School Shorts: English Grammar Schools


Figure 1.--The younger boys at this grammar school wore caps, blazers, school shorts, and kneesocks with colored bands.

Academically clever boys doing well on the 11 plus exams went secondary schools called grammar schools. Many of the grammar schools were very traditional and attempted to copy the ethos of the public schools. As a result, there was considerable attention to uniform at these schools. Many required the younger boys to wear short pants.

Old grammar school boys have provided the following details about the uniform at their schools.

Yorkshire: Beverely

Short pants

Virtually all new arrivals at my grammar school (aged 11) would wear short trousers because all boys of that age did (possible exception: one or two boys unusally tall for their age). But I think there was probably no written requirement and that the rules probably just stated that boys had to wear grey trousers. The same was true of the local secondary modern school. For what it may be worth, at my grammar school in the early 1960s almost all boys in the first year (age 11-12) wore shorts, the great majority in the second year (age 12-13), falling to a sizeable minority later in that year, and only a few at the beginning of the third year (age 13-14) and none at all by the end of that year. I went into longs at the end of the second year at the age of 13 and a half.

Shorts were worn up to age 13 on average but there was no hard-and-fast rule. A very few boys even wore longs on arrival at the school at age 11, if they were particularly tall for their age - I think there were 2 such in my class of about 30. Conversely, I believe there were occasionally one or two rather small-sized boys who might still be wearing shorts at 14, but none in my year.

There was no hard-and-fast rule about type or length. It would be governed by what the local school outfitters sold. Whether the outfitters and the school were in close collusion over the details, I have no idea. The only invariable rule was that the trousers (whether short or long) had to be grey. I do remember one boy in my year who came from a rather poor agricultural background who rather stood out from the rest because his shorts were old-fashioned grey flannel, and rather baggy, instead of the grey terylene shorts the rest of us wore. Not that anybody ever commented on it - that would have been very "bad form".

Boys did not object to shorts as such, but they did not wish to be unduly different from others, so once they were among a diminishing number still wearing shorts - towards the end of the second year, in my case, at age 13 they would mostly pester their mothers to put them into longs, just so as to be like everyone else.

Blazers

What was compulsory was the black blazer with the school badge on the breast pocket.

Tie

We all had to wear the school tie (black and grey diagonal stripes). Prefects had a different tie. And boys who won sporting events for their House could wear a tie in House colours (solid red, green, blue or yellow) instead of the school tie.

Caps

Also the black school cap with a smaller version of the school badge on the front.

Shirts

Shirts could be either white or grey.

Shoes

Shoes had to be black.

Socks

Long grey socks had to be worn with short trousers, and a school version was available (with black and white bands round the top) but I remember a few boys wore plain grey ones, so perhaps the school ones were optional, or maybe that particular rule just wasn't very rigidly enforced.

Socks definitely had to be kept pulled up. Having one's socks falling down around one's ankles was deemed by the authorities to be the height of moral turpitude. Now I come to think about it, the fact that in shorts one had to keep pulling one's socks up may have been an additional factor for some boys in making them want to wear longs. The socks often didn't seem to be sufficiently elasticated at the top to stay up.

There were rules about hair length as well, but I don't know how they were worded. We are talking about the era of the Beatles, and longish hair was becoming popular. In many schools it was not uncommon at that period for boys who refused to have their hair cut and got into trouble. Then again, extremely short hair was also ruled out. One senior boy at my school was punished for having a crew-cut for a dare!

Other schools

All other local secondary schools had very similar uniform rules. I'm not aware that any of them actually required shorts at any stage--I suspect that, as at my school, it was just a matter of custom and based mainly on age or more specifically height. The local secondary modern school in Beverley had the rather unusual colour of pale brown for its blazers. Thus, it was certainly easy to tell them from us at a glance.

British Education

The demise of the English grammar school is a complivated story. The Labour Party led the legislative battle against elitism in education. The Labour Party sought to end or reduce any public support of private schools. They also objected to the 11 plus exams ro separate academically clever boys and give them a superior education in the grammar schools. Their attitude here was ideological. There are reasons to believe that the grammar school system was a way to point clever boys of modest means toward academic achievement which the comprehensive schools do not do as effectively. (This is of course highly debateable.) I am struck, however, by the number of Brits of modest means who made out very well indeed with their grammar school background. The demise of the grammar school, however, can not be exclusively attributed to Labor. For example, can you name the government minister was responsible for closing more grammar schools than any other? Surprisingly it was Conservative Party stalwart, and the beneficuary of a grammar school education, Margaret Thatcher, when she was minister of education during 1970-74(the Heath government). Makes you think, doesn't it? Comprehensivisation was the ruling fashion of the times,and only a few Conservative county councils fought it tooth and nail. That's why Kentstill has the most grammar schools remaining...for now.

Personal Experiences

Some personal experiences at grammar schools include:
The 1950s
The 1950s
The 1960s
The 1970s
The 1980s






Additional Information

Related Links: Careful this will exit you from the Boys' Historical Clothing web site, but both sites are highly recommended

Apertures Press International Project: Pictures at schools in different countries and a book on British schools
Apertures Pres New Zealand book: New book on New Zealand schools in progress
School Uniform Web Site: Informative review of British school uniforms with some excellent photographs
Boys' Preparatory Schools: Photographic essay available on British preparatory school during the 1980s

Christopher Wagner

histclo@lycosmail.com


Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main Chronology Page]
[The 1880s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s]
[The 1960s] [The 1970s] [The 1980s]






Created: November 29, 1998
Last updated: November 29, 1998