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Dear Former Students of Firth Park Grammar School,

My name is Christopher Bird. I was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in April 1974 (an only child) and I suffer from Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. As a result, I spent most of my schooling in special schools (including nine years at Alderman Knight, the excellent school the county council are trying to close – recently dubbed the ‘Best Special School in Britain’). Fortunately, there was a comprehensive school nearby (Tewkesbury School), and one of the teachers there recognised that I had a talent in mathematics. As a result of that, I began Maths lessons over at the comprehensive school at the age of 12, and though I was bewildered by the sizes of the classes at first, I not only passed GCSE Maths a year early, I also passed Maths ‘A’ level a year early as well (and won a school prize for that). I thoroughly enjoyed the special individual treatment that I received at school, which included computer sessions when I had earned a full day of stars for good behaviour – I was treated like a prince (and often felt like one as well)! I got a grade B in Maths ‘A’ level the first time, so I resat it the following year and got an A, along with a ‘merit’ in the optional ‘special paper’ (‘S’ level). I also took ‘A’ level Further Maths twice (the only candidate on each occasion) – upgrading a D grade to a B on the second occasion. (I spent four years in the sixth form – sat ‘A’ levels in ’91, ’92, and in’93!) I had the special honour of getting my picture in the front page of the Gloucestershire Echo on two occasions. I also gained some other qualifications in the sixth form (including a C in GCSE English and B in GCSE Social Science), and just after I left school I carried off Tewkesbury School’s most prestigious prize – ‘Special Achievement Award’.

My academic success did not stop there! Three years later (in 1996), I achieved a First Class Honours BSc degree in Maths with Computing at what is now known as the University of Gloucestershire. More recently, I have achieved a Master’s degree (a taught MSc) in Maths with the Open University. Since March 1999, I have attended a centre called Gloucestershire Group Homes (for autistic people) in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire – and now go there twice a week. (I also attend another centre in Gloucester on Mondays). I am unable to take up normal employment due to my condition (e.g. inability to live independently or communicate with strangers). I had even been classified as 80% disabled!

I am fascinated by exam results (as they are mathematical) and the history of the education system (one of my other interests is social history). The 1944 Education Act introduced ‘free secondary education for all’ and ushered in the ‘eleven plus’ and the ‘tripartite’ system – really a bipartite system of grammar and secondary modern schools (since most technical schools hardly got off the ground). Only 20% of children went to grammar schools in the postwar years until comprehensive schools gradually replaced most grammars and secondary moderns in the later 1960s and 1970s. GCE ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level exams were designed for grammar schools (and independent schools) – very few secondary modern pupils attempted even ‘O’ level exams until the 1960s. Within the schools themselves, there were usually further stratification by ability – in the form of ‘streaming’ in both grammar and secondary modern schools. In the grammar schools, the top stream (normally called the A stream) usually studied Latin and often took ‘O’ levels in four years rather than five in order to give them an extra year in the sixth form to increase their chances of going to university, in particular to one of their first choice. Pupils in the third year sixth either repeated their ‘A’ levels (often adding ‘S’ level papers in order to compete for State Scholarships etc.) or attempted university scholarship exams (only the most brilliant pupils won open awards to Oxford or Cambridge). In many schools, the third year sixth was called the Scholarship Sixth or even the Seventh Form. (My rather unusual educational background meant that I had four years in the sixth!)

I was surprised to find a few ‘Speech Day’ programmes on the website related to the school (Firth Park Grammar School for Boys, Sheffield) – even more so when they contained School Certificate (SC) and Higher School Certificate (HSC) results for the years 1946, 1947 and 1948. This was just after the end of the Second World War – the 60th anniversary celebrations of ‘VE’ day and ‘VJ’ day may bring back some memories! (Fee paying was abolished in all grammar schools when the 1944 Act was brought into effect on 1st April 1945.) SC results for the fifth form just gave a list of those who achieved the basic qualification (five or more passes including certain subjects such as English and a modern language – a pass was of a somewhat lower standard than GCE ‘O’ level) and made no mention of ‘matric’ or credits or distinctions. Matriculation exemption, or ‘matric’, then the minimum university entrance qualification, was achieved by gaining five or more credits – a credit was equivalent to an ‘O’ level pass or GCSE grade C. HSC results (sixth form), on the other hand, gave much more detailed information – subjects passed at principal or subsidiary level and the grades achieved in them. The HSC grades in the ‘principal’ papers were ‘distinction’, ‘good’, ‘credit’ (principal pass – equivalent to an ‘A’ level pass), ‘subsidiary pass’ and ‘fail’. ‘Subsidiary’ papers were simply graded ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. SC and HSC were replaced by ‘O’ levels and ‘A’ levels respectively in 1951 (I’ve even had an answer to a question about the history of the exam system published in the ‘Answers to Correspondents’ column of the national Daily Mail newspaper just before Easter!!!). Before the advent of the GCE, a person could enter university without sitting the HSC provided he had a qualification equivalent to the old ‘matric’; such a person would enter the ‘intermediate year’ (first year) of a four-year degree course, and the HSC merely exempted students from some or all subjects studied in the ‘intermediate year’. An alternative qualification to the HSC in those days was the Inter-BA or Inter-BSc.

The numbers gaining the full HSC (either three credits or two credits and two subsidiary passes, or better) increased from 15 in 1946 to 21 in 1947 and 31 in 1948 (the numbers going to university nationally had doubled at around this time). Pupils failing to achieve the full HSC were given ‘Letters of Success’ even when they have only obtained a single subsidiary pass. The 1948 HSC results were interesting enough to make an analysis here. Of the 31 boys who achieved a full HSC in 1948, 14 (or 45%) were in their third year in the sixth form making a second attempt at the HSC. Of the 13 Upper Sixth boys who achieved ‘Letters of Success’ in 1948, only two were in their third year in the sixth form resitting HSC (and both these two had already achieved a full HSC the previous year!). This is partly because the school had an ‘express stream’ at the time (when it was a four form entry school), where the A stream sat for SC in four years thus giving them an extra year in the sixth to the normal age of university entry (18). The third year sixth did better than the second year sixth since virtually all of the former (if not all of them) were able enough to begin HSC work at 15+, whereas the latter included some boys from lower streams. The 1948 HSC results are shown below (the exam board was the Northern Universities’ Joint Matriculation Board).

Higher School Certificate results, July 1948

In 1948, there were 10 distinctions, 47 ‘goods’, 55 credits (principal passes below ‘good’ standard) and 38 subsidiary passes (awarded on either principal or subsidiary papers) achieved by the upper sixth (second or third year sixth form). In that year, there were a further 7 ‘excellents’ and 4 ‘very goods’ achieved on the more challenging ‘scholarship papers’ (‘S’ levels) set by the NUJMB exam board – no information is known about those achieving results lower than VG on them! Three State Scholarships were won that year (a vintage year for them considering that fewer than 1,000 State Scholarships were awarded in the whole country in 1948) – these boys all either had two ‘excellents’ or one ‘excellent’ and one ‘very good’ in their ‘S’ levels. (State Scholarships were abolished in 1962, nevertheless ‘S’ level exams were retained - S for Special rather than Scholarship - and the questions on them were based on the same syllabus as the corresponding ‘A’ level.) On the other hand, not a single boy gained more than one distinction on the main principal HSC papers – perhaps the ablest pupils were told to concentrate more on their ‘S’ level papers than their main HSC ones. The curious thing about ‘S’ level papers is that pupils who get the top grade in them do not always get the top grade in the corresponding (easier) ‘A’ level paper in the same subject – the 7 ‘excellents’ were accompanied by distinctions in the main HSC in only two cases; the other five were ‘goods’. At a boys’ public school (near where I live) during the three years 1972-74, a total of 26 distinctions were awarded on the ‘special papers’ set for the ablest students at ‘A’ level – the corresponding main ‘A’ level grade was grade A in only 58% of cases, grade B in 31% and grades C-E in 12% of cases (from a local newspaper). Prince Charles had a B with distinction in History, Princess Anne an E with merit in Geography. I, myself, know a teacher who, although possessing a distinction in the Economics and Public Affairs ‘special paper’, had only a grade E in the corresponding main ‘A’ level!

Focusing on the third year sixth form HSC results of 1948 of the 16 boys who achieved either a full HSC or ‘Letters of Success’ in both 1947 and 1948 – was resitting HSC worthwhile? Comparing their HSC results in the same subject in 1947 and 1948 (51 entries with a subsidiary pass or better in both years), we find that the grade improved by one in less than half of cases (24), stayed the same in the same number of cases (24) and deteriorated by one in the remaining 3 cases (from ‘good’ down to credit standard). The less able boys the first time round were more likely to improve their results than the abler ones – whilst the 6 subsidiary passes of 1947 became 4 credits and 2 subsidiaries in 1948 and the 29 credits became 16 ‘goods’ and 13 credits, the 14 ‘goods’ of 1947 hardly improved at all (4 distinctions, 7 ‘goods’ and 3 credits). Two 1947 distinctions were resat the following year – thankfully, both remained distinctions though this was not always the case! For the abler boys, it seemed that the whole HSC had to be resat in order to sit the ‘scholarship’ papers – it would have been better in many cases if they were allowed to sit the ‘S’ papers alone. Only 6 boys appeared to add a new subject in the third year sixth – two passed Chemistry (one ‘good’ and one subsidiary pass), three passed subsidiary Latin and one achieved a distinction (with ‘excellent’ at ‘S’ level) in Scripture. In conclusion, there should have been no real need to resit a HSC subject when the mark obtained on the first occasion was above the bottom end of the ‘good’ range (roughly grade C at ‘A’ level) – a candidate would have been better to focus on ‘S’ level (which often required an extended syllabus in those days) unless that person has shown that he would have a good chance of a substantial improvement (15% or more) in the main HSC paper if he had resat that paper. This (I presume) was one of the main reasons why the ‘group-based’ HSC was replaced by the ‘subject-based’ ‘A’ level a few years later – ‘A’ level allowed the resitting of a single subject rather than the whole lot. It is worth noting that one boy from this group gained an Exhibition in Modern Languages at Magdalene College, Cambridge in Autumn 1947 and stayed on for a couple of terms to resit HSC – the three ‘goods’ he obtained on the first occasion became a distinction, ‘good’ and credit on the second occasion; he also gained a subsidiary pass in Latin on the latter occasion. 13 of the 16 third year sixth boys managed to obtain a local authority or State Scholarship or university award on leaving school (this was before the days of mandatory student grants). All of the 16 gained the full HSC (on the first occasion if not the second!); only two of these failed to obtain at least one ‘good’ or distinction in HSC at the second attempt.

Turning now to the second year sixth form HSC results of 1948 – we were able to find the fifth year ‘streams’ of all of the 28 boys who achieved either a full HSC or ‘Letters of Success’. 18 of the 28 (64%) were in the A stream, while 7 (25%) were in form 5B and 3 (11%) were in 5C. Of the 17 boys who obtained a full HSC in the second year sixth, 14 were in form 5A and only two were in 5B and one in 5C. 11 boys obtained a local authority or State Scholarship in either 1948 or 1949 (1949 awards are shown on the Honours Board, which can be found on the website) – of these 11, only one was not in form 5A (he was in 5C). The top four boys in School Certificate in 1946 all achieved at least two principal passes with at least one ‘good’ or distinction two years later (though the second placed boy did not gain a full HSC at the first attempt, he did get a distinction in Italian and a local authority award after two years in the sixth). Generally speaking, the better the HSC results, the more likely that the person was in the A stream (as with SC results) but there is one rather extreme example of late development in this particular group of pupils – one boy (Derick Mirfin) gained a State Scholarship with two ‘excellents’ at ‘S’ level only two years after being in form 5C (third of four streams). In addition to his State Scholarship, he also gained an Open Minor Scholarship in History at Magdalene College, Cambridge in Autumn 1948 (see Honours Board). He must have started to change in the fifth year, since he won a ‘Progress Prize’ in that year and another ‘Progress Prize’ in the lower sixth (one awarded in each form below the sixth, plus up to 6 awarded in the lower sixth). Curiously, his one HSC distinction was in a subject different to his ‘S’ level ones, so both of his two ‘S’ level ‘excellents’ were only accompanied by ‘goods’ in the corresponding main HSC papers! Another boy from this group managed to gain a State Scholarship – he was the fourth placed boy in School Certificate in 1946, gained three ‘goods’ and subsidiary Latin in HSC in 1948 and won his ‘State’ in the third year sixth (1949).

The list of boys who gained a School Certificate in the fifth form in July 1946 showed that 26 boys from form 5A, 28 from 5B, 26 from 5C and 11 from 5D (bottom stream) achieved the School Cert, although one boy who was in 5A in 1945-46 achieved a School Cert in September 1946. The 5A boys were (on average) a year younger than the rest, so most of these entered the sixth form at 15+ (since grammar school pupils were expected to stay at school until at least the age of 16) – 21 of these obtained at least one HSC subsidiary pass or better in the sixth form (lower or upper sixth), at least 18 stayed on to upper sixth, 14 gained a full HSC after two years in the sixth and 10 left school with an award of some sort (including one State Scholarship and an Edgar Allen Scholarship). (Subsidiary subjects could be sat in the lower sixth by pupils not wishing to complete the full two years although all of the science pupils did so.) Of the 5B boys, 9 gained at least one HSC subsidiary pass or better in the sixth form, at least 7 stayed on to upper sixth, only two gained a full HSC after two years in the sixth and there were no awards (local, state or university) gained on leaving school. Of the 5C boys, only four gained anything in HSC in either lower or upper sixth, perhaps only three stayed on to upper sixth, and apart from the exceptional State and Oxbridge Open Scholar mentioned in the previous paragraph, there were no awards of any sort (obtained on leaving school) and all HSCs were simply ‘Letters of Success’. (One of the 5C boys, Raymond A Hockley, did win a MacFarren Scholarship for Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, but he achieved this distinction in 1951, a few years after he left school. He went on to become a great musician and performer.) And as for the 5D boys, none of them went on to gain even a single subsidiary pass in the HSC.

In those days, a significant minority of grammar school pupils failed to complete the School Certificate course because they left school ‘prematurely’ – if they did not find school work too interesting or their parents could not afford to keep them at school longer, then the law allowed them to leave at 14 and enter the world of employment. Taking the 1945-46 fifth form year group as a whole and assuming that 120 boys entered the school in September 1941 (in the days of the ‘special place’ exam in which some parents had to pay partial fees according to their income) and most School Cert failures occurred in the bottom stream (which also has the most ‘premature’ leavers), I estimate that around 105-110 boys (or 90% of the annual intake) completed the School Certificate course in 1946. Of this year cohort, 92 boys (77% of the annual intake) passed School Cert in 1946, 34 (28%) went on to gain at least a HSC subsidiary pass or better in the sixth form, at least 28 (23%) stayed on to the upper sixth, 17 (14%) obtained a full HSC in 1948 (after two years in the sixth) and 11 (9%) left school with a financial award to assist with the cost of attending university (including two State Scholarships, a Cambridge Open Scholarship and an Edgar Allen Scholarship). These exam successes meant that the school was slightly above national averages for boys’ grammar schools (maintained by local education authorities) at that time.

The 1948 upper sixth HSC results contained 10 distinctions, 47 ‘goods’, 55 credits and 38 subsidiary passes, plus a further 7 ‘excellents’ and 4 ‘very goods’ on scholarship papers. In 1947, there were 3 distinctions, 21 ‘goods’, 54 credits and 19 subsidiary passes, and in 1946, there were 4 distinctions, 28 ‘goods’, 27 credits and 14 subsidiary passes in the HSC by the upper sixth. No HSC scholarship paper results were indicated for 1946 and 1947 (when there were no State Scholarships won), perhaps there were no ‘excellents’ or VGs achieved on them in those years. Taking the three years combined, and assuming a HSC Principal pass rate of 75%, it is found that only 5% of HSC Principal entries resulted in distinctions and 30% were ‘goods’. No boy gained more than one distinction in HSC in any of the three years in question (a sharp contrast to the abundance of A grades at ‘A’ level nowadays). Some teachers were more successful than others. Of the 17 HSC distinctions gained during 1946-48, an amazing 7 were awarded in Italian (including a repeat distinction by the same person) – of 9 successful Principal entries in the subject, 7 were distinctions! Physics – the most popular subject with 49 passes at Principal level during 1946-48 – had four distinctions (with a further two at scholarship level in 1948). On the other hand, there were no distinctions in Chemistry (out of 35 Principal passes), English Literature (out of 25) or any of the mathematical subjects (out of 26 in Pure and 13 in Applied) in any of those three years (nowadays almost 40% of entries for ‘A’ level maths are awarded A grades).

In 1948, 16 local education authority awards (Sheffield Education Committee's University Entrance Scholarships) were won. In 1947, there were only 4 such awards won, and in 1946, there were 6, thus making a total of 26 during the three years combined. These awards were given on the results of the HSC, and analysis of the HSC results in the same year that the awards were won shows that all but two boys achieved either two ‘goods’ or one distinction, or better in HSC. 12 boys achieved either three ‘goods’ or a DGC (distinction, ‘good’ and credit), or better in HSC. I presume that these awards were given on the basis of the average marks in the candidates’ best three Principal subjects (as in many other local authorities at that time), and the typical candidate who just gets such an award probably had two ‘goods’ and a credit (e.g. two marks of 60% and one of 50%, making an average of 57%). State Scholarships (of which three were won during the three year period, all in 1948) were awarded on the basis of the scholarship papers as well as the main HSC ones, and the three State Scholars all did very well in their HSC exams – performances better than three ‘goods’ in the main papers and better than two ‘very goods’ on the scholarship ones.

Turning to awards made by the universities themselves during the three years (shown on the Honours Board), there were three in 1946 (a Wootton Isaacson Exhibition at Trinity Hall College, Cambridge; an Open Scholarship in Science at Southampton; and a Scholarship in French and Italian at Manchester), two in 1947 (a MacKinnon Junior Scholarship in Mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford and an Exhibition in Modern Languages at Magdalene College, Cambridge), and two in 1948 (an Open Minor Scholarship in History at Magdalene College, Cambridge and an Exhibition in History at Magdalene College, Cambridge). So there were 7 awards made by the universities during the three years, of which 5 were Oxbridge awards. The HSC results of 6 of the boys (as the seventh was in the lower sixth in 1948) shows that all have gained either three ‘goods’ or a DGC (the ‘points’ equivalent), or better in HSC, and four would have had a distinction and two ‘goods’ in their principal subjects had their best result been taken whenever a HSC subject had been sat more than once – these four, incidentally, were the four Oxbridge award holders whose HSC results were known.

In the year 1945-46, the school was a four form entry school, ‘streamed’ into A, B, C and D forms below the sixth form, with the boys in form 3A jumping to 5A to take School Certificate a year early (there was no form 4A). Streaming by ability was not completely reliable – the stream that a boy was placed in did not always predict his future success. The school had its share of surprises now and again. Apart from Derick Mirfin (the State and Oxbridge Open Scholar who was in 5C in 1945-46), the boy who came top in the internal exams for the whole of the first year in summer 1946 came from the C stream – and the boy who came second was in the B form. In September 1946, the school decided to ‘unstream’ the first and second year forms so that they were all parallel in ability; these then became based on the four school houses. An even bigger surprise came the following year when the top two boys in School Certificate in 1947 both came from the C stream (third of five fifth year forms) and the third placed boy was from 5B. It is worth noting that the top four boys in each form below the sixth (three in the fourth year) received prizes and there were also ‘progress prizes’ (the upper sixth had subject prizes and other special prizes instead). Lancasterian Scholarships of the First Order were also awarded to two boys at the top of the School Certificate lists in the late 1940s – in 1946, the first and third placed boys in SC were so awarded; in 1947, the first and second placed boys in SC were given them; in 1948, it was the first and third placed boys again (what were the criteria – obviously it wasn’t solely on SC performance?).

The school kept up its strong academic record despite competition from King Edward VII School (the ‘top’ maintained boys’ grammar school in the city, who also has its own website) – in 1949, a boy won an Edgar Allen Scholarship and another boy won a State Scholarship; in 1950, three boys won State Scholarships (one of these also won a Brackenbury Scholarship in Science at Balliol College, Oxford); in 1951, there was a Domus Scholarship in Science at Balliol College, Oxford (achieved by a boy who won a ‘progress prize’ for general improvement while in form 1C) and a MacFarren Scholarship for Composition at the Royal Academy of Music (gained by Raymond Hockley after he left school), and two other boys won State Scholarships. Incidentally, the school’s internal exams were good at picking out the two State Scholars of 1951 (when 2,000 of them were awarded in the country) – one of them (Kenneth Battersby) came top of his year in three consecutive years (if not four); he was top of the second year in 1946 (when he was in 2A), top of the third year in 1947 (in 3A) and gained the best School Certificate result of those sitting them in 1948 (in 5A). The other 1951 State Scholar (Alan Wright) came second in his year in the third year exams in 1947 (in 3A) and achieved the third best School Certificate result in 1948 (in 5A). Both Kenneth Battersby and Alan Wright won Lancasterian Scholarships of the First Order. I wish things were as perfect as this!

In case you haven’t read my article in the Daily Mail, 1951 was the year that the new GCE exams came in and there was an age limit of 16 for the first two years (so I wonder what happened to the A stream at that time). Early ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels were simply pass/fail exams though distinctions were awarded at ‘A’ level from 1953 until State Scholarships were abolished in 1962. In 1963, ‘A’ levels became graded from A-E and the grades on ‘special papers’ (maximum of two ‘S’ levels per candidate) were 1 (distinction), 2 (merit) and U (unclassified). The CSE also had five grades of pass (grade 1 = ‘O’ level pass) when it was introduced in 1965 (not all grammar schools entered their weaker pupils for this exam). ‘O’ level, however, remained officially pass/fail until 1975 – six years after the school became a mixed comprehensive. Nowadays (in 2005), we have GCSEs (replaced ‘O’ levels and CSEs in 1988), ‘AS’ levels (introduced in 1989), ‘A’ levels (as before), vocational GCSEs, vocational ‘A’ levels and Advanced Extension Awards (replaced ‘S’ levels in 2002). While the success rates and numbers of top grades at ‘O’ level/GCSE and ‘A’ level have gone up considerably over the years (and still continue to do so), it is an irony that entries for ‘S’ level papers (nationally) had declined to such an extent in the 1970s, 80s and 90s that fewer than 5,000 sat for them in their last year in 2001 despite there being 140,000 A grades awarded at ‘A’ level that year (I was one of the lucky ones there – gained my merit in ‘S’ level maths in 1992). The new ‘Advanced Extension Awards’ are faring little better – only 7,000 sat for them in 2004.

Probably the most interesting Old Boy who left the school in the late 1940s (as I find it) was Derick Mirfin, the C stream boy who had already gained a State Scholarship when he sat his Cambridge exams and won an Open Minor Scholarship. After Cambridge, Mirfin became a publisher and translator. He had been the first Liberal candidate to contest Stratford-upon-Avon in 13 years when he was unsuccessful in a by-election to fill John Profumo’s vacant seat in August 1963. (Stratford was described as a true-blue Tory constituency and probably still is today!) In later years, he had been a county councillor and Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane. (I found out this additional post-university information by typing his name using the ‘Google’ search engine out of curiosity – there are not many Derick Mirfin’s around!).

The Old Boys who took their School Certificate and Higher School Certificate exams at the school in the late 1940s are now in their mid-seventies. I think it is worthwhile putting my analysis of these old exams on the website so they can read it while they are still alive. It shows the relationship between the ability streams and HSC and scholarship success and the effects when the HSC is taken a second time. The men concerned may have been affected by evacuation during the war and they usually had to do two years’ National Service in the Army, Navy or RAF either at the age of 18 or after leaving university or another institution of further education. Like many of them, I have had my own experiences of corporal punishment – I have received the ‘slipper’ on no fewer than eight occasions whilst a pupil at Alderman Knight Special School, though I thankfully never got more than two strokes on any of those occasions. Most grammar school pupils were required to do at least two hours of homework every evening – luckily for me, my special schooling meant that I had much free time to think independently; I hardly had any homework until I started the ‘A’ level maths course at the age of 15! (As a result, I was writing many computer programs of my own on my ZX Spectrum + at home.) I possess many old books on education at home, including all of the major reports of the 1950s and 60s (Crowther Report, Robbins Report etc.). While it may serve to jog their memories on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, it has been an education in itself for me, downloading the ‘Speech Day’ programmes, collecting the data, mathematically analysing it and typing up the ‘report’. Many Old Boys (and former teachers) can add comments to this and tell me certain things that I may not know. They can even help me get this fascinating report published in a journal or something!

It bewilders me as to why there were no additions to the Honours Board after 1957. Perhaps they ran out of space in the staff entrance lobby! What did the letters HONY (in brackets) mean (after S.E.C. University Scholarship)? (I think it was short for Honorary.) Was it a higher class of local authority award (as many areas did have different grades of local authority award, for example, County Major Scholarships and County Major Exhibitions, and even Bursaries for those whose HSC or ‘A’ level results were not good enough for them to win even County Major Exhibitions)? In the 1960s (when the school was a five form entry school), while the A stream continued to take ‘O’ levels after four years, the other four streams were R (Russian), G (German), S (Spanish) and M (Mechanics) in descending order of ability. Was the allocation to the other four streams really according to performance in the end of first year French exam (as claimed by Mick Palmer in the ‘Former Pupils’ section of the website)? (Even in those days the school was politically correct enough not to call the M stream the ES stream – ES stood for Educationally Subnormal!) The ‘express stream’ survived right to the end of the school’s days as a grammar school – was it a good thing? (With the Curriculum 2000 reforms, I would like to see them back. The ablest pupils should sit GCSEs at 15, follow a two-year ‘AS’ level course of 6-8 subjects to the age of 17, then spend their final year studying for three ‘A’ levels with the possibility of Advanced Extension Awards. At least one of the remaining grammar schools is planning to phase in this system – where every pupil would follow the ‘express’ course.)

I hope you have enjoyed reading my mini-PhD (completed in five days). I sometimes consider doing a real PhD myself, but three or more years of solid full-time work on just one topic is enough to put people right off it, even if they have first class honours degrees! So, I sometimes do mini-projects like this one for fun!

I look forward to receiving any replies.

Best wishes,

Chris Bird, Cheltenham, Glos.

1 May 2005

(If anybody would like to send me some old School Magazines or Speech Day programmes - even if it is just photocopies of exam results - then I can give them my address in order for them to send them to me. This could help further my research.)

• Chris Bird page 2

• Firth Park Grammar School Reunion Group

• Former pupils

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