Grammar School

Some advice when attending a new school - don't be the 3rd shortest in the year. You never really recover from that.

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Battersea Grammar School was a rather special place and I didn't do it justice at all. Founded in 1705, it had a very long history - as part of Sir Walter St. John School in Battersea, it split in the 30s and moved to Abbotswood Road near to Tooting Bec Common. There was much to be proud of in gaining a place at the school. It had a very nice 1930s building with a very good Gymnasium and a large playing field on site. It had a good reputation for sending boys to Oxford and Cambridge plus other top universities. It also had a flourishing Combined Cadet Force which I would join in the 4th year.

The shool was split into 6 houses. These were the basis of all competitions etc. In the school. Each house had it's own colour. The houses were Dawnay (mauve), St. John (pronounced sinjun)(dark blue), Bollingbroke (yellow), Spencer (green), Trinity (red) and Erskine (light blue). Each of these names were tied to the history of the school but I can't remember any details.

The uniform gave a choice. There was a black blazer or a black with white stripes. The striped blazer was much better quality. The cap had its button in the house colour and the tie had a strip in the same colour. The blazers had the school badge embroidered on the pocket rather than sewn on. This meant that you had to buy it along with all the rest of the paraphernalia from the 'official' shop which was Pratts of Streatham. Now Pratts was a branch of John Lewis so it wasn't cheap. This was very difficult for my parents as they didn't have much money and the prices were very steep. I got a black blazer, needless to say. At that time, parents had a choice of blazer. Fortunately, by the time the rules changed so that 1st - 3rd years had to wear a striped blazer, I was in the 4th year. It was a way of telling the better off from the others in those early years but I don't remember it being an issue between boys. There was a strong puritanical tradition to wear a blazer as long as possible so most blazers ended up with leather elbow and sleeve end patches. The cap did get changed in later years as the older boys would keep the original cap so that it was very undersized and could be worn balanced on the back of the head. The new design had a much deeper crown and couldn't be worn on the back of the head. Also, along the way, the badge was changed from the traditional red eagle to a yellow one - for what reason?

The first thing was to sort out capabilities. The year was split into 1A and then 1B1 and 1B2. A was the clever boys and B1 and B2 were split by name so B1 was A - K and B2 was L - Z. I was sat next to Sherwood. This was a time when everyone was referred to by their surname. It was 4 years before I called him Richard. Our first form master was John Edmonds of whom later. The curriculum was the standard formal one for that time. Arts and Sciences plus French.

In the 2nd year, we were introduced to Latin. At the end of the 3rd year, we split into Arts and Sciences so the classes became 4A and 4S. At that time, we reduced our spread of subjects with the aim of getting the best results in the then CGE examinations.

I proved to be an average performer - never getting more than around 65 for any subject with most in the 50s - out of 100. The pass rate was 45 so I always passed - a false hope for later. However, I shone at Latin and Maths, ending up in the top set for both and achieving a high of 69 for Latin and 72 for Maths - eventually.

Successes

Not that many to be honest. I was always prompted to enter the Prose competition, which involved reading an extract from a book from sight. I seemed to be able to do this and interpret as I went along.

There was a competition to write a play with the winner being able to make a tape recording for playing to the school. I was involved with the winning entry which was 'The phantom rice pudding thrower' based on the Goon Show, which was very popular at that time. I starred as Neddy Seagoon. We made the rice pudding throwing noises with two elements - borrowing a cane from the punishment room gave the swish through the air and a wet tea towel thrown on the polished floor gave the impact sound.

I did get a prize in the 4th form - for which I got a book token. I bought a book on Aircraft Spotting. I think the prize must have been for effort rather than achievement.

I was a reasonable wicket keeper but given there is only one in a cricket 11, then I never managed to get a place in the house or the school team.

I proved to be one of the better pupils at Mathematics and was one of the few to pass their GCE in this subject. The standard of teaching in Maths at that time was very poor due to the main Maths teacher, who was ineffectual. Additionally, the syllabus included Differential and Integral Calculus - difficult at the best of times. However, I was very comfortable with the subject - as proved in later years. Mind you, my ability in the final year was enhanced by a 'punishment' meted out to the whole year. My interest in sport was always marginal so cross country running was one of my least favourite activities in a wet February. One week, the teachers did a spot check on the cafe on Tooting Bec Common and found a large contingent of the year in the cafe drinking coffee and smoking. Not me, of course. I was never one to break the rules. As a result of this, the whole year had sports (2 periods on a Tuesday afternoon) cancelled and replaced with 2 periods of Maths - joy of joy for me!

Failures

General success in academic subjects. I always did just enough to get by. My home interest in hobbies etc. meant that I never did enough homework to really build on the class work.

Involvement in School Activities. Again, due to outside interests, I never got involved in after school activities, except for the Chess club. Maybe if they had a Model Railway Club, but they didn't.

Latin. Having been in the top set for Latin - that put me in the top 30 out of 90 - I was on track for a good GCE result but found Caesar's Gallic War - In Bello Gallico - just a bit tricky. Finally, a spell off school for some weeks at a crucial point of the last year left me without the practice I needed. Having been close to the top for four years, I got 7 marks in the mock exam so the school refused to let me sit the actual exam!

Handwriting. Somewhere around the 4th year Mr Johns, our Geography master and a keen Italicist, decided that my handwriting was unacceptable so packed me off to the Italic Handwriting Club. The efforts there resulted in me changing my style and managing to maintain a fairly steady readable hand. This is a skill that I gave up after school and returned to my dire back slope, forward slope, slide the letters together style. I can still do formal italic when I want - the last time was in a Stamp Album some years back. I think that my scruffy style comes from my need to get on with things. I was always thinking of the next three words so never had any time for the current one. I still have this problem. Valerie gets me to write all the greetings cards but I have to be very careful not to make a silly mistake by thinking too far ahead.

Combined Cadet Force (CCF). Given that by this time I was a Patrol Leader in the Air Scouts with some flying experience and all of my badges, moving from the basic squad into the RAF section should have been a doddle. However, again my interest in outside activities meant that I never even tried so I stayed in the basic Army section for the whole two years of my membership.

A good 11+ result plus some good specialities should have meant a reasonable GCE result and then on to A-Levels in Maths, Biology and maybe Latin. However, I managed to pass just 4 GCE subjects - Maths, Biology, English and History so I ended up with the bare minimum to get a reasonable job.