Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

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Tolstoy
Posts: 2755
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:25 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by Tolstoy »

BucksBornNBred wrote:
I never did support the right to choose a school, it just complicated matters! Though I did get to choose which HS I went to as I was catchment for both, though no car or buses made that an easy decision based on how far my legs could carry me :lol:
:lol: I suspect 'school choice' has done more harm to the environment and causes more congestion than any other policy of recent year :wink: It is also only choice for a certain select few. Those with the means to transport their DC.
MedievalBabe
Posts: 1191
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:56 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by MedievalBabe »

I remember going into our main school hall with the rest of the year, sitting at the grey hexagon table, 3 to a table and sitting 2 papers. No idea what the tests were for and certainly didn't care as such. There was no prep beforehand and I don't remember ever being told what the results were. This was in the early 80s in Glos where Pates was a boys school and there was a girls school, they merged a few years later to become co-ed due to falling numbers as the comp I went to was one of the best at the time.
Rags
Posts: 130
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:43 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by Rags »

[Hopefully not entirely OT ..]

I didn't sit the 11+ - it wasn't available in our area (although I had a vague understanding of what it was, I think - the school I went to was an amalgam of two former grammar schools, a boys and a girls, with a 'recently' built linking corridor.)

This makes me (and, in all fairness, my sister) something of an anomaly in my family - both of my parents sat (and passed) it, my wife also, and all of my children sat it.

I can't state that I was happier not taking it - I can't really know (I, in the absolute security of it being unprovable, assume I would have passed ;) ) - I can say that I expect I would have been happier had I taken it and passed - most of what I detested about my school life was the disruptive other pupils....

Ahh, the unknowable 'what if...'

(Oh, and Tolstoy - dych chi'n siariad Cymraeg?)
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by loobylou »

BucksBornNBred wrote:Reading all these threads just made me think - it was all so much easier in my day.

I remember getting on with accepting my new school, along with its hideous uniform, and hating it...

There is so much stress now around the 11+ (and yes, most of my grey hairs come from that stressful time a year ago), but I just wondered if anyone else could look back on those days with fondness?
I wonder if we went to the same school BucksBornNBred. I certainly hated our uniform too. Checked shirts and box pleat skirts? I sat it in 1983 and remember being disappointed that my mother only gave me a Milky Way on my results as another girl had been promised a bike if she passed (she didn't)!
Tolstoy
Posts: 2755
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:25 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by Tolstoy »

Sadly no Rags and thankfully in my day we could drop it for O'level.

I have said this before somewhere but we had to wear a revoltingly shapeless tunic and by the time you reached 5th form it was :shock: ingly short. At least when it changed to Comp we could wear skirts :)

For passing my Grandmother bought my satchel. :)
BucksBornNBred
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Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:01 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by BucksBornNBred »

:lol: Loobylou, I don't think we went to the same school... my uniform was hideous but not that bad :wink: We were green and grey, overcoat had to be regulation school mac!! Still hate the colour green!!

And I didn't get anything for passing as it was neither good nor bad if we passed - just life!
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by loobylou »

BucksBornNBred wrote::lol: Loobylou, I don't think we went to the same school... my uniform was hideous but not that bad :wink: We were green and grey, overcoat had to be regulation school mac!! Still hate the colour green!!

And I didn't get anything for passing as it was neither good nor bad if we passed - just life!
Definitely not then. I still hate royal blue! (The Milky way was my normal post school snack - my mother just told me it was for passing because I told her the other child was getting a bike!! :roll: )
BucksBornNBred
Posts: 1031
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:01 pm

Re: Simpler Days - does anyone remember their 11+ ?

Post by BucksBornNBred »

We didn't need a post school snack from our parents ... we had a kitkat vending machine in the dining hall :lol: Those were the days!
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