Mid-60s dress standards; a headmaster's comment.

[Compo 10,328]

Here is a transcript of an amusing letter sent to parents by  their children's headmaster, commenting on the standard of dress and general appearance:

 

"Dear parents,

In my opinion, there has been a decline over the past year in the attention members of the school give to their personal appearance. It started with this matter of hair.  A few  senior boys began adopting long, girlish hairstyles associated with some pop singers.  This seemed harmless enough, and I expected them to grow out of it.  But recently younger boys, falling under their spell, have copied them and school as a whole has an increasingly unkempt look.  Quite frankly, I am tired of seeing hair creeping over coat collars and over ears, down the face, and in a few extreme cases falling over the eyes, interfering with games and physical activity.  With it goes a disregard for clothes and shoes, and at times a sullen look taken, I imagine, from the popular image of what modern young people should look like...  If your son is one of the shaggy minority, or one of those likely to copy those who are, I ask that you send him back at the beginning of next term with his hair cut reasonably short, and, with your encouragement, to take more pride in his appearance."

 

[Source:The 50s and 60s The Best of Times. Alison Pressley. ISBN1084317-065-5]

 

 

I say that I find it amusing because it could have come from my former headmaster's, or for that matter, any former headmaster's pen of the age; such was the strict adherence to the idea that a  boy was a boy until he left school and then he instantly became a man, not a teenager.

 

 

[Guest]

I do recall ..circa '75 being singled out at the Becket assembly one morning... the Zanussi had conked over the weekend with my School shirts locked in!

I put on one of Jeff's finest Brutus jobs- was sent home..bus pass was no good and given no tokens..walked from Ruddington Lane to Grindon Cresc..Headmaster( got) a little hint of Radford the next day...courtesy of me Mam!

[Jill Sparrow 10,416]

I've mentioned before that one of our number at the Manning refused, on principle, to sport the grey flannel regulation knickers, wearing instead grey nylon ones which were the wrong shade and, what is worse, had been washed so many times, they had gone 'bobbly'.

 

Every time knicker inspection occurred, we all knew the result would be detention  for her but still she refused to conform. She was often in trouble for wearing make up, nail varnish and colouring her hair. A real little rebel!

 

Many years later, I found myself teaching two of her children. Their mother obviously recognised my name and came in to see me. I was amazed at what a conventional pillar of the establishment she had turned into.

 

Ah well, life grinds us all down, I suppose!

[loppylugs 8,429]

We all conform eventually.  

[Guest]

How true Dave,I was a total gurrier at school...but my Daughter is in school til' 4pm doing additional study.

[catfan 14,795]

At the Player Academy for Young Gentlemen, a school uniform was optional, cos no one could afford one !

Anything went.

[Jill Sparrow 10,416]

What is this current fad for renaming schools every year? There's a comprehensive a couple of miles from me which was built in the 50s and had a good reputation for decades. During the last few years it's been renamed three times. Now how is being the Joe Bloggs Academy one year, the Bill Boggs Academy the following year and the Flash Harry Specialist Media Studies Academy this year supposed to inspire confidence in parents?

 

Wish someone had asked me to think up another name for my old school...the Gregory Boulevard College for Torture Technology could have been top of the list!

[catfan 14,795]

What really does my head in is church's rename themselves with the word "Community" church or whatever, why ?

My old church went from the Bulwell Pentecostal Church to "The Well" Community Church, sounds more like a pub than a church.

There are community cafe's, advice centres & libraries, they alway's were community places anyway, is this just a modern thing, like "Hi Guys" & other stupid ideas ?

[Jill Sparrow 10,416]

I think it has to do with that most irritating of words: inclusive. 

 

Not that anything has changed with the establishment itself, it has just been....another intensely irritating term...'rebranded'.

 

Probably wouldn't pass the duck test...if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck...etc.

 

As my daddy used to say, if you wrap a dog turd in shiny paper and a sparkly bow, people will queue up to buy it. Actually, that's not true...what he really said was the Americans would queue up to buy it.  Sorry Loppy & co!

[catfan 14,795]

Marketing. I think is the in word nowadays. Portraying a crap idea or crap goods or services is the way to con the daft.

[Jill Sparrow 10,416]

Seems to work! Must be a lot of gullible folks about.

 

I note that everytime this local school gets a new name, it also requires a new uniform. That must go down a storm with families who are already pushed financially. 

[loppylugs 8,429]

#9. Its alright, Jill.  I'm not an American and never will be.  I'm a Canuck, then an Englishman.  

[BilboroughShirley 1,120]

#11 I agree about the cost of uniforms Jill.  Where we live schools turn into academies and straight away they get a new uniform with an expensive blazer that has coloured piping around the edge.  These can usually only be obtained through the school rather than from Asda or Tesco.  This puts totally unreasonable pressure on parents.  The DfE has not produced any data giving correlation between success at school and style of blazer and I doubt if anyone could!

[Guest]

Manning and Bluecoat had nice blazers.

Talking of schools etc..I begged to go to Nottm Boys High..my mates attended there and loved it... and have all done very well for themselves.

[catfan 14,795]

At the Player Academy the blazer colour was charcoal, mine was ............MAROON, the only one in the bleddy school !

[Jill Sparrow 10,416]

I wore the same blazer throughout my time at Manning...and the same skirt. By the time I left, the sleeves of the blazer were more or less up to my elbows but I refused to permit my mother to buy any new uniform items. I reckon that, psychologically, to me that represented some kind of commitment to staying there.

 

The day I left, I dumped the whole lot unceremoniously in the dustbin, except for my scarf, which oddly enough, my father wore in winter under his coat!

[loppylugs 8,429]

I bet that skirt was a mini, by the time you left.

 

Sorry I just couldn't resist that.  Lol.

[Jill Sparrow 10,416]

#17

 

Actually, Loppy, it wasn't. It must have been quite long when I started at the school and still touched the floor when kneeling until I left. If it hadn't, I'd have been ordered to get a new one.

 

I didn't grow very much while I was at the Manning and until the fourth form still took a child's size 13 shoes!

 

I reckon the place stunted my growth!

[Chulla 4,946]

As I did not pass the 11-Plus exam I never went to High Pavement. I wonder, sometimes, if there were bright boys and girls who did pass the 11-Plus, but because they came from 'poor' families, whose parents could not afford the school uniform, or the cost of bus fares to a remote school, they did not go to HP or Manning, or wherever, and were thus denied a higher education that would have served them better than a secondary modern one. I say this, but I could be wrong - if a child passed the exam, did he or she have a choice of going to a high school or were they automatically sent to one?

[MargieH 7,620]

I passed the exam and wasn't given the choice to go to a secondary modern as far as I know.  I remember Carllton-le-willows, Brincliffe? And Bluecoat?? were 3 of the choices.  I said I wanted to go to CLW because that's where most of my friends were going.  I suppose it's conceivable that someone's parents would choose for their child to go to a secondary modern if they couldn't afford the cost of a uniform.......  My Dad left school when he was 12 or 13 because, even though he was clever, his mum couldn't afford to let him go to a secondary school at all.  He just stayed in the village school and helped to teach the younger children for a while.  He was born in 1901.

[Jill Sparrow 10,416]

Chulla, there was a choice and I know several people whose parents could not afford the cost of a grammar school uniform and who subsequently sent their children to a Secondary Modern School. I have never really understood the logic of this because they would still have needed to buy a uniform for whichever school their child attended and all the grammar schools did have a common fund for parents whose finances would not stretch to buying the required items.

 

I had a choice of attending either the Bluecoat school, the Manning School or Mundella. However, my headteacher at Berridge wanted me to sit the scholarship exams for the Nottingham Girls' High School. My mother refused to allow this, not because she thought I would not pass it but because, even on a scholarship, the costs would have been prohibitive and scholarship girls were looked down upon by those whose parents were paying fees. My mother went to see the headteacher at Berridge after the 11 plus results came through and she told him that she wanted me to attend Peveril where my older sister had been a pupil. I think she felt that it wasn't fair for me to be educated at a different school and I happen to know that she also realised that I would absolutely hate the pressure put on me by the grammar school system. The head of Berridge wasn't having any of it and told her that she couldn't possibly do that because she would be ruining my chances of getting a decent education. Many's the time I wish that my mother had got her own way on that occasion!

[annswabey 599]

Both my parents passed to go to Grammar School (early 30's), but neither set of parents could afford the uniform, so both went to normal Secondary school.  Uniform rules were strict for us at Bilborough Grammar, and, apart from the day-to day uniform (summer and winter versions), we also had to have a special outfit for PE (Grecian Tunic, with matching knickers!), a Hockey kit, a science overall, DS Apron etc.  Some pupils got their uniforms 2nd hand from the school

[catfan 14,795]

My nephew went from Berridge to the Bluecoat school & was always looked down on by everyone there cos he was a "Berridge Lad" !  Snobbery.

[Compo 10,328]

I went to St Bernadette's in the 1960s, where the uniform blazer was royal blue with gold and blue piping.   A blue cap with piping was compulsory as was the school tie. The badge was a phoenix rising from the fire and the motto "Que soy presto"

[Compo 10,328]

SWMBO was offered a scholarship to art school but her parents thought that was not a place for females; a woman's place was in the home, looking after a husband and thus refused her permission, sending her to the local school instead.