Do you remember leaving high school for good when you were around 16 years old?I'm really struggling to recall what it was like.
I ask because I'm aware that all Year 11's in the UK secondary system will be leaving 'high' school in about 2 to 4 weeks. There are no GCSE exams this year due to Covid, just written assessments done in class, which will all be more or less finished with by now.
In my own educational setting the final year students are getting very, very excited and all the various rituals of leaving are the main topic of conversation: signing shirts, buying year books and hoodies and saying farewell to friends and staff.
Its a huge moment, which I wish I could recall much more clearly. My own Year 11 experience, age 16, known then as the 5th Year, was dominated by the death of my Mum so I'm not really representative of how you should have felt/feel anyway.
What were the farewell rituals when your high schooling ended? What were the rites of passage? Were their celebrations at home as well as school or was it a time to actually forget and move on from with little fuss or fervour readers?
I left after A levels so I was 18, there were fewer of us and it was all a bit low key as I recall.
ReplyDeleteDid you stay on at the same place Kev?
DeleteYep, I did. It was alright.
DeleteBewildering.Went to be an apprentice engineer. Don't do it!
ReplyDeleteWas it not a good apprenticeship Khusru?
DeleteI've had better experiences, and worse!
ReplyDeleteLike KevinD, I was at the same school from 11-18 (both my sisters only spent 3 years there before moving to another school; it was extended to 11-16 at the start of my 3rd year, and 11-18 at thd start of my 5th year). Apart from a 'Final year disco' near the end of 5th year and a trip to a pub at the end of 6th form there were no celebrations or farewells. Of the 200 odd in 5th year only about 20 of us stayed on for A-levels, so classes were really small (5 or 6 in physics); but we were never a close-knit bunch; I have only been in regular contact with a couple of them that I've known since primary school days (its down to one now as one died earlier this year).
ReplyDeleteDid you get A-Level Fizzics Timmy? Wow!
DeleteI suspect that my experiences, as someone who left school at the beginning of the 1970s aren't that relevant to those leaving now. When I left, there still seemed to be room to make mistakes, with less financial pressure. I'd hate to be leaving school now.
ReplyDeleteI agree Andy, its hard for kids now. Harder. I think the whole social media thing is the worst thing about being youngsters nowadays. Bullying doesn't stay in school. It carries on at home. Obviously some good can come from online communities - like this blog!
DeleteSorry to report, that generally, I didn't have a particularly happy time in school itself, from Infants, Primary through to Comprehensive. This was due to Antilocutionism perpetrated by bullies, moving across one to four on the Allport scale. The only solution the bullies would understand, would be to dish out more violence than I was capable of! So on and on it went, some of my friends did make a stand, but they were just ignored. Eventually, one of my Teachers, who I've mentioned before on Moonbase Central, Rossa Thomas, put a stop to it, I was 15 by that time...
ReplyDeleteI do remember when him and the deputy headmaster, who was absolutely terrifying, and one of the younger genuinely feared-psycho-teachers too, rounded the lot up and God knows what they did. But the bullying just stopped dead... One of the bullies actually apologised to me! Remembering back after all these years, it was immensely satisfying when he broke the news and gave me a cast iron guarantee it would not return. Which it did not thankfully.
The more hard core bullies just avoided me, they slandered me behind my back, but I was just relieved to be left alone.
When I left, aged 18, there was no leaving school party, I just walked out of the gates on a Wednesday, and started my job on the following Monday. I still have most of my real friends from school, sadly a couple have died though.
Consequently, I've just wiped most of my time actually in school [other than what I learned obviously] from my memory. This is probably why I can remember in such detail so much from my early life - Plenty of room!
What memories, of School I have, are the pretty decent and happy ones. Looking back after over half a century, I particularly think of my teacher, friend and mentor Rossa. If it were not for him, I'd not even be in broadcasting. He taught me so much, gave me confidence in myself, including how to deliver some genuinely funny Cerebral Witticisms, like "I wouldn't let you chew bread for my Ducks!"
Thank you Rossa!
Great insights Bill. Rossa sounded like a top teacher and friend. I never had that sort of inspirational teacher when I was a kid. My Missus did in Europe and even visited female teachers at home with her Continental pals!
DeleteI stayed the extra year for 6th form to get an Art and design qualification and improve my maths (ironically got a worse result cos I didn't get on with the teacher) half way through the year I'd pretty much decided to do hairdressing ( cos a mate said it was a good laugh). Our year group was considered to be the easiest going out of about 10 years of entitled brats, yes we took the piss but if we got caught we took it on the chin and some punishments were laughable, 500 words on the sex life of a mushy pea was my favorite, my mate did this and it was so good the teacher asked him to read it to the class and take questions after basically giving Mr.C the morning off, his words " Matthew geography will never be your strong point but your creative writing is fantastic" literally as he was wiping tears from his cheeks!
ReplyDeleteha ha, can you recall anything about the sex life of the Mushy Pea for us MJ! Sounds wonderful!
DeleteLike many others, I stayed on into sixth form at the same school I’d been attending for the previous five years. I didn’t have anywhere near as bad a time as many others (there was verbal bullying, I guess, but nothing physical) and I have fond memories of some excellent teachers and school-friends... but it all seems a little dull, now. I don’t remember how I felt at the end of my fifth year – as it was called back then... underwhelmed, maybe? I guess it felt more like the start of the summer holidays than like a proper ending. I didn’t have a large circle of friends but most of them left for proper jobs. Sixth form felt like treading water. Things only started to get interesting when I wandered off to art college...
ReplyDeleteand the rest as they say is history Paul! I think I'd have loved art college! Did many of the students carry on with their art like you?
DeleteThere were no leaving rituals that I remember at British schools back then, other than the exchanging of addresses and phone numbers, just as there were no School Proms.
ReplyDeleteAll of this has filtered over from the States in the last couple of decades or so.
Proms are one of those divisive landmarks in school life that better-off kids can afford to buy new fancy clobber and less well-off kids can't. I don't like school uniforms but if there is a decent argument for them then this is it. Proms are the opposite with parent and peer pressure going wild.
Delete