CSEs

Office Practice.
I'd forgotten all about that!

After O levels and CSE French I did a one year secretarial course which I loved. I was still at grammar school but went to the nearby Sec Mod for those lessons. I made several new friends including boys who were hoping to join the police or other jobs where typing might be useful.

We studied typing, shorthand, office practice, accounts and commerce. I passed all my RSA exams with distinction. When I started work I had so many qualifications that I couldn’t get them all on one sheet. 🤣 I was able to get top jobs straight away and never looked back. Whilst the children were small I passed my RSA Teachers’ Certificate and later the C & G Further and Adult Ed Teachers’ Cert.

I ended up teaching back at my old school (weird experience) during the day and for Adult Ed at night. Some of my students joined the Police or the military, a couple went into reporting, some into good secretarial jobs in solicitors and Banks.

I met up with one student a few years ago who was a really fast typist. She is now a Professor of Chinese history and an author and she told me that learning to type properly was the most useful thing she did at school. Computers then really took off and she had so much typing to do at Uni that other students were really envious of her skill.

MissAdventure

I could write paragraphs as they were dictated.
Reading them back was a different story altogether.

We did "typewriting" too, with a sheet of paper stuck over the keyboard. If you had your wirs about you, you could put the paper on the top of your head, and have a look at the keyboard.

My parents paid for me to do a shorthand/typing course privately at this awful secretarial college, after I’d left school, attended a local college leaving with a handful of GCEs and an internal Drama Diploma. I took to typing well and can still touch type quite fast, but although I could take down the shorthand with no problem, I could rarely read it back! Hahaha

Cumbrianmale56

Smileless2012

Yes I remember and you're right Grade 1 was equivalent to a C Grade at O'level. As course work counted toward the final grade at CSE, it gave those not so good in exams a chance to still achieve an O'level.

I remember the CSE being less rigid and simpler than the GCE O level, but a Grade 1 was as good as an O level and 5 Grade 1s were acceptable to most employers. However, the qualification often didn't extend to subjects like music, art and languages.

Like most comprehensive my school offered both O levels and CSEs or a combination depending on grades in internal tests/exams. They didn't offer O levels in art, ceramics or any craft subjects. All pupils were centred for CSE because pupils had to create actual pieces of work. From memory there was also a short written paper but much less than was required for an O level. The design department was one of the best in the county at the time. In my ceramics class everyone got a grade 1 and we produced some lovely pieces. I'm sure the same was true for those doing art. I remember people coming into school to buy artwork. I sold a couple of my pots. At the time I thought that was fantastic but now I wish I hadn't sold them.

The CSE really came into its own for craft subjects as your grade was based on continuous assessment and a theory exam at the end. As I've said, the school that had the engineering course of 4 craft CSEs had some pupils go into good jobs. I think the use of continuous assessment for most CSE courses was far better than the pass or fail exam you took at the end of your school career for O levels.

I can’t understand why people say CSEs weren’t introduced until 1965. I left secondary modern school in 1961 with CSEs and went on to do RSAs at a local FE college. My cousin in the year above me also took CSEs . They were good enough in those days to progress you onto apprenticeships and day release that led to higher qualifications.

I took O levels and CSEs I remember the CSEs felt much less pressure and were more interesting. The teachers seemed nicer too. When I was doing A levels I applied for my nurse training at a teaching hospital and it didn’t matter whether you had done an O level and passed or you got a CSE grade 1, it just said “O level pass or CSE Grade 1”.

There used to be what was called the engineering course at a local secondary school for boys( never girls then) who weren't academically brilliant, but were good at craft subjects. Apart from the mandatory English and maths CSEs, these pupils spent most of their last two years studying for CSEs in metalwork, TD, woodwork and technology( a sort of engineering subject). It did set them up really well for apprenticeships and one I know who did the engineering course eventually achieved an MSc.

Yes that’s true.

Oh yes, of course.
But made up for it with bells and whistles on, later.

And some that didn’t do any MissA

Oldnproud
There were gcse's too.

What purpose they served I have no idea.

I'm glad to find there are others, though, who did both lots of exams.

I took O levels, but was thrown out of History lessons with a few naughty girls to do CSE.
The teacher later apologised to my mum when I subsequently became Head Girl, achieved 3 good A Levels, and was accepted at a top university.
Revenge was sweet, but I am still cross he misjudged my intelligence! 😂

I didn’t pay to take any of my exams though.

MissAdventure

I must have been in a league all my own, I expect.

No you weren’t MissA.
I took both, ended up with six O Levels, three CSEs, and two A Levels.
Went to teacher training college (as it was then) at Nottingham Trent.
Qualified as a teacher and taught for about 27 years in total.

MissAdventure

I took both.
I think cse were standard, and o levels were paid for at that time.

Exactly the same at my school, in 1977, with those of us deemed capable doing several O levels too.

Many of us went on to 6th form at the former grammar school and then to university.

In fact there was another type of exam that we took in some some subjects too - without digging out my old certificates, I can't remember at this instant if it was a GCE or a GCSE.

Allira

^Anyone hitting carriage return too early got hit with a stick on the knuckles^
😯 reminds me of my driving instructor. 1963.

It reminds me of one of the nuns at my convent school.

Oh yes! My GCSEs were actually O'levels.
Totally forgot!

Oh well, it shows something went into the old noggin. (Mine and yours!)

I red yr s/hnd strt awy MissA ….

Our shorthand teacher was very fierce.
She once made me and my friend read back what we had written, and it came out as "d.r. s.r.s. I rfr t yr ltr f..."
I really disliked the office type lessons.

Anyone hitting carriage return too early got hit with a stick on the knuckles
😯 reminds me of my driving instructor. 1963.

I learned to type on an old black sit up and beg imperial 58 typewriter. It was a civil service training school in London and we had to type in time to the Willian tell overture. A very fast piece of music.
Anyone hitting carriage return too early got hit with a stick on the knuckles. Those were the days. 1963.

😁

I could write paragraphs as they were dictated.
Reading them back was a different story altogether.

We did "typewriting" too, with a sheet of paper stuck over the keyboard. If you had your wirs about you, you could put the paper on the top of your head, and have a look at the keyboard.