School subjects in the 1960's

My favourite subjects were English,History and Statistics but I loved cookery too .In fact my teacher advised me to take it further and teach it.I didn’t,t I left school as soon as I could and had my own business at 21 .I went to an all girls convent school so no boys subjects on offer.I went to college in my 30s and did City and Guilds in professional cookery..just to prove I could .I got a distinction .I went back to working in my own business though as it was my first love and only retired because of Covid

As I went to an all-girls’ school, there were no labels, though maybe a limited range of subjects, but sciences were encouraged as much as Eng Lit, French and History. I was happy with my languages.

My granddaughter did Maths Physics and Chemistry A level but was really sad at having to give up French in year 13. She is now doing an Engineering Degree Apprenticeship. I am very pleased she has the same opportunities as the boys.

I would have loved to learn woodwork/metalwork but back in the day it simply wasn't 'allowed' because 'I was a girl and had to learn to sew and cook'.

In the junior school I think English, History, and Geography were my favourite subjects. I wasn't so keen on Arithmetic although the teacher told my Mum that I was 'quite good at sums'. I enjoyed writing poetry, something that I still do today.

Grammar school was a whole different story - Arithmatics became Maths which I became to detest, I couldn't get the hang of Algebra as I didn't see the point of it. English morphed into English Literature (I detested Shakespeare) and English Language. Still no chance of learning woodwork or metalwork either although I do remember a. few girls who were allowed to learn Technical Drawing.

I went to a grammar school , so mostly academic subjects. We did do a little cooking and sewing in the first two years , but as soon as O levels hove into view that was abandoned. Art too was just a ‘mess around ‘ lesson. Not taken seriously at all. Not sure what I would have done with a choice of ‘boy’ subjects. I think my parents thought school was for gaining academic results, not wasting time with crafts. Though I think I might have enjoyed woodwork.

We only did academic subjects at my Grammar School.
I did some cooking with my Mum but just had to pick it up as I went after I married! I also taught myself crafts and took up Art after I retired.

So good that we now have Women Electricians, Plumbers, Gas fitters, Carpenters

We need far more apprentices for all these trades, girls and boys.
A friend who runs a business specialising in bathrooms and kitchen was saying the other day how difficult it is to find experienced tradespeople and that not so many young people of school leaving age want to go into apprenticeships anyway.
The salary he offers sounded very good indeed.

However, huge firms can pay more and, with with such a lack of skilled electricians, plumbers, gas fitters, carpenters etc, they are much in demand.

Only girls at my school, so the only ‘girls’ subjects (considered as such at the time) were cookery and needlework. I enjoyed Latin about 100 times more than needlework. Can’t say the same for physics, though!

Not school, but Brownies overseas in the 80s - dd was majorly hacked off that Brownies were expected to learn to knit, while the Cubs went sausage-sizzling on the beach! I couldn’t blame her at all - she didn’t last long.

I dare say things have changed a good deal now - Gdd1 loves Brownies.

Well Judy54, l love sewing & knitting but I was useless! To my horror our new sewing teacher was my uncle's (dreadful/truly dreadful) new wife. We had to put our work in a basket for the next week but I hid sewing/knitting work in my big school pants & got my lovely mum to to help me, then I would sneak work back for the following lesson. I love sewing ect now but with no thanks to dreadful step-aunt teacher fron hell.🤔

I liked French, Physics, and Maths. I did not enjoy history (can't remember dates) or English Literature (I hate romances and books set pre World War 2 in general). I find most poetry a waffling waste of paper, the War poets excepted. I hated Domestic Science. Everything I attempted to make was a failure and I had zero interest. I dropped it at the earliest opportunity. I can now knit anything, the more complicated the better. My sewing machine is well used and I enjoy cooking and baking but it took quite a lot of years for me to even want to try.

I wish we'd had the opportunity to do woodwork and metalwork and learn how to use basic tools at school. Thanks to my husband I'm now pretty good at DIY, can put up shelves, tile a bathroom, rewire a boat etc, but it would have been nice to have learned the basics at school.

I was no good at maths at school; our lovely maths teacher bent over backwards to help me but in the end he said I must be number blind. I was very good at English, History and art; all subjects that I still pursue to one degree or another. I agree that there should be more trade apprenticeships - my nephew has a building firm and has just taken on an apprentice. He hopes to employ more. When I was at school in the late fifties, apprenticeships and night school or day release were the way boys who left secondary school, not grammar, went on to better their chances of doing well in industry and the trades. For girls at that time, unfortunately it was different although there were FE colleges and night school. Good to see more girls taking up trades such as plumbing, electrical and mechanical work and building trades now.

My favourites were Geography, history Art and English
Most disliked maths, languages and sciences
I would have loved a broader curriculum and to have tried other things I did psychology at night school after I left

Ilovedogs22 I remember my sewing teacher telling me that my sewing looked like a blind cow wandering! The domestic. Science teacher didn’t like me either. She said heaven help any man mad enough to marry me😂!

Not school, but Brownies overseas in the 80s - dd was majorly hacked off that Brownies were expected to learn to knit, while the Cubs went sausage-sizzling on the beach! I couldn’t blame her at all - she didn’t last long.

Witzend my daughter left Guides when she found out they were going to be learning to iron.
"You can teach me that," she said disdainfully, "I want to go abseiling like the boys (her brothers) do in the Scouts."

At our grammar school I did woodwork and metal work with the boys as well as Domestic Sciences (cookery and needlework).
My favourite subjects were French, maths and Music. I was not good at science, but we only had to study one, so I chose physics.

My all-girls school was very academic. I don’t think we did sewing at all after the junior school, and cookery was only for the girls who weren’t clever enough to do Latin! I loved languages and English - was shocked to read the poster on here who said she hated Shakespeare! How could you? I loathed maths and was bad at it, but wasn’t entirely arty as I loved biology - in fact my O level biology mark was higher than my Latin. Biology and chemistry were taught to A level, but anyone who wanted to do A level physics had to go the the boys’ school.

I’m very glad I didn’t have to do practical subjects. I’d have been very bored.

My all girls Grammar School was very academic. I was best at English, History and Geography, though not bad at science and languages.
In earlier years we did art, needlework and cookery. We always had to do PE. I hated all games and art and was useless at both.
There were was no offer of metalwork/woodwork etc. but would have had no more interest in those practical subjects than needlework and cookery.

My school had two categories of "girly" subjects - Cookery and Domestic Science - I'm not sure why! I did Cookery and I loved it, thought I'd like to make a career of being a cookery demonstrator (remember those?) Employed by the Gas Board or the Electricity Board (remember those???) to demonstrate the workings of ovens etc.

Then I discovered, when doing my Cookery Practical O-Level, that I hate to be watched when I'm cooking! End of that dream, and I still only enjoy cooking alone.

I learnt hand sewing and embroidery at junior school which was all girls after the age of 7.

I went to an all girls grammar school. My favourite subjects were French, Latin and English. Hated needlework but enjoyed cooking.

I too went to an all girls school, with the boys school just next door.

I enjoyed English, both Lit & Lang and music and not much else tbh.

I detested sewing and art. I wanted to do woodwork and metal work!

I was also told how rubbish I am with numbers, much much later I realised I had dyscalculia.

I hated domestic science and needlework. Was rubbish at both. Also hated PE. Loved English and English Lit, geography and music. Not sure I would have wanted to do wood work or metal work, would probs be rubbish at those too.

I went to a bog standard comp in 1973 and we had a huge range of subjects. My favourites were Government & Politics, drama and history. I enjoyed English litterature but found the exam courses rather a drag as there was a traditionalist head of department who refused to let us study any of the options written after around 1850.

We had a huge choice of art and craft subjects and in addition to the usual art and needlework I also did woodwork, metalwork, jewellery and enamel work and technical drawing.

There was also a huge choice of languages - French, Spanish, German, Italian, Latin and Russian.

In my early secondary years there was a very traditional and sadistic PE teacher which led to me hating the subject - but from the age of around 14 there was a new ethos where we could choose a new sport to try every 6 weeks from a list that included badminton, squash, table tennis, keep fit, dance, weight training and life saving.

One thing - which in retrospect was odd - was that for the first 2 years we never did English, history or geography as separate subjects as they were all lumped together as "humanities"

The other thing that is also bizarre looking back - is that my school adopted "open plan/shared space learning" which meant that 3-5 classes shared the same space for humanities and sciences - the noise was terrible.

I loved Latin, but found it grossly unfair that being brainy enough to do it meant that I could not have domestic science lessons at school!

I remedied that by persuading my parents to send me to a domestic science course when I left school with all my As and Bs in Highers.

I would simply have hated woodwork or any other traditional boys' subject. Fine that women want to learn these things, just as long as this woman doesn't have to.

I could not do more than one year domestic science either, I was slightly envious of the girls who had gondola baskets and made lovely christmas cakes in school. My vocation was always sciences

I did enough domestic stuff at home anyway, was a dab hand with a sewing machine and made complete meals for a family of 9 by 11. Eldest and a girl, hence the independence and a dab hand with tools of all sorts

I attended an all girls grammar in the sixties and I loved domestic science
My A levels chemistry, maths and biology enabled me to study nutrition and dietetics
Isn’t it a shame cooking and sewing is considered for the less able.
When with all the ultra processed food it is becoming more apparent that cooking from scratch is much healthier. Surely both boys and girls should be taught how to cook for themselves and their family no matter how bright they are. I am sure there are people who will say cooking is taught badly Surely it should be the curriculum that needs to be sorted out and not be dismissed