Class Structure

Schooldays. 

Yes, looking back all of those years ago (and yet they seem as though yesterday) they were for me some of the happiest times in my life. 

I was one of the last through-puts of the old Grammar School system just narrowly missing having to wear short trousers until the age of 14 but still subject to the traditions and protocol of that ancient system of education- or as I call it- divide and rule. 

I sat an 11-Plus Examination although was oblivious to that fact at the time. To me it was just an ordinary school day but with a test in it. Had I realised the significance of that particular  exam as a means of social engineering and streaming then perhaps I might had suffered from nerves and stress rather than just doing it as a matter of course. 

Thankfully I passed and ended up at one of the oldest Grammars in the UK. 

The blazer badge was of the red hand of Ulster as the school founder had, legend has it, chopped off his own appendage and launched it from ship to shore so that he could claim to be the first of the English Protestants in a predominantly Catholic Ireland in the Seventeenth Century. So, our benefactor was in effect, single handedly, the catalyst for the violence and Troubles in that country for the ensuing three hundred and fifty years. 

Quite a role model for us all there. 

The five years at that senior school were a challenge but also served to form my character and personality for whatever the future would throw up at me. I was a slow starter in the first years of senior school and languished amongst the underachievers academically although did well at sports and extra=curriculum activities such as Scouts and in various activity clubs. 

Although the Secondary Education system was looming it would be a few years until our boys only classes would be open to girls. Ironically the Girls High School was just on the other side of a picket fence across the playing fields and the braver souls could communicate across the divide to arrange to meet up out of hours in the town centre or at the recreation ground. 

There was a well known story that an amorous couple had actually got carried away at the fence and had to be forcibly separated by staff members. I heard, but could not confirm, that the girl was expelled but the lad went on to be Head Boy. 

Unfortunately, even in the enlightened present, that sort of outcome would still persist. 

Gradually my grades and confidence grew and I peaked at fourth best pupil in one exceptional academic year. I fitted in with my peer group and made some good friends, some of whom I am still in contact with after 40 years. 

I was good at athletics and football and made the school squad in both. I can still clearly recall the anticipation followed by either pride or extreme disappointment when the football team lists for Saturday inter-school matches were posted up in the glass fronted Notice Board. If not included in the team I would still travel on the bus as a supporter. This was rewarded on one occasion when a regular player failed to turn up and I was asked to take his place. I set up our first goal, or rather our only goal in a ten- one defeat to a rival Grammar School. 

I was a keen volunteer for other activities and helped in the daily task of dragging huge canvas covers over the beautiful polished woodblock floor of the school gym so that all 450 pupils could attend morning assembly. It was a horrible job resulting in exposure to wheezing dust although for our efforts we did get an actual days leave when all of the rest of the school were still in class. 

I have often thought of tracing my fellow sheet-shifters to see if any of our number had died prematurely of a lung related disease. 

The arrival of girls to our classes in the fourth senior year meant a dramatic improvement had to take place in our behaviour and maturity. Already our female counterparts were dating older lads who had left school, were working, had a moped or a moustache whereas we could only think about football, pop music, playing out on bicycles and doing daft things. 

I remember that my first girlfriend was not actually my girlfriend but rumour had it that we had been going steady since junior school, therefore 5 years. I don’t think that I actually spoke a word to her in all of that time. I did ask a mature female classmate out to a village hall disco but my Father had to give us a lift. At the dance she got off with someone else but still had to be given a lift home afterwards. That was one of my most embarrassing moments ever although the look of sympathy that my Father gave me was a hint at what I should expect in the real world. 

Individual teachers at the Grammar were influential in my life although I did not appreciate it at the time. I recall lessons where nothing relevant to the subject was covered but yet I came away with wisdom and a desire for knowledge of everything around me. 

As a group of students we were quite abysmal in our attitude towards the staff concocting spiteful and vulgar nicknames or from a safe or cowardly distance lusting after the female staff who were very much a novelty in the antiquated Grammar School system. 

The school were very active in promoting additional activities with, as well as the Scout Troop, a series of nationwide or European trips to places of interest. I was lucky to go on Outward Bound Courses, Youth Hostelling, a French Exchange Programme and even to Wembley Stadium to see England football matches. I was there in 1975 when Malcom McDonald scored all five goals against Cyprus. That was not however the most remarkable thing about the excursion. It was the combined cost of coach, food and ticket at £4.75. I had hesitated to ask my parents for the money at the time as it seemed like a fortune. 

Our family moved away from that town in 1979 which coincided with my completion of my O’Level exams. 

I had to catch a bus, river ferry and train to make the return journey to collect my exam results a few months later. 

That five years of education did have a major influence on me and I look back on them with fondness and a great deal of satisfaction.