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My new items of school uniform were the school blazer, tie and long kneesocks in the school colours. Shorts were not compulsory in the main school but some of those who were moving up from the "prep" department wore them to start with along with those of us who were still had our primary school shorts in reasonable condition to wear out. I recall thge caps and scarves that were worn. Despite the fact that the school was somewhat flexible about the uniform, somehow the issue of sarves seemed to setthem off. Maybe this was because caps (for sporting acheivement) and "college scarves" were a University tradition - that these boys hoped to go on to.
My Mum got the uniform list for my new school - and as with most things she took charge. I haven't told you of going for my new uniform yet have I? I meant to - it was in the middle of that strange period when I was moving house and school at the same time. We had to go to the school shop (which was on the school premises not a "recommended" shop that did schoolwear for many schools like my brother went to for his uniform). I was quite in awe. The worst is that my Grandmother nearly came too as she had ventured into London to "help" with the move (and also to try to persaude my Mum yet again to return to Leeds and stop us boys picking up any more "London ways"! With two of us in good schools my Mum was having none of it). Anyway I escaped that as she went off back to Leeds before our appointment at the shop. I will try to fill you in on that as it was quite interesting looking back.
There were quite a few items that made up the school uniform. Here is what I recall about the different items.
Caps were not required at my grammat school, at the time I attended. I'm not sure when they were discontinued. They were, however, required in the "prep" department (as stated this was the school's "own" prep school for boys aged 9-11). Those who graduated from the prep departement therefore did not HAVE to wear their caps in the main school but some did - Summer and Winter. So they must have liked them. - I never asked them, and I only remember the first year boys wearing them and a couple in the second year. This may have been those who were proud of being at such a "prestigious" school. I don't remember particularly discussing caps with my mates at school. Like I say only a few boys wore them on the journey to and from school, and not around the school itself. I remember
that as these caps folded up into a sort of crescent shape - the peak tucking inside. The older boys would use them as "boomerangs", or they would become "guns". In the unfolded state they would be "discus"--an early version of the "frisbee" which wasn't around then. So you see - school caps were great - as long as you didn't have to wear them.
Although the school was fairly liberal on coats in winter - they were supposed to be "dark-coloured". They were particularly insistent that any scarves worn should be the official school scarf. I only remember this as it was the subject of a letter home. This
could have been as some boys were wearing scarves in the colours of their favourite football clubs and this could cause frictions - as boys at my school came from all over London there were several allegiences. Again, as with the caps,some boys seemed proud to wear their school scarves--although the wearing could hardly be checked by the masters once we'd scattered to the four corners of the city after school.
At my secondary school on paper the uniform rules were stricter than they had been at my primary schools and because it was an Anglican school they had been stricter than common at the regular state primaries. But as I moved through the school it was not always enforced or different form masters would pick you up on some things (I told you about the boy who didn't wear uniform socks one day) whereas others would let it go. It was always a gamble as to what you might get away with whereas at primary school all of the teachers (and most Mums) were agreed on wearing the correct uniform and would pick you up on it if you had the wrong item (or wore it wrongly like socks being down or ties askew). The difference at secondary school was that we didn't have one classroom with hooks or even a cloakroom and we moved around for lessons carrying all of our stuff. We had to wear our blazers all of the time--although sometimes on a hot day a master might give you permission to take them off during the lesson but then you'd put them back on at the end to move on to the next lesson in another classroom.
At secondary school the badge was already woven into the fabric of the blazers and caps which we bought at the school shop. When our blazers (which were black) were dry cleaned the badge always came up bright and as new. At secondary school the school crest was also on all on our exercise books - but surprisingly not on our sports kit or P.E. kit. The caps were only worn by the younger boys, but older boys who played in the cricket team did wear their school caps.
When it came to jumpers at secondary school they were meant to be grey, v-necked and with the school colours on the neck. The only difference was that they could be with or without sleeves and Mum bought me a sleeveless one which didn't please me. If I was wearing my jumper at school and it got too hot I would take it off at breaktime and put it into my bag. When I first started I wore my satchell and it was normally a lot fuller than at primary school as we had more books to carry in and out (at primary school textbooks were normally not taken home but given out in the classroom from the cupboard and then collected in again at the end of the lesson but at secondary school we took the books home to do homework). Often then if I was wearing my jumper I kept it on all day as there was no room in my satchell for it. When I got older they allowed all different sorts of bags and I had a bigger sports bag so I could put the jumper into it if I wanted. I have already said that wearing the jumpers in the school colours meant that you could be identified out of school by them even if you took off your blazer and tie and put them into your bag (the secondary school colours were unique to each school). That meant that I would often take off my jumper once I got away from the school too even if it was cold - I didn't want other boys around my way to know that I went to a "posh" school. Later on,as I have said, we could get away with wearing plain grey (and even black) jumpers. When I first started I wore shorts and the school colours were on the kneesocks so there was no chance of disguising which school you went to out of school (unless you were to take off the socks as well as the blazer, tie and jumper!) but it wasn't so important to me at that age - it was only when I got older it mattered and I wanted to do other things. As I have said some boys stuck rigidly to the official uniform rules even when they started to be relaxed (some even wearing caps even though they were only compulsory in the prep department). These boys still wore the official school jumpers right through school and I suppose these were the boys whose parents were really proud of them showing the neighbourhood that they were at our school. The jumpers with the school colours woven into them were much more expensive than plain ones and could only be bought at the school shop which is why when I started it cost my Mum a fortune to buy me the right uniform as compared to buying my primary school clothes but,as I say, I am writing seperately about that.
Shorts were not compulsory in the main school but some of those who were moving up from the "prep" department wore them to start with along with those of us who were still had our primary school shorts in reasonable condition to wear out. I don't think I gave much thought to starting my secondary school in shorts - I think I assumed it was part of the uniform i.e. all first year boys would be wearing them or something. I did not immediately get long trousers on starting at secondary school like my older brother did. This is because when he did move on to secondary school I inherited all of our school shorts - and Mum bought me a new pair too (along with that jumper I told you about) in order to be "fair" (I had been pestering her for a pair of the new-style BHS shorts since I had come back from Germany). When we moved my little brother was due to go to a non-uniform school so the grey school shorts would not go down to him and Mum decided that I could start my new school in them. I wasn't so bothered about getting long trousers as my brother was - and I had been pleased during my last year at primary school with having the shorts all to myself so that I could wear the best ones (the most modern) without having to fight with my brother over them. As I have told you when I went for the interview at my Grammar School we were shown round by prep school boys and they all wore shorts as was the rule for them. I assumed that all of the boys starting at the school would be wearing shorts - and in fact as I wrote earlier about half were - those coming up from the prep department and those of us who still had our primary school shorts to wear out. The only extra expense for Mum was buying the socks in the school colours. We had to get them at the school's own shop and they were very expensive. Of course when school began I noticed that a lot of te other boys had long trousers when we gathered in the main hall to be allocated our forms - but their was a fair proportion of other first year boys in shorts as well - and these were augmented by all of the boys in the "prep. departement".
I think a combination of things led to me getting long trousers that Christmas - but I'm
not sure. First of all I was running out of the poroper school kneesocks nd they were expensive. Then it came to the Christmas trip up to Leeds and after the obligatory haircut my mum took me off to the local department store and bought me a pair of grey long trousers - for the trip. At last I was free of those check shorts. (I'd probably grown out of them anyway). I began wearing them to school after Christmas for the next term. Not having to buy new kneesocks - which were horrendously expensive probably offset the cost of the ne trousers. The down side was that I was told that they were my Christmas present. My elder brother didn't go up with us that year as he'd wangled a school skiing trip of all things. (I think my grandparents paid and his school had funds to ensure poorer boys weren't left out - that's what I was told anyway, but I wasn't that bothered). I do remember my younger brother wearing a smart pair of navy-blue corduroy long trousers for that trip which were probably new.
Something else struck me after a few weeks back at school in my new long trousers. A boy I didn't really hang about with in my form invited me back to his place for tea. I checked with my mum and decided to accept and we went off to deepest Surrey the next Friday after school. During a tense tea with his mum - all proper cups and that - he occaisionallly made reference to my long trousers in some sort of obviously contrived way--he was wearing shorts. After tea his mum asked me if I wanted to borrow some
clothes to change into and then Geoffry would show me the garden - I declined so she told him to go and get changed and left me making some sort of conversation with his mum. He reappeared in a pair of khaki shorts and a jumper and he showed me round the garden. When we got back in, it was dark by then but they had some sort of lighting set up. I tried to make my escape saying I'd forgotten something I had to do at home. His mum said his dad would drive me to the station when he got in. This happened but the boy didn't come with us. I thought at the time that his inviting me back was part of an attempt to persaude his parents to buy him long trousers and he'd been rumbled. I hardly spoke to him again during the whole of the time at the school.
Some boys still wore snake-blts with their school uniform. Snake belts always worried me as I thought the clasp could catch my eye in one of our after school plasy fighrs. But these were dying out as I got older as shorts tended to have elasticated waists.
The only extra expense for Mum was buying the socks in the school colours. We had to get them at the school's own shop and they were very expensive - about three times the price of our primary school socks which just had two green rings on and could be bought at BHS. The new socks were three-coloured (you can see the prep school boys wearing them in the photo I sent you - and the jumper has the same three bands in my passport photo). One incident I reall was around bonfire night (November 5) a group of us had been larking around with fireworks and a banger had gone off behind me. I wasn't burnt or anything but the spray had pretty badly scorched one of my school socks. I didn't realise how bad then and just went home and chucked them in the laundary basket. Mum was not at all pleased when she discovered the sock a few days later as there was a visible scorchmark across and up it. I now realise that socks would have been pretty expensive as they were a combination of white, blue and black--the school colours. Worse still what is more I couldn't blame it on anyone else like I could have when we all wore the same primary school socks. That was when she put her foot down about coming straight home from school--and once she got me in she kept me in to do the homework I was supposed to be doing, like my older brother was! I made do with the remaining school socks for the rest of the term - I think she washed them nightly--and I didn't have many pairs.
One thing I didn't like aboutmy grmmar school was having to play Rugby football rather than my beloved soccer (as they called it). The games kit and the whole rigmarole surrounding it was a whole new ball game (if you'll pardon the phrase).
This varied from sport to sport and whether you played on a school team.
White cricket jumpers (including the ones boys wore to play in school matches) often had a cable stitch. I am talking about secondary school here as we didn't have sports kit really at primary school--although I am sure that most prep schools did. School cricket jumpers did not have the school colours on them as trim like the grey uniform ones did but boys who played in cricket clubs did have jumpers with the club colours on them and some the county colours too. These were not worn at school though. I did not have a cricket jumper as they were not compulsory, unless you were selected to play for the school team. In fact I did not have cricket "whites" at all. I, like other boys, played in my white P.E. shorts and a white shirt - which I had to take in seperately to change into as I normally wore a grey shirt for uniform. Some boys just left on their normal white school shirts and some others had the full kit - white long trousers - the jumper and even heavy white cricket boots. The school provided the pads and gloves (although even then some boys had their own). You probably know this but cricket balls are always red and the idea of wearing white is in order so that you can see it coming against the background of green (the grass) and the white clothing. That's what I was told anyway. I know that one boy at my secondary school did have proper cricket whites, but he was not allowed to wear them except for matches because he said his Mum said it was hard to get the grass stains out of the knees so he wore P.E. shorts like us others. It was no problem because cricket is a Summer game - another reason for wearing white as it reflects the heat when it is very hot. I always felt cold in a white shirt even on the hottest day - I felt warmer when not wearing a shirt at all - that was odd. We were never allowed to play in our grey school shorts or (later) long trousers yet we had at primary school - but then we used a lighter ball or even a tennis ball so it was not so dangerous. The one exception to white for cricket was caps - which were school caps - again they only being worn by those playing in school matches.
As I have said one of the new compulsory items to be bought for my secondary school was a woodwork apron and once again it had to be bought at the school shop. Mum was not pleased as she could esily have found a cheaper equivalent elsewhere. I (like many other boys) did not like wearing the woodwork aprons at first as we saw them as "girls" (cooks!) things although we had worn aprons for art (including pottery at one point!) at primary school, but they were more "manly" leather aprons and belonged to the school.
What I do recall is that many of the boys there did not have satchells - they had proper "briefcases" just like the boy on the left in this image is carrying.Now I think my elder brother also had one of these briefcases to start at secondary school with - maybe my grandfather bought it for him or my Mum did because he was the eldest. He got long trousers straight away for secondary school too whereas I had to wait for mine. I can't remember exactly. The main thing is that when I started at secondary school (1970) all boys had either proper leather briefcases or satchells but a few years later very few did.
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