21 things you will remember if you went to a grammar school anywhere in Kent or Medway
Let’s face it - they are all pretty much the same。
https://www.kentlive.news/news/nostalgia/21-things-you-remember-you-1204374
If you grew up in Kent or Medway, the chances are you sat the 11 plus test and went to one of two types of school. Either you went to a school, complete with relaxed rules on uniform and gasp members of the opposite sex. Or you went to one of the 38 grammar schools in Kent and Medway. You may probably attended an all-girls or all-boys school - or maybe even one of those rare mixed grammars like Barton Court in Canterbury. But let’s face it, no matter where you went, it was pretty much all the same.
So we took a look at 21 things we bet you’ll recognise if you went to a grammar school somewhere in Kent:
1. Skirt-rolling and tie-shortening
If you went to an all-girls school, it was crucial you rolled your skirt up so high the rolled-up waistband was almost larger than the rest of the skirt. And when the teacher made you pull it down, you rolled it straight back up when they were out of sight. If you went to an all-boys school, your tie needed to be long enough so you wouldn’t get in trouble, but short enough to be cool af.
2. Uniform cards
And how seriously the teachers took them. So what if you have dyed your hair bright pink or shaved an Adidas symbol into the back of your skull for the third time this week - who’s counting? And why the detention?
3. Taking statistics GCSE a year early
Generally, exam time was the most stressful period for a grammar school kid.So to ease the burden, the ever-thoughtful teachers brought your maths statistics GCSE exam forward a year early and you sat it in year 10 - cheers for that.
4. Being told to think about university from year 7
Even if you didn’t want to go. Apparently it was the whole point of your school career.
5. Blazers with shoulder pads
And we’re not even talking about in the 80s, this was just standard school attire. Plus with those pesky uniform cards in full swing, you couldn’t even get away with the old “I lost it” trick.
6. Learning Latin.
You almost definitely had to learn one language or another if you went to grammar, and some particularly lucky pupils had Latin classes. All of the older years said “the best part of Latin is when caecilius dies.”
7. Discos with the other sex schools
You had just got used to never seeing anyone of the opposite sex until BAM - it’s annual disco time - when the girls school and boys school finally come together.
You either danced rigidly slow with about a metre-gap between your two bodies or you remained firmly at the edge of the room with your pals.
8. Forever being called gay by outsiders
Some of us are gay, some of us are not. Either way, our sexuality probably wasn’t decided by our score in the 11 plus though, was it…
9. Great school trips
Thorpe Park, Paris, a week here, a week there - I’m sure one class even went skiing. The options for school trips in grammars were pretty good.
10. Anything less than a B being a ‘failure’
But the pressure to smash every single subject was a bit ridiculous. Teachers generally considered you a ‘failure’ if you scored anything below a B, and god did they tell you about it.
11. Heartthrob teachers
Good-looking teachers of the opposite sex - or even just not ugly ones - instantly became heartthrobs.
12. Everyone (mistakenly) thought you were rich
It’s not private school, no one paid for us to be there.
13. Real life mean girls
If you went to an all girls schools, you have probably been in most of the scenes from Mean Girls in real life.
14. Real life In betweeners
And for those of you at an all-boys school, every one there was either a Jay, Will, Simon or Neil.
15. The bus stop of romance
Particularly if your grammar was single-sex, the bus stop was the only chance you had to meet your future love. You would even walk the extra 10 minutes in the wrong direction to get the other school’s bus, simply to swoon.
16. Sports Centre PE
Year 10 and 11 involved having PE lessons at the local sports centre because while your ‘impressive’ school was steeped in history, its sports facilities were pretty poor and it had zero equipment of its own.
17. Class guilt trips
“I don’t care - it’s your own future you’re throwing down the drain” - the classic teacher guilt trip when she pretended like she didn’t care and wouldn’t be personally shot by the headteacher if you dare get a D.
18. Ancient textbooks
Being handed a science book, or geography text book, or any book really, with names written in the front from the 1930s.
19. And old hocky shinpads
They were probably from the 1930s too and looked like they hadn’t been washed since then either.
20. Playing on paint counted as IT lessons
Until you were the guinea pig for the GNVQ and you had to teach your teacher how to use a computer.
21. The Year 7 supermarket sweep
Why on earth were you told to buy all those dictionaries, thesauruses, maps, aprons and sports kits that you spent the whole of first year carrying around?
Then when you realised you didn’t need to actually carry them, you left them in your locker until the end of year 11.
