Manning Grammar School

[RadFordee 68]

Oh jill poor you you having to see her 1st thing in the morning & then in maths lessons too,

i also spotted the different tie lengths & thought they looked a bit odd which then made me remember the 1st time my mum tried to wash my tie & the red bled into the white & it came out pink, leading to a dash down to D&P for a new 1.

[benjamin1945 16,163]

[benjamin1945 16,163]

Posh way of doing a Tie Knot..........called a 'Prince Albert' (above).

Most blokes do a 'Windsor'......remember practising for hours when still at school......

The length of a Tie should be just above the waist...........

Sorry almost off Manning thread...but had to be said.........

 

If you look at the average bloke from the USA....he aint got a clue how to wear a tie......and sadly we are going the same way..............sorry 'Carry on Manning.''.......

 

[katyjay 5,091]

They never had to wear one for school, Ben, whereas, we Brits wore a tie for years at school. Practice makes perfect.

[philmayfield 6,145]

I always thought ties were a bit silly at girls’ schools. They’re  pretty much outdated as a fashion accessory for men now. It wasn’t that long ago that many men wore a trilby hat. Flat caps were the headgear of both the workers and the toffs. When I worked in a professional office in the early 60’s the partners used to wear bowlers and they were commonly worn at funerals. The baseball cap or the hoodie seem to be the common headwear now, the latter often being a form of disguise for the petty criminal! I’m wearing a baseball cap at the moment but I have been out with my pole chainsaw lopping high branches. Heaven forbid I wear it in public!

[RadFordee 68]

@benjamin1945my grandson has to wear a school tie but most school ties nowdays are clip on types, hence them never having to learn to tie 1.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

The ties at Manning weren't really washable because the dye wasn't colourfast. It was thanks to Manning that I never learned to tie a conventional tie until I started teaching, when I had to do it the difficult way, ie tying a tie on little boys who couldn't tie their own!

[philmayfield 6,145]

I forgot how to fasten a tie once. Just a complete mental blockage. Never happened again. I doubt if I could remember how to do one now though. Fortunately I don’t possess one!

[RadFordee 68]

Yes that was the one & time we tried washing it, from then on when it was a new one if you spilled anything on it that couldn't be sponged off.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

In the beginning (no, this isn't a Bible story), Manning girls wore a totally different uniform: grey blouse, grey gymslip and a conventional tie. I'm not sure what colour the tie was but the blazer was green, so I'm told. Therefore, the tie may have been green. They wore grey, felt hats in winter and straw boaters in summer!  Several of my mother's contemporaries were Manning girls and told me that they were known, colloquially, as cart horses due to the hue of their uniform. 

 

All that changed in the fifties, I believe, with red and grey becoming the colour scheme. We were supposed to wear a red beret with the school badge on it....but didn't once outside the gates!

[philmayfield 6,145]

It was a mortal sin not to wear a cap when wearing a school blazer at Mellish, other than in the 6th. form. If you were caught without one penalties were severe. I suppose it was not that long after the war and petty military discipline was still rife. We could remove our ties in hot weather but shirt collars had to be worn outside the jacket. It always looked a bit silly! Someone caught wearing luminous socks (very popular in their day) had to stand outside the staff room all lunch time with their trousers rolled up!

[LizzieM 9,511]

I’ve still got my school tie, together with school scarf but my beret ended up in someone’s garden between school gate and the bus home at the end of the 4th year, we were allowed to be beret-less from the 5th form onwards.  
I have a drawer full (in a spare room) of my boys school ties.  There must be about 20 in there …… Prep School, Junior School, Senior School, House Ties, School ties, Prefect ties, Colours ties.  When I pop my little clogs they’ll be sent to landfill no doubt.  

[RadFordee 68]

Jill i'm very pleased to say that when i started there in 74 beret's were optional on the uniform list that we new starters were given,

Hats have never suited me at all & still dont.

[RadFordee 68]

1 hour ago, philmayfield said:

Someone caught wearing luminous socks (very popular in their day) had to stand outside the staff room all lunch time with their trousers rolled up!

Someone wearing luminous socks at the manning would have spent a week under the dome wouldn't they jill?.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

At least a week! 

[RadFordee 68]

And got named & shamed in assembly .

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I discovered only recently that all the classrooms at Manning were equipped with sun blinds/awnings which were designed to be pulled or wound out on sunny days when the french windows were open onto the terrace. Rather like the awnings over shops in those days, they probably needed a hooked pole and a bit of muscle to pull them out. Never once did I see one of these in use, although they were there, presumably, until the place was demolished.  The person who told me was there in the early 50s and said that, even in those days, the awnings were rarely pulled out because the teachers couldn't be bothered to do it or didn't want to waste lesson time. Then there was the vexed question of who was going to put them back at the end of the day. There was a caretaker but perhaps he wasn't amenable, either.

 

Manning was only one of a number of Nottingham schools built to the 'open air' design and, presumably, the others also had this facility but I've never heard it mentioned or seen any photos of the awnings in use.

[RadFordee 68]

I didn't know they even existed let alone saw them in use, the thing i remember more than anything about those french doors was the ruddy great gap in the middle & at the bottom where the wind howled through & often the rain too.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

It would never do nowadays, would it, when everything has to be double, triple glazed and hermetically sealed? Freezing in the classrooms due to shrinkage in the french doors. Freezing in the quads due to holes/cracks in the glazing and no heating.

 

As to the awnings, if no one ever used them, eventually their very existence would be forgotten which is, I suspect, exactly what happened. Shame, as it must have cost quite a bit to equip 16 classrooms with those facilities.

[RadFordee 68]

Yes kids nowdays would expect to get a day off if rain was coming into the classroom .

[trogg 2,017]

Things could not have been that bad there as Jill has told us many times about the tea rooms that were there. Run by pythagoras and recommended by her favourite  maths teacher. Sorry Jill I had to write that.

[RadFordee 68]

@troggyes i remember the tea rooms run by pythagoras very well too as i had the same mad irish maths teacher as jill for the whole 5 years i was there!

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

1 hour ago, RadFordee said:

Yes kids nowdays would expect to get a day off if rain was coming into the classroom .

Over this side of the pond, during severe weather, they usually cancel school because of kids safety and insurance risks...BUT in saying that the kids have to make that time up, ten days lost due to weather conditions is made up on the spring and summer breaks, so instead of enjoying summer break holidays, they are stuck in the classroom making time up...Good idea???

[katyjay 5,091]

The William Crane schools, built in 1931, were of the open air type. There were 6 schools, all built inside Minver Crescent which was a complere circle. 2 infants, junior girls and junior boys, senior girls and senior boys. The field in the middle was used by all the schools. The classrooms had the bjg double doors to open up in the summer. If they had sun shades, I don't remember them. All classrooms were heated by the old fashioned radiators, I can never remember being cold, thank goodness. So they must have been efficient.  the quadrangle on the other hand, was open to the elements.  We changed classrooms for each lesson, and had to line up outside each classroom before going inside.  Freezing in winter, but it was the norm so never thought anything of it. We were not bought up to be wimps!   My brothers and I went back to Crane for the 60th Anniversary in 1991, and all the quadrangles were enclosed then. Woosies!

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I doubt it was just Manning that had awnings!  There were radiators in the admin block and in the hall but the classrooms didn't have any: just two pipes that ran parallel across the lower part of the back wall, just above floor level.  Those rooms were always cold in winter. Stone floors. No carpets or owt posh like that!

 

Sounds like Crane had the same open quads as Manning, until the corridors were glazed in around the early 60s. I don't remember when they were open to the elements but, since there was no heating in the quad corridors, it was probably no warmer than before! Twas a hard life in those days!