Class 4 Mr Sellick.
By this time we were 10 years old and the oldest boys in the school. There were Team Captains – I think I was Captain of Normans – and Prefects, all with little round tin badges to wear quite proudly. Mr Sellick treated us as responsible people (he never had a first name or a nickname, but from the teacher list above I now know that he was Lloyd George Sellick.)
Science was getting more complicated, but nothing seemed to stick – I still can’t remember which type of cloud is which.
Apart from all the stories we wrote, we even did some ‘poetry’ (although I don’t think we gave it that name). I do remember writing this.
The 11-plus
The impending 11-plus examination would decide our futures, dividing us into those going to the local Grammar School, or to the Secondary Modern. The latter school was in a deprived part of town called Derby (pronounced as it is spelt, not like the city), and was a dismal prospect for the middle-class kids, while in contrast some of the working-class children were clear they did not want to pass the 11+ and go to the Grammar.
Mum got me some books of tests similar to the exam, and I dutifully went through all these at home, and she marked them. I’ve still got all the books – I assume there were accompanying books of answers.
These examples show the arithmetic papers included what now appear to be quite tricky questions dealing with pounds/shillings/pence and tons/cwt/qr (tons, hundredweight, quarters). All these absurd units made it easy to set test questions.
Some of the mental arithmetic questions do seem difficult, but I had been doing this sort of thing for years, using the old units we were used to.
Although Q32 ‘What is the cost of 1lb 7oz at 1s 4d a lb’ seems a nightmare, it’s actually straightforward if you keep very calm and realise –
- 1s 4d a lb means 16d a lb (because 12 pence in a shilling)
- This means 1d an oz (because 16 ounces in a pound)
- 1lb 7 oz is 23 oz
- 23 oz therefore costs 23d
- 23d is 1s 11d
But many in the class would not manage this.
The English comprehension questions seem rather straightforward compared to the arithmetic.
I remember enjoying the logic problems – these seem like standard IQ-test material, although I can’t remember if we had examples comparing images.
This is the exam instructions for the 11-plus – we sat it in our classroom, and I remember a feeling that this was important, but I was not particularly anxious.
The exam must have been in March 1964. I can’t remember being worried about the results, and when I found in April that I had passed, it only merited one line in my diary. But I got 2/6 from ‘Gran’ – this must have been Granny Baker, as More Gran had died in 1962.
Out of 36 children who continued all the way through the school, there were 10 passes, and 26 fails, a pass-rate of 28%. The Passmore twins were separated, Charles to the Grammar, David to the Sec Mod. I can’t remember them being particularly different, so they will have made an interesting controlled experiment.
I wonder how they ensured the appropriate number of local kids got into the Grammar. I suspect they moved the pass mark to fit the number of places. Some will have had their life changed by the smallest of margins.
Bluecoat now
Bluecoat school was demolished in 1969, five years after I left. The land now forms the car park for the Iceland supermarket, although the gate-posts and bits of the familiar wall are still there. The gates are now at a pub, The Old Barn Inn, at Bickington just outside Barnstaple.