Taking the Dreaded 11+ Exam

Reading Christine's letter reminded me of my own experiences. in 1951 I was one of a class of 52 boys and girls, ruled by a thug and a bully who regularly had the girls standing on the chairs where he could deliver a hefty swipe from his ruler. Boys were hauled out of their seats by their hair, in fact I seem to recall my mother complaining to the school about my bald patch!! But one day a group of us were taken to Raynes Park Grammar School to take this mysterious 11+ exam. It was a gorgeous day and the sun shone down from a cloudless sky and wherever I looked it was green ! I must have done the tests described by Christine though I can't recall them, but I do remember the essay; like Christine I too loved writing essays and that day I had decided to write about Scott's journey to the South Pole. Page after page then suddenly a voice boomed out, " Time up, put your pens down !" Suddenly a hand was laid on my shoulder , " Stop writing son !" " But I've only just got Scott to the Pole Sir " As Christine will recall the essay counted for a lot of marks and finishing an essay was essential. Clearly I had blown it, not that I was bothered in the least. Following that I was transferred to Beverley Secondary School and two years later I was invited to sit the 13+. But up till then it was the 11+ that determined your future. Passing that meant you were considered intelligent and likely to go to university ! Wow!! Yet I believe it was Winston Churchill who was instrumental in bringing about change, which ultimately ended up with boys and girls being given a second chance at 13. If you were bright but came from a poor background then you were eligible for a place at a true public school, namely Christ's Hospital hear Horsham. Many years later , my eldest son passed his 11+, not by exam but based purely on his classroom performance - we were living in Battersea at the time, so we came under ILEA. David was offered a chance to go to Christ's Hospital as a boarder, but two things put him off; one was the strict dress code comprising long blue coat yellow vest and stockings. The other was he had no wish to leave home, instead he went to Battersea Grammar and never looked back. Today he is a millionairre,but still works as a tax advisor. But Christine was so right, it was something of a lottery, in fact one of the boys in my class at Garth had actually passed his 11+. His father died during the Battle of Britain ( he was a pilot) and it was assumed that his mother wouldn't have the funds to keep him at grammar school!! But has it changed that much today?- well you might think so, but look at the top posts in the Civil Service and in government. How often do you read under the heading of education, he/she went to Eton, Oxford and the Guards . I'm no communist but it would make a change to see a few former technical secondary students enjoying the fruits of power.

Christine is so right, there was a huge loss of talent, in much the same way as there is today. When it came to choosing a career, our generation were given a glimpse of life outside school, but today so many schools in the secondary sector do not have the resources to fund any visits to industrial/commercial places of work. A well run PTA is a good source of funding, but the net result is that tens of thousands of teenagers leave school without ever being given a one to one session with an experienced careers adviser. Teenagers must be shown how to write a CV, how to write a covering letter, how to write a speculative letter and how to handle tricky questions when they do get to an interview, and if schools' won't or can't do it, then parents should take up the challenge. It's monstrous that so many teenagers of leaving age are leaving school with a serious handicap in numercacy and/or literacy. A note on CV's; Limit your CV to ONE Page otherwise employers will simply bin it.

I attended Glastonbury Junior school, the day before my class was due to take the 11+ myself and a handful of others were pulled out in front of the class and told that we didn't have to attend as we were going to fail the test anyway. That story pretty much sums up my experience at school, I found the worst bullies to be the teachers. Fortunately I did manage to get a degree and a half decent career despite my education.

Hello Christine. It was lovely to see the photo of Green Wrythe Lane school class of 1957. I am in the middle row, 5th from the right. I can pick out Gloria Merryman in the front row 4th from right and I think it is you in the front row last on the right. I think I knew you as Christine Palmer. Did you have a twin? I can't remember that photo being taken. My mother never had a copy as I would have seen it. It brings back happy memories. What a good memory you have of the 11+ I can't remember taking it. Mr Carter was the headmaster of the infants and juniors. He was a nice man. Mrs Arbuthnot in the infants was a lovely lady. In the infants I remember the pegs for our coats had animals on top of each peg. We had a third of milk in the morning, after lunch there were camp beds laid out and we had a sleep. When we woke we had orange juice, then our mums came to pick us up.

 I went up to the secondary school with you. In our A Class I remember Christine Watts, Janice Mason, Pat Robinson. I may remember a few other later. All for now. Janis nee Poulton

Hi Janis, lovely to see you on here!  Actually I'm Christine Gawthorpe nee Watts, you're getting me muddled up with Carole Palmer, who had a twin called Hazel.  I remember you well, you lived in Shaftesbury, the bit that went up to Middleton Rd.  Did you work at Restmor when you left school? The photo was taken by Mr Wheeler. Don't think he was at the school for long.  We were just finishing the year in Mrs Jones' class (before that, the class teacher was Mr Jones, they were married). We finished up in Mr Bond's for the last year, also had him in the 2nd year at juniors, I used to like him so much in his brown suit and bow tie.  I have so many memories of school.  I never enjoyed it, right up to leaving, especially so the senior school.  I'm still in touch with Marilyn Reece, have been since leaving school, and last few years have made contact with Diane Webb and Kay Spilsbury thru the net.  We were in a foursome at school and meet up twice a year in London. I want to talk about school all the time but the others don't seem interested, I must have led a very sheltered life! I can remember starting school and going into Mrs Morris's class it was called the 'pinks'. I used to scream on the way to school and this seems to have set the scene for the whole of my school life!  Miss Arbuthnot took the 'yellows', Miss Abbott the 'reds' Miss Goble the 'greens' Mrs Probert the 'purples' and Mrs Jones the 'browns'. I was in Miss Abbott's class at the time of the coronation and the day after, we went to school in fancy dress, I was dressed as the Queen. Mrs Probert once rapped me on the knuckles with her pen for getting my sums wrong.  She used to bring ryvita type biscuits into class every week.  They were sandwiched with cheese and she used to share them round.  Perhaps we looked malnourished.  I saw her years later at the Circle with a white stick, poor thing.  Well I could go on and on, lovely to hear from you Janis, are you on any other sites?

I recognise the teacher's names. We moved to the Morden part of the estate when I was 10 so I ended up at Willows. I failed the 11+ but was moved to a grammar stream.