BIRKENHEAD
SCHOOL
0063 Birkenhead Junior School
The bike I got as the traditional reward for passing the entry exam It was a Raleigh Lenton, racing model with drop handle bars!
From Birkenhead Prep I graduated to the main part of Birkenhead School. When we arrived there, we were, for the first two years, taught in its Junior School. I guess this strange arrangement was so that it could pretend to be a normal public school, where the main entry was at 13 years. This was, in the case of Birkenhead School, the third form; hence this was quirkily deemed to be the first year in the senior school.
A schematic of
the school layout
(with the Junior School circled)
The Junior School even maintained a sort of physical separation from the senior school, being set apart, in a corner of the main site, with its own building and its own facilities. It was an old mansion, with large sunny rooms which were our classrooms. Outside there wasn't much for us to do except for a large quad, surrounded by high mesh fences, on which we enthusiastically played quad hockey in the lunch hours. Our sports, rugger and cricket, were played on the school’s playing field half a mile or so away. The building itself was two-storey, with the first year on the upper floor and the second year on the lower floor; connected by a central grand staircase. However, it is so long ago that I have now forgotten most of the details!
We
were streamed by our performance in the entry exam; which gave, in essence, a
measure of our intelligence. Thus there were three main classes in the first
form, all of 30 each -- with a total of 90 pupils per year. This three form
pattern remained the same throughout the school. The streams were decided, in
the Junior School, by the languages you took. The lowest form, which only took
French, was called Trojans. The middle stream, which ultimately took French and
Latin, was called Romans, and the top stream which initially also took Latin --
but then moved on to Greek or German as well, was called Greeks. It was a very
good indicator of who the staff of the school admired most from classical times;
I guess I would now agree with their judgment. As you might expect I was in
Greeks. Apart from the introduction of languages, the syllabus was pretty much
what you might expect; maths, science, geography, history, English -- but only
English language -- and the usual RE etc. There were some masters largely
committed to the Junior School, in particular the headmaster was dedicated to
it, but some masters - covering the more specialist subjects - were also shared
with the senior school.
In terms of sports
we switched from the soccer, which we had played in the Prep, to rugger. This
was the sport of public schools. We did this for two terms a year, and played
cricket in the summer. It was a pleasant life, and I made my most important
school friend then - Brian Wrench. I later learned that he was a
scholarship boy. His mother was single parent, which was unusual in those days.
On the other hand the ethos of the school was – surprisingly – so egalitarian
that I didn't realise until years later that this was the case. We became great
friends, and that lasted through his life until his death at an early age.
My school blazer, but without the obligatory tie and cap!
To be honest I can't remember much about the Junior School. It was in many respects, from my point of view, an extension of the Prep. The only thing I can remember was that, every year, I valiantly entered the handwriting contest - set by a newspaper for schoolchildren which we all received. As anyone who has seen my handwriting will realise, I have just about the worst handwriting in the world. Even so I lived in hope, but it was one skill where I was never going to excel!
Much the same continued into the second form of the Junior School, before we moved up to the third form and into the senior school.. There was no exam at this stage –and, in that respect at least, there was nothing equivalent to the public schools common entrance exam.
I suspect all of this was nothing like the experience of those in grammar schools, and certainly not those consigned to secondary moderns. It probably was not much like that of the traditional public schools, which were driven by the requirements of boarding their pupils. It was, indeed, only representative of a narrow stratum of elite public day schools; such as Manchester Grammar, with whom we compared ourselves.
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