Dec 1 Tues
Physics and Music exams. Both Horrible! In physics I've got all number one wrong. Music - well we all know what I'm like at music.
Dec 2
RESULTS.
Scripture 76 Last year 66%
English 79 last year 67
Came 3rd in English. Fab.
Dec 3 Thus
History 72 last year 71
Geography 85 last year 72
Top in geography
Dec 4
Results
French 72 last year 71
Russian 78 last year 72
3rd in Russian (pleased with results so far)
Dec 5 and 6
Blank
Dec 7 Mon
Maths 86 (1st) last year 85 (3rd)
Chem 87 (1st) last year 71
Bio 77 (4th) last year 71*
Dec 8 Tues
Physics 72 last year -
Music 61 last year 60
I hate music. My average is now 76.8
Dec 9 - 11
Blank
Dec 12 Sat
Shirley came to stay. Xmas shopping. Decided to crochet J and S scarves and berets for Xmas. Do I believe in God? Had a party.
Dec 13 Sun
Party was a flop 'cos mum stayed in (Dad told her to!) Oh Lord. Shirley's gone home. Good.
Dec 14
I'm more or less friends with W now. We break up on Thursday. Good. Carol service on Wednesday.
Dec 15
Took some books home. Xmas. It just doesn't feel like Christmas. Perhaps it's 'cos there is no snow.
Dec 16 Wed
A rotten Carol Service. A bit worried in case of power strike (had a lot recently. Everybody's been turned off nearly)
*Commentary
Dec 7 - As I transcribe these results I've got a weird dual reaction. On the one hand I'm a bit embarrassed, because it looks like showing off on ehalf of my 14 year old self. On the other hand, I do feel a little warm glow of pride :-)
I don't think that she was bragging. I think that she was setting academically high standards for herself and measuring outcomes.
Dec 16 - As far as I can recall these weren't the big power-strikes. This wasn't the Winter of Discontent. I was revising for my 'A' levels, I think, during the three day week. Revising by candle-light if my memory serves me correctly.
Blimey - no wonder you were head girl ms goody two shoes. :-) I was all over the place with school exams. When I first went to Hulme I was totally in the dark about what I was supposed to do and I didn't have much common sense.
ReplyDeletePrior to Hulme, I had only ever been examined on sort of IQ tests, not on course work. Daft as it sounds I was genuinely surprised in my 1st UIII English exam when the questions were about the book we had been reading in class. I remember thinking 'how stupid is that, asking about the book, we're bound to know cos we've all been reading it.' derrr. When Miss Turner had said we must revise I'd busily been reading the Encyclopeadia Brittanica which my Dad got me from the library. I'm serious.
Of course, by the time I sussed it all out, I think I'd been labelled a bit thick so I decided to be the sporting queen instead and didn't do much in the way of revision.
Actually it all started to go wrong on day one when we were asked to write our names down for the class register in reverse order. So I wrote Stott Mary Carol (remember, I'm NOT Polly Tommey - how confusing), anyway the teachers kept calling me Mary and I didn't really know why and I certainly didn't dare correct them. I cried for a month and hated going to school. Then one day I met Karen Fisher crying outside down the little path by the tennis courts and we plotted our escape. We decided we were going to leave Hulme and go to Counthill cos the uniform was better (green) and we'd probably look cleverer there. Once we both knew each other was upset, though, we were fine and our Counthill plot never got off the ground.
Ha ha now it knows I'm not Polly Tommey.
ReplyDeleteOr Mary Carol Stott
Oh Carol! That's made me laugh. Is that really all true? Wasn't school life cruel, that we couldn't ask the obvious questions? How come I realised that we had to revise the book we had been doing in class? Do you think she told us and that you weren't listening (I always listen to instructions, I'm such a conformist!)? Or do you think she just din't tell us? Glad that you are neither Polly nor Mary now.
ReplyDeleteYes its all true - I remember it really well. I brought Karen Fisher an apple from my mum and dad's shop the day after we found each other crying. I think Miss Turner probably said we had to revise but didn't say exactly how. At first I used to listen quite a lot (out of pure terror of not knowing what to do. I also used to watch other people to see what they did the whole time). I do remember at that age I very often didn't catch on to things, so if something was sort of implied, or just explained in a way that didn't make it really explicit, I would miss the point. I grew out of that somehow. Not sure how.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I learned at the Hulme Grammar School for Girls Oldham (School motto 'Trust, but in whom, take care' but in Latin) was to watch other people to learn the right thing to do. Want to know which cutlery to use? - wait and let others start first.
ReplyDeleteBlimey, I didn't know the motto meant that. I think I agree with it now, but I'm also thinking it typifies the Hulme ideal, for me at least at that time. Like it was intending to frighten and demean 'the girls'. Maybe I am being a bit unfair. I have very happy as well as very scarey memories of my time there. Proud that I went, ashamed that I could. ish.
ReplyDeletewhat do you mean - ashamed that you could - do you mean because it was an elitist system? Was it? I struggle with this. When my father was a very low earner, my fees were waived - it was a means-tested system, wasn't it, at that time?
ReplyDeleteI think it was 'Fide sed qui vide' in Latin. But I don't know Latin, so I may have made a big mistake and written something rude.
ReplyDelete