My 'ilk'? You've got that completely arse about face.
I was on the touchline one year to cheer on my son's team against Millfield. The Millfield parents turned up in droves, in their Bentleys, camel hair coats, and Hermes scarves.
The RGS 1st XV destroyed them 32-0, and we taunted the visiting parents with comments like ''You pay £15,000 a year for your sons to be coached this shit, and they get pummelled by a bunch of state school oiks?''
I am an ex Challoners lad, never that good at footie, but made the rugby XV, we used to play and regularly beat Merchant Taylors but mostly lose to RGS. I also ran track & cross country for the school, 45 years on I don't even run for a bus 🤣
My grammar school, not the RGS, took us out of school for 2 full days to some lah di dah public school, I think maybe Harrow, to be extras for the filming of "Breaking the Code", starring Derek Jacobi.
I can still hear him reciting a few lines from it now, decades later.
Just for historical perspective it is worth noting that, until the Education Act of 1945, Grammar Schools were fee paying unless you were one of the few fortunate ‘scholarship’ kids whose fees were paid. As a result they were the preserve of the towns middle class - professions, merchants etc. As such, in a class ridden society, they aspired to the ‘trappings’ of the major Public Schools, vestiges of which appear to hang on in the very few selective systems remaining notably Bucks and Kent.
When I passed for the RGS in 1943 I had a scholarship but my parents were expected to pay £5 a term, That finished when the 1944 Education Act came in. I still have the prospectus and the paperwork involved at the time. Being wartime many of the staff had been called up and replaced by some old ones from retirement plus a few women. They included a PT lady, Zoe Boddy from Seer Green who made sure we had a shower after PT and used her whistle on a cord to hit you on the backside if you appeared reluctant.
Also ex Challoners 78-84 I’m dyspaxic so sport was a fucking nightmare. Ex Olympian shot putter or discus thrower or whatever Paul Dickinson walloped me on the head once for, I presume, being shit at sport 😀And Paul was a veritable saint compared to some of the staff.
A friend of mine, who sees the good in everyone (he’s a vicar, he kind of has to) once suggested a school reunion. I told him to get to fuck.
The current Minister for London and Minister of State for Trade Policy was in my year there. Didn’t know him well, think he edited both the official school pupil-created magazine, which I occasionally contributed to, and the ‘unofficial’ one which I wrote rather more for. He was a decent lad from what I recall. Certainly he never beat me up, bog-washed me, gobbed on me, stabbed me, mocked me in public or threw any of my stuff out of the window of the 353 bus.
Throwing stuff out of windows seems like an age-old tradition. We had a phase where any unattended rucksack was at risk of being emptied, turned inside out, then repacked and the zip jammed shut. If you were really unlucky, it might also get thrown out a window.
Come to think of it, someone did once chuck their rucksack *through* a window of the main block (I think it still had single glazing) when they tried to use it as a weapon in a fight. That was fun.
Feeling missed out here. It’s a long time ago but the lower school had to wear caps, the big lads didn’t. The 4.32 train from Wycombe to Beaconsfield (& beyond - kids came from as far as Denham) went through that tunnel near Holtspur. Lower school caps got hung on the exterior handle of the slam shut doors. No one asked to see the well being councillor!
Comments
My 'ilk'? You've got that completely arse about face.
I was on the touchline one year to cheer on my son's team against Millfield. The Millfield parents turned up in droves, in their Bentleys, camel hair coats, and Hermes scarves.
The RGS 1st XV destroyed them 32-0, and we taunted the visiting parents with comments like ''You pay £15,000 a year for your sons to be coached this shit, and they get pummelled by a bunch of state school oiks?''
Horrible that your 'little darling' disrespects our team
❔
Apologies Mr Bargepole I went of on one.
Respect
I don't know you so silly to say things like 'ilk'
Gawd that took a surprising turn. 😳
I find threads like this really useful as a timeline of which meds @LX1 had popped at what time.
Or not, as the case may be.
Twas just a cheeky couple in Wetherspoons.
Lads?
One of my sons was at Dr Challoners, very good football teams there and annual fixtures against Eton and Harrow I think.
John Mousinho an old boy?
I am an ex Challoners lad, never that good at footie, but made the rugby XV, we used to play and regularly beat Merchant Taylors but mostly lose to RGS. I also ran track & cross country for the school, 45 years on I don't even run for a bus 🤣
I cannot compete with the pre-eminent @wingnut. If he was 11 in 1943 he was born in 1932 - 6 years before me.
Great to still be hearing from him.
My grammar school, not the RGS, took us out of school for 2 full days to some lah di dah public school, I think maybe Harrow, to be extras for the filming of "Breaking the Code", starring Derek Jacobi.
I can still hear him reciting a few lines from it now, decades later.
The final film? Our bit got cut didn't it!!
Yeah not surprised. He had equally disturbing pictures of my classmates and me tucked away in a drawer. Guilty as they come. Sacked accordingly
Just for historical perspective it is worth noting that, until the Education Act of 1945, Grammar Schools were fee paying unless you were one of the few fortunate ‘scholarship’ kids whose fees were paid. As a result they were the preserve of the towns middle class - professions, merchants etc. As such, in a class ridden society, they aspired to the ‘trappings’ of the major Public Schools, vestiges of which appear to hang on in the very few selective systems remaining notably Bucks and Kent.
Do any of the RGS teachers still wear gowns?
It was still a thing for the true old-schoolers when I was there in the 90s but I don’t remember any teacher under the age of 40 following the custom.
Some did when I started in 2005. I think the 'trend' had died by the time I left in 2012.
When I passed for the RGS in 1943 I had a scholarship but my parents were expected to pay £5 a term, That finished when the 1944 Education Act came in. I still have the prospectus and the paperwork involved at the time. Being wartime many of the staff had been called up and replaced by some old ones from retirement plus a few women. They included a PT lady, Zoe Boddy from Seer Green who made sure we had a shower after PT and used her whistle on a cord to hit you on the backside if you appeared reluctant.
It slightly blows my mind that we have a gasroomer who started at RGS in 1943.
Also ex Challoners 78-84 I’m dyspaxic so sport was a fucking nightmare. Ex Olympian shot putter or discus thrower or whatever Paul Dickinson walloped me on the head once for, I presume, being shit at sport 😀And Paul was a veritable saint compared to some of the staff.
A friend of mine, who sees the good in everyone (he’s a vicar, he kind of has to) once suggested a school reunion. I told him to get to fuck.
Dominic Raab went to Challoner's, didn't he? Ugh.
He did, but Chris Grayling went to RGS.
Wouldn't like to call that one
Surprised he could find it.
The current Minister for London and Minister of State for Trade Policy was in my year there. Didn’t know him well, think he edited both the official school pupil-created magazine, which I occasionally contributed to, and the ‘unofficial’ one which I wrote rather more for. He was a decent lad from what I recall. Certainly he never beat me up, bog-washed me, gobbed on me, stabbed me, mocked me in public or threw any of my stuff out of the window of the 353 bus.
Throwing stuff out of windows seems like an age-old tradition. We had a phase where any unattended rucksack was at risk of being emptied, turned inside out, then repacked and the zip jammed shut. If you were really unlucky, it might also get thrown out a window.
Come to think of it, someone did once chuck their rucksack *through* a window of the main block (I think it still had single glazing) when they tried to use it as a weapon in a fight. That was fun.
We used to call this nuggeting in Thame. Was that town-specific, regional or perhaps even the national term for it?
Never heard it called that. We had peanutting (yanking someone's tie so hard it was as good as impossible to untie).
Feeling missed out here. It’s a long time ago but the lower school had to wear caps, the big lads didn’t. The 4.32 train from Wycombe to Beaconsfield (& beyond - kids came from as far as Denham) went through that tunnel near Holtspur. Lower school caps got hung on the exterior handle of the slam shut doors. No one asked to see the well being councillor!