Brighton school snobs - Oh it has to be Balfour

[Nottseagull]

My posts are coherent partly because I had an excellent primary education at West Hove County Primary in the late 1960s. No doubt today, however, the little darlings aren't taken to task over their mistakes in English and arithmetic in case it affects their confidence and self esteem.

 

[HovaGirl]

My posts are coherent partly because I had an excellent primary education at West Hove County Primary in the late 1960s. No doubt today, however, the little darlings aren't taken to task over their mistakes in English and arithmetic in case it affects their confidence and self esteem.

A teacher friend of mine was only allowed to mark 3 errors per piece of work (of two pages' length) in 1975, in case the little dears lost their confidence. I looked through one piece of English and there were between 20-30 grammatical and spelling errors. Those children are now about 42 years old. They're probably complaining about the low standards in schools today, without realising they were hardly taught anything themselves, by government edict.

 

[Brixton Seagull 2]

I went to Balfour in the 80's and it was a great school, but certainly not posh. Both my kids go there now, and all that has changed is there are more pushy mums around. Loads of people moving down from London target Balfour as the school to get into, so they buy houses nearby, hence shrinking catchment area and air of middle-class'ness about it.
The best thing about the schools are the large playing fields.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I left VGSB 39 years ago and would struggle come up with more than one or two you might call posh. I certainly wasn't and the catchment area certainly included many from Woodingdean to Saltdean & Peacehaven. Many too from Patcham/Hollingbury. It certainly wasn'y elitist (although I'm ashamed to say we weren't discouraged from looking down on those apparent unfortunates who were consigned to Dorothy Stringer). And indeed the rivalry wasn't all that friendly either at times!

We must've been in the same year then!

 

[Nottseagull]

A teacher friend of mine was only allowed to mark 3 errors per piece of work (of two pages' length) in 1975, in case the little dears lost their confidence. I looked through one piece of English and there were between 20-30 grammatical and spelling errors. Those children are now about 42 years old. They're probably complaining about the low standards in schools today, without realising they were hardly taught anything themselves, by government edict.

Thankfully I had all my mistakes corrected until I made no more. We learnt our tables by rote (how else are you supposed to know that 11 x 11 =121?) We did mental as well as mechanical arithmetic (on yellow paper for some reason) including long division. We learnt our weights and measures in both imperial and metric, and we had to learn 20 spellings a week in our own time. Crucially, we were all tested on everything and retested until we got it right. We even learnt a bit of elementary French. This was all in preparation for the 11+; IMO the abolition of selection was the biggest mistake in 20th Century educational history.

 

[HovaGirl]

IMO the abolition of selection was the biggest mistake in 20th Century educational history.

This (as they say). Utterly agree.

 

[keaton]

There's a lot of irony in HB&B calling other people snobs

 

[Emily's Mum]

I seem to remember a large number of pupils at Varndean Boys were from Balfour. It was elitist 40 years ago because all the posh kids went there. In my school year there was only a handful of us whose parents were lower working class. I guess that today its much the same with the youngsters at Balfour being driven 400 yards to school in a 4X4 by their mummy.

Agreed. I seem to remember that they streamed by postcode or father's occupation. I had no chance

 

[Elvis]

Probably out of touch here but, I thought B&H counil introduced a lottery system to avoid the golden catchment scenario.

And slightly off topic but, Where do all the kids go that would of gone to Stanley Deason?

 

[Hunting 784561]

Probably out of touch here but, I thought B&H counil introduced a lottery system to avoid the golden catchment scenario.

And slightly off topic but, Where do all the kids go that would of gone to Stanley Deason?

Some went to Longhill - which upset Rottingdean/Saltdean type folk, and others elsewhere.

 

[Gwylan]

Only 3 of us at Whitehawk Junior that passed the 11+ in 1971 went to VGSB

I left VGSB 39 years ago and would struggle come up with more than one or two you might call posh.

I left 36 years ago so I fitted in between you two.

I must say that Varndean never struck me as overly posh - although there were clearly some well-off kids. I was a Scoomer so was never going to be a posh one - but there were at least three other Scoomers there when I was there so it wasn't that unusual. My dad, who was brought up in Whitehawk, also went to the school so it has a proud history of educating working-class/lower middle-class Brightonians.

Probably out of touch here but, I thought B&H counil introduced a lottery system to avoid the golden catchment scenario.

It's not a true lottery system though. The well-off kids in the posh areas enter into a lottery to see if they go Varndean or Dottie Onkers, the rest of Brighton go to the designated schools. A lottery system would be a great way to stop people pushing up house prices by buying into the catchment areas but it would never happen.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I left 36 years ago so I fitted in between you two.

I passed the 11+ in 1971 , I was at VGSB 1971-77 although technically it became a mixed sex school when I was in the 3rd form and I stayed on in the 6th form. When I first started at Varndean I was in form 1.10 and the form teacher was Mr Griffiths.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

We must've been in the same year then!

Possibly. Technically I did 66 to 71 then repeated a year to up my O'Level count before leaving in 72 to the sounds of Schools Out. Formerly Patcham Juniors.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I passed the 11+ in 1971 , I was at VGSB 1971-77 although technically it became a mixed sex school when I was in the 3rd form and I stayed on in the 6th form. When I first started at Varndean I was in form 1.10 and the form teacher was Mr Griffiths.

Ah Flobbo Griffiths - wrote the French O'Level textbook.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Ah Flobbo Griffiths - wrote the French O'Level textbook.

I always felt sorry for the boys who had their desks at the front of the class.

 

[Bold Seagull]

There are five outstanding primary schools in B&H according to Ofsted: Balfour, Coldean, St Andrews, Westdene and Woodingdean. My kids go to Coldean (and very good it is too) but in all honesty, I reckon there's not to much difference between school at that sort of age. You can pick one at random and I'm sure it will be fine.

Ofsted is only an indicator of how well a school ticks it's boxes, and not a reflection on the quality of the teaching as there are no assessments for inspiration, creativity, joy of learning etc. That isn't to say an Ofsted outstanding school isn't outstanding in every manner, but equally there are Ofsted satisfactory schools that are outstanding teaching establishments, and Ofsted outstanding schools whose teaching is average and uninspired. Especially at Primary level, judge a school by it's personality, the enthusiasm of it's teachers, the celebration of work on the walls, the enjoyment of the kids, and not whether they are particularly good at hitting convenient targets set by successive governments.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Possibly. Technically I did 66 to 71 then repeated a year to up my O'Level count before leaving in 72 to the sounds of Schools Out. Formerly Patcham Juniors.

I started in 65 in 1.3 with Charlie Law and finished in 72 in UVI 23 with Jack Milford

 

[timbha]

I always felt sorry for the boys who had their desks at the front of the class.

so how was your French, SOG? and Latin - very useful in Grimsby I suspect

 

[Amex_Charlie]

Cardinal Newman is the way to go..... If your some sort of christian.

 

[TS90]

Didn't realise the general population of NSC was so old.