priest, Thomas Alleyne, founded both (and one in Stevenage) by his will of 1558, so both were Alleyne's Grammar School. The Stone school "went Comprehensive" while I was there, hanging from a small, selective school of perhaps 450 ppils aged 11-18, to a big, non-selective school for well over double that. It was a bit of a culture shock - while my friendship group stayed much the same, I was badly bullied by other girls in the year who joined when the school changed.
Two years later, another promotion, another move, right across the county to Burton-on-Trent, home of brewing. (To this day one process in making beer is to "Burtonise" the water.) There I attended my last school, where I stayed for the remaining three and a half years of my secondary education, though we lived in two houses during that time. Most of my answers therefore relate to Dovecliffe Grammar School from Jan 1970 to July 1973. A long time ago and in another county...
Thus there are a lot of differences in my experience and those of my American friends - and most of my Brit friends probably stayed a bit less peripatetic than we were!
Snagged from everywhere but primarily enigmaticblues:
Class of:
Does this mean when I left school? 1973.
Class Size:
Another terminology issue. To us the 'class' was the specific teaching or registration group, while to Americans I believe it means what we would call the "year group". Up to 1971 I was usually in classes of about 36, but the whole Sixth Form in my year was only 48. There were 36 of us in LVIA - Lower Sixth Arts - though some left after the first year. At least half a dozen had joined the school for the Sixth Form, including Maureen, who became my closest friend.
Did you know your spouse?
No. We didn't meet until I went to Durham University, where we met in my first year.
Did you carpool?
After we moved to the other end of town my father took it in turns with a lady down the road whose daughter also went to our school, but we found our own way home by bus.
What kind of car did you have?
I didn't even learn to drive until I was 27.
It's Friday night. Where are you going?
Almost always staying in and getting some homework done. Saturday was when the gang went out. Quite often I took my work to babysitting, for which I earned the princely sum of 50p, or £1 if I stayed overnight.
What kind of job did you have?
My parents were very much against my having any paid work, though I did work as a salesgirl ove the Christmas of my last year at school, at Ordish and Hall, a traditional department store rather reminiscent of Grace Bros in Are You Being Served? I also did babysitting on and off in the Sixth Form.
Were you a party animal?
Not really, though I had a fairly active social life in the Sixth Form. Before that I was miserable, lonely and isolated.
Were you considered a jock?
Not a term that meant anything to me at the time, but I was almost the exact opposite. I wore heavy glasses and could rarely see a ball coming. I have particularly miserable memories of shivering on the hockey field at the other end of the pitch from all the action. In the Sixth Form we did self-defence one year and fencing the other and I was genuinely astonished to discover sports lessons could be fun.
Were you in choir/band?
Sometimes, but always in any drama that was going. I was a fairy in Iolanthe.
Were you a nerd?
Not a word we knew, but definitely a swot. Work helped me survive the loneliness and the habit perssted after the isolation ended.
Did you get suspended?
Good lord no. I was annoyingly well-behaved except in Games and Domestic Science.
Can you sing the fight/school song?
No idea what a fight song is. We had a school hymn in two of the schools I attended.
Where did you eat?
In the dining room until I was in the Lower Sixth, when we were allowed to eat in our form room. In the last year we were all prefects and ate in the Prefects' Room unless we were supervising younger kids.
Where was high school?
See above. Uttoxeter, Stone, Burton-on-Trent, all in Staffordshire in the English Midlands.
What was your school mascot?
We never had one. There was a crest on our blazers - the two Alleyne's schools had old Fr. Alleyne's family crest, while Dovecliffe had a half-arsed thing with a corner-post and some wiggly lines supposed to symbolise the Trent. (The post, a highly-decorated Jacobean thing, is now in the V&A I believe. I have no idea why I was considered symbolic of the town or school.)
If you could go back and do it over would you?
Good grief no. Far too much sadness. University, now... In a way I suppose that's what I am doing.
Do you still talk to the person you went to prom with?
We didn't have such a thing. I am in touch via FB with only one friend of that era. My parents moved away while I was at Durham, and then Dave and I married and lived elsewhere, so we all lost touch.
Are you planning on going to the next reunion?
I don't know how I would find out if such a thing happened. The school has been merged and renamed twice since then.
Are you still in contact with people from high school?
Only Rose, on FB.
Did you skip school?
More than my life was worth! Our responsibilities as the children of the local senior police officer were soundly drummed into us.
Do you know where your high school crush is?
Nope. There wasn't really anyone in my last school at all.
What was your favourite subject?
English, with History a close second, followed by languages.
Do you still have your high school ring?
Is that really a thing? I had my prefect's badge until we were burgled a few years ago.
Do you still have your yearbooks?
No such thing. I do have a copy of the school magazine I co-edited in my last year, unillustrated.
Grammar School in the 60s/70s was clearly a very different experience from a HS of the same period in the USA. We had to pass an admission exam and it was made very clear that academic excellence was expected of us in the top class - yes, everything was steamed and setted. I was very lucky that the system existed then - it's almost vanished now - because I would probably have sunk without trace in bigger schools; I always seemed to have a lot of academic work to catch up on because things were taught in different ways and different orders.