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Girls grammars in the 60s (and beyond)

(7 Posts)
Silvershadow Thu 13-Aug-26 11:32:57

I’m starting this as some of us got chatting on the thread about migrants and we don’t want to hijack that important topic.

I mentioned that at my girls school which backed into open land we had dire warnings, couched in very vague terms about keeping away from the boundaries due to undesirables. In our naivety we didn’t know what that exactly was but enough was said to make us realise something was wrong. There were a few scares from memory.

Georgesgran Thu 13-Aug-26 11:36:45

We were forbidden to take a short cut to school, as it meant passing a factory - again, we wondered why, as the young men from the factory often wandered along in their breaks, to watch us play hockey or rounders. It was the Caretakers job to move them back, from whence they came!

Georgesgran Thu 13-Aug-26 11:37:41

And reader ‘I married one of them’ who later became a Director of said factory.

Silvershadow Thu 13-Aug-26 11:39:52

Ha ha! Good for you. I don’t think anybody loitering these days would take much notice of caretakers or anybody else, if anything it might be dangerous for them to approach these people to scare them off.

More innocent times then.

Pittcity Thu 13-Aug-26 11:40:56

We had extensive grounds and remember finding porn magazines in one of the distant bushes. We left them there for the owner.

Jaxjacky Thu 13-Aug-26 11:45:33

There was unusual enthusiasm for PE one day at my school, young workmen fixing the roof.

MaizieD Thu 13-Aug-26 11:52:44

My Girls Grammar was a newish build on former farmland. It had a public footpath alongside part of its boundary. there was a wide border of trees alongside it which was inside our boundary. Boys from the nearby boys Grammar school liked to walk along it during dinner break (we weren't allowed out at dinnertime). We were strictly forbidden to enter this little boundary copse and talk to the boys on pain of death.

I often wonder if it was realised that we met up in local cafes after school...

One girl in our year was practically expelled for talking to one of the young men working on repairs to a school building. She did actually know him 'out of school'..

We just thought it was ridiculous...