Girls grammars in the 60s (and beyond)

I started this thread because a couple of us made comments on a thread about migrants. We said about undesirables being mentioned at our schools. So as not to hijack that important thread, I started this one.

No nasty intent was made, just light relief and to move the discussion over to an appropriate thread.

For those who complain they’re being excluded because it’s about girls’ grammar schools, why not start your own? I’m sure others will join in and we can learn more experiences that we didn’t have.

Magenta8

welbeck

I supposè non grammar school types are only allowed in to this discussion if they sit at the back quietly with raffia.

I am a non grammar school type so perhaps I should have known my place and kept quiet.

Magenta, you’d be welcibe to join wellbeck, Tenko and I for a rebellious, probably common, meeting behind the bike sheds for a Fag and to plan a rebellion. I’m such a rebel, I suggest we plot for a government that sees the discriminatory basis of grammar schools, bans the b…p things and opens excellent comprehensives to ensure we all get a good education

win

Tuliptree

AuntieE

BlueBelle

By the way I loved getting wolf whistles and felt very hard done by if I didn’t get one and I didn’t see it as an insult I saw it as appreciation 🙄sorry if I m so wrong

You are not wrong, Wolf whistles were a compliment, So was the remark made by a railway worker to me, aged 16, at Glasgow Central Station, "you do look nice our of school uniform, hen" Made my day.

What dreary lives the present young generation lead, now regarding such remarks as sexists or derogatory

Such remarks are sexist and derogatory.. The 'men' who make such comments are disgusting. "Nice out of school uniform" what ? Naked so I can rape you?

Give over people give each pother compliments all the time, it makes us all feel good. I really feel sorry for people like you who have such a sad mind. It totally depends on how it is said and who says it.

I’m with Tuliptree. My beliefs influenced by 55 years or more working with families, individuals , children and abuse. Oh yes and the theoretical background necessary for such work
I don’t know Tuliptree, other than as a poster here. We don’t always agree, which is both normal and healthy.
“You look nice out of school uniform “. Seriously, a compliment .? Said no decent man ever.

Friendly compliments are so different than potentially petty ones, any adult men offering ‘compliments’ to girls are not being complimentary - honest

Win you really don’t have to feel sorry for me - how bloody patronising

Tuliptree

AuntieE

BlueBelle

By the way I loved getting wolf whistles and felt very hard done by if I didn’t get one and I didn’t see it as an insult I saw it as appreciation 🙄sorry if I m so wrong

You are not wrong, Wolf whistles were a compliment, So was the remark made by a railway worker to me, aged 16, at Glasgow Central Station, "you do look nice our of school uniform, hen" Made my day.

What dreary lives the present young generation lead, now regarding such remarks as sexists or derogatory

Such remarks are sexist and derogatory.. The 'men' who make such comments are disgusting. "Nice out of school uniform" what ? Naked so I can rape you?

Give over people give each pother compliments all the time, it makes us all feel good. I really feel sorry for people like you who have such a sad mind. It totally depends on how it is said and who says it.

welbeck

I supposè non grammar school types are only allowed in to this discussion if they sit at the back quietly with raffia.

I am a non grammar school type so perhaps I should have known my place and kept quiet.

Many of us walked home from school along a country path that bordered a large park. At one point a "flasher" was reported so the headmistress called all the girls into the school hall. She advised us all to carry a whistle and to blow hard if we encountered a flasher. As you can imagine, we all carried whistles and blew them all the way along the path. Flasher was never seen again.

Isn't it good that we seem a lot more enlightened now. I taught at a few excellent comprehensive with healthy sixth forms where a good proportion of students went on to Oxbridge and other good universities. In my opinion the education on offer was much more wide ranging than so many local grammar schools provided.

Berets? What berets? Black velour hats for us, with the school hatband. Panama hats in summer. It wasn’t officially a grammar school, but a selective independent school. It was very like the schools described here, though.

We had no male teachers, and boys were considered dangerous by the staff, highly desirable by most of the girls.. I had a brother, so I had a realistic view of boys, not entirely complimentary.

We begged for boys from the equivalent boys’ school to be allowed to join in our school plays, but no…..(this was in the 1950s). So the girls had to go on acting the boys’ parts, and the boys acted the girls in their school plays, just like in Shakespeare’s time. I was fairly tall so I always had to play a male. I hated it. I didn’t feel a bit like a boy, and I didn’t look like one either.

I can’t imagine being at a co-ed school, though my children went to one - and of course university was co-ed.

My girls grammar school was physically attached to the boys grammar school but we weren’t allowed to interact in any way. We had to walk past the boys section to get to the games field and my friend got into trouble one day for daring to acknowledge her brother on the way.

At our girls' grammar school there was a mini-scandal when the male RE teacher made the whole class crawl round the classroom on their hands & knees as a penalty for something we'd done wrong. We were about 13, early 70's so mostly above -knee skirts although regulation skirt length was no more than 2" above the knee. I just thought it was weird not pervy, but the teacher mysteriously left a couple of weeks later.

Our school was behind a small park, and sixth formers were allowed to sit out there at lunch time in summer. One very hot day, we were all ushered back inside by one of the teachers, because a young man with his girlfriend was sitting having a picnic, and he'd taken his shirt off! She said snobbishly " These people have different standards from us!"

I did also go to a single sex convent school. Some of the nuns taught my Mum! They were still mostly very strict and could be vicious. One nun - Sister Nora, was lovely. We had other normal male and female teachers. The boys school was across the road. The nuns used to patrol the bus stop and the driveway to ensure nothing untoward happened! Little did they know! It was a great education.

Sorry OP if this is off topic.
The grammar school I attended from 1954 - 1961 became co-ed the year before I joined but the all girls culture remained.
Both the boys and girls schools were in the same building but divided by the hall so previously out of sight of each other. The girls school’s staff were all female, almost all unmarried and the boys school’s staff were all male. Then the schools amalgamated..

In the classroom girls sat on one side, boys on the other and no talking was allowed. Similarly no talking in the corridors was allowed. When we were 14 the P.E. teacher taught us ballroom dancing. Boys lined up one side of the hall, girls the other and the teacher said “Walk forward to meet your partner”. It was excruciating!

I first started seeing my future husband when I was in the fifth form and he was in the lower sixth. Contact was made via a boy in my form who waited at the same school coach stop as I did. DH and I never spoke at school , the only contact being ‘looks’!

DH told me becoming co-ed made a huge difference as the boys’s behaviour greatly improved with the presence of the girls. I can’t remember any bad behaviour.

It seems we all went to the same school! No talking to boys upon pain of certain death. Horrible uniforms and elderly women teachers. I note that most of you refer to your schools as girls' grammar schools, were all schools the same?

Mixed grammar for me.Remember pupils were not allowed to get on the bus which went up the hill to the school. Hats on unless you were wearing a blazer and the badge was visible. Ballroom dancing 5th year , country dancing 4th.
mixed staff with separate staff rooms. We had coal fires in the 6th form rooms , no more coal on after 1;30,but our amazing latin teacher ignored that. Separate rooms for girl and boy prefects.No running on the corridors,Snowball fights boys v girls in snowed out games periods.I must admit I did like the place. Left in1955.

"Elusivebutterfly" we had to wear navy blue knickers for PE as well. We all hated it. Why couldn't we have had a nice navy gym skirt?! Our tops were pea green with a V-neck and a collar. This was at a secondary modern mixed school in East London.

Really? Well we'll never know but its certainly open to interpretation and not acceptable.

"Tuliptree" Seriously? He obviously meant nice clothes and not her school uniform!

I went to a co-ed boarding school in the country, and the only time we were allowed out was on a Sunday afternoon. Our headmaster was always telling us to never talk to the “village children.” I never understood why. Actually I still don’t.

The only interaction I had with a grammar schools was when I beat them at hockey. 🏑

AuntieE

BlueBelle

By the way I loved getting wolf whistles and felt very hard done by if I didn’t get one and I didn’t see it as an insult I saw it as appreciation 🙄sorry if I m so wrong

You are not wrong, Wolf whistles were a compliment, So was the remark made by a railway worker to me, aged 16, at Glasgow Central Station, "you do look nice our of school uniform, hen" Made my day.

What dreary lives the present young generation lead, now regarding such remarks as sexists or derogatory

Such remarks are sexist and derogatory.. The 'men' who make such comments are disgusting. "Nice out of school uniform" what ? Naked so I can rape you?

Iam64

I wrote a post early in this thread asking if those of us who didn’t go to girl’s grammars are excluded. Somehow it disappeared / that’ll teach me to get ideas above my station .

Wellbeck and Tenko - shall we bunk off, go smoking with the apprentices from the FE college 😇

I’m with you

We were always warned of the men who stood by the railings and watched the girls. It was only when my youngest was at primary school that when my dad visited he would walk the dog past the primary school my youngest attended. On his way he would pick up a bag of sweets and at playtime would stand by the railings and son and friends would go over to him for sweets. Fortunately the teachers never shooed him away. Both dad and kids seemed to benefit. No malice whatsoever. Made me wonder if the old men just enjoyed watching the girls play and perhaps even their own granddaughter

My 1960s girls’ grammar school was across the road from an FE college. The college, several storeys high, overlooked the hockey pitch. Boys would hang out of the windows shouting and whistling. Not much the school staff could do about that.