Figure 1.--

I remember a bit about my school rules when we went out of school on trips. We went on quite a few trips in my last year at the school – mainly educational and involving follow-up projects. Some involved getting a coach – not a private one but an I.L.E.A. (Inner London Educational Authority) one – they had a fleet and they were dead slow. We went to Hatfield House (a Jacobean Palace to the North of London) and to Berkhampstead Castle – a Norman castle. Otherwise we went to the London museums and for these we took the tube.Once we went by boat to Greenwich which was great – except that we shared the trip with two other schools and on the way back we got into some fights and our teacher made us sit below deck for the whole journey back.

Note Home

Mum's Preparations

Anyway my mum always got into a bit of a flap when she got these notes. She always wanted us to look our best as far as school was concerned.She'd put aside a pair of our best shorts and the least worn out white shirt at the weekend before the trip. She also used to make our sandwiches the night before and spend ages wrapping them up in greaseproof paper with elastic bands round them – I always demanded peanut butter which my mum allowed. Some boys had “duffle bags” that they brought into school for these trips – but I always put my sandwiches into my school satchell – I liked my satchell – it was proper leather and sat nicely on my back – I even used to polish it sometimes, something I'd never do voluntarily with shoes!. The other thing as far as clothing was concerned was that,in the Summer,my mum (and lots of other mums) always packed a plastic mac. in case it rained.These macs were thin plastic – they could be rolled up and held with an elastic band. I hated them – they always seemed to smell horrible to me and I hardly ever wore mine unless mum made me when we were going shopping on a changeable Summer day.

Supervision

My school never let parents inside the school gates like some did.When we went on these trips we would be led by our class teacher and another teacher.For us in the top class it was always one of the infant class teachers who came along – the two infant classes would be put in together under one of the teachers while the other one came with us. In my last year the other teacher was either Miss Hunt – who I'd had when I'd first entered the school and quite liked or Mrs Mack – who was fairly new to the school and hadn't been my teacher in second year infants – but had been for my little brother and had called me and my older brother into her classroom at playtime a couple of times because my little brother had said something about our home life. I hated her as she seemed to be an old busybody.

Preparations at School

Anyway always on these trip days we would go back to our classroom after morning prayers and then the headmistress would come up to give her little speech about behaving properly out of school and so on.Then we would go off to get on the coach or walk down to the tube station – or on that memorable occaision to the Hammersmith pier to get the boat to Greenwich.Our teacher always wanted us to look nice and checked that we were all smart before we set off. We used to walk down to the tube station in two's – boy/ girl,boy/girl which I used to hate – especially as the teachers made us hold hands when we were crossing the roads.

Kew Gardens

The proper name of Kew Gardens is the Royal Botanical Gardens. It consists of 300 acres of botanical exhibitions open to the public. Kew Gardens are located on the south bank of the Thames River between Richmond and Kew in the suburbs of south-west London. I was very familiar with the giant hot house at Kew Gardens and other exhibits. Mum used to take us there sometimes on a Sunday afternoon. I have told you also that I normally objected to this as I wanted to go out and play after Sunday lunch, but my brother liked it as Kew Gardens had some of the best conker trees and he used to come back with a satchel full.

Kew Gardens Trip

Anyway – towards the end of my time at the school we were going on a trip to Kew Gardens – a botanical garden to the West of London. It wasn't really an educational trip – just a chance to get us out I suppose as we'd all been working hard and had just finished our 11+ exams. Mrs Mack was coming with us that day and I felt she really picked on me. Jumpers were optional but I always wore mine – and I especially wanted to wear it that day as I was wearing a white shirt that I always felt cold in no matter what the weather. Anyway the headmistress had left and Mrs Mack and our teacher were getting us organised to leave, checking socks and ties etc., when the former came to me and told me - “you don't want that jersey on in this weather do you?”. I did – but she started to make a fuss – none of the other boys were wearing jumpers and we had our blazers on of course but I wanted to wear my jumper. I thought that my class teacher would support me (I was one of her favourites as I was the only boy who'd sat the entrance examination for my grammar school – which wasn't an ordinary grammar school but almost a day version of a public school). I was disappointed - my class teacher was in one of her moods and told me to get the jumper off. I refused – I was quite upset as I felt she'd let me down in front of Mrs Mack and my friends. Anyway – she went mad then – she did that sometimes when we weren't concentrating on her work and it normally worked to get our attention – I don't think it was an act – she'd just sometimes explode even though most of the time she was easy going – if firm. She told me that I could take off the jumper or miss the trip. I was so confused then that I just clammed up (in truth I felt like crying as she had shouted at me).Anyway she then led me out of the classroom telling me that she didn't know what had come over me. Just before we got to the headmistresses office she stopped and told me that I could take off my jumper and put it in my satchell and then if I was cold later I could put it on.She was giving me a chance but I was pretty angry then myself. She made me wait outside the headmistresses office while she knocked and went in – I was sure I was going to get the cane as my teacher hardly ever sent any of us to the headmistress unless it was really serious – she didn't agree with the cane.

My Punishment

As it turned out she came out and took me to Miss Hunt's class and asked her if she'd look after a “silly junior” while the “grown up children went to Kew”. All the little kids were giggling – but Miss Hunt was great as she just said “Yes”. As it turned out I had a great time – because she had the two infant classes in together Miss Hunt used me as a sort of assistant teacher – they were just playing or drawing most of the day and I helped them out – including going to find the school caretaker (a “mate” of mine) when one of the kids was sick after lunch. I also got to eat my peanut butter sandwiches in the school garden with the teachers at lunchtime – Mrs Mack would have gone mad – and I heard a few things of interest I can tell you!. When the rest of my class got back for afternoon prayers they were full of it – how they'd all seen the Pagoda and our teacher had bought them ice-cream but I'd had a much better time – and I'd worn my jumper all day. The next day my class teacher told me to wait behind at morning playtime and told me she'd heared good reports about me from Miss Hunt – she wasn't exactly apologising but I took it as such and I burst into tears!. I was just glad that she wasn't still angry at me.

Looking Alike

So all of that over a jumper – and not really a breaking of school rules but just one person (Mrs Mack)'s desire to have all us boys looking exactly alike and someone like me who, within school rules, wanted to wear what I wanted – even if it was odd.

Clipboards

I recently saw a photograph in the newspaper showing a boy with a clipboard on a school trip. It remindfed me of my school trips--the ones I actually went on. When we went on school trips to museums we were often given worksheets to fill out as aleaning experience. They were attached to clipboards we were issued to make it easy to write as we moved about the museum or other institution we were visiting. That helped to keep us busy and to keep our mind on the subject at hand. Then we would continue working back at school on what we had discovered.

Science Museum Trip

I recall our vist to the Sciene Museum in London. We did have to wear blazers as you say and just as well as there might be many schools there. We went on the tube - but there were always lines of coaches outside from all sorts of schools outside London. There was a huge lecture theatre where we might watch a film (educational not entertainment of course) along with hundreds of other children. There was also an area where the children could eat their packed lunches.There was always some sort of trouble here because there were all sorts of schools there from all across London and beyond - including prep schools whose boys we always laughed at because they talked "posh" to us!Each school had to find it's own eating area and the teachers from all of the schools were moving around trying to keep all of their children together - and the noise was sometimes deafening - and that was the teachers shouting at the children not so much us.

Created: June 8, 2004
Last updated: 12:46 AM 5/1/2006